I figured I would weigh in on the revelation yesterday that Apple is “tracking your every move” via iPhone. I know that it makes great headlines, but it isn’t true. I’m not going to be an Apple apologist, but after poking around on the web, it would appear that there’s an innocuous reason for this. Sure, it’s a PR nightmare for Apple and an invasion of privacy, but the reason for the tracking appears to be much less nefarious.
While examining my own data, I noticed some interesting things. It wasn’t my location being tracked, and it wasn’t second by second, as stated in this CREDO action email:
If you have an iPhone 4, iPad, or up-to-date iPhone 3GS, Apple covertly records a second-by-second database of your location to your mobile device and your computer. Apple never told you about it, or asked you to opt in, or even let you opt out.
Actually, what appears to be happening is that your device seems to be keeping a record of the celltowers it connects to, and where they are. This information can help the device locate towers and save time and energy by looking them up once you’ve been there. Secondly, the data is horribly inaccurate, in terms of location, and finally, it is limited to 3G/Edge (cell) access. Not a single pip on the map from my recent trip to Japan. Why? Because I never connected to any cellular network. I used WiFi and GPS to whole time, but not a pip on the map. Same goes for my trips to the Black Rock Desert.
If Apple was concerned with tracking you, they could do it much more accurately, efficiently and nefariously. Unfortunately, this will probably end up being a huge deal for the company and Apple will probably have to make some changes and save face, but the truth is much less sexy than the headlines. Regardless, the ease of access of this information is a massive privacy concern.
Here are some links to back me up:
http://ericfadden.com/2011/04/iphone-location-tracking-consolidated-db-and-a-rush-to-judgement/
http://www.willclarke.net/?p=247
~Spanky