iPhone tracks your movements

  Quote

Security researchers have discovered that Apple's iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner's computer when the two are synchronised.

 

The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone's recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner's movements using a simple program.

 

For some phones, there could be almost a year's worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple's iOS 4 update to the phone's operating system, released in June 2010.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/20/iphone-tracking-prompts-privacy-fears

There is a program you can download to have a look at your locations file.

http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/

It's restricted to weekly movements but apparently the file contains location info down to the second. I'm curious to try it out when I get home. This is rather shit though really, even if it's not doing anything. If you found a phone you could easily figure out where the person lives and what times they are always out of the house and then go in a smear shit on the walls.

it's a feature, not a bug.

wow thats interesting. just tried it myself it really works.

Does it only work with mac's?

I can't get it to work.

  On 4/20/2011 at 5:15 PM, phling said:

it's a feature, not a bug.

Ofcourse it's a feature. But the issue is that this should be an opt-in feature, not the other way around. Can you even opt-out on standard firmware?

  On 4/20/2011 at 5:21 PM, Ego said:

  On 4/20/2011 at 5:15 PM, phling said:

it's a feature, not a bug.

 

Ofcourse it's a feature. But the issue is that this should be an opt-in feature, not the other way around. Can you even opt-out on standard firmware?

of course you can not opt out. opting out is for sissies.

edit: we're heading there anyway. Always being tracked i mean. Will anybody still care in, let's say, 6 months?

yes, people will still care

sometimes I think my iphone is watching me.

batman.

.

.

BBC

.

.

EVIL CONSPIRACY!

I guess I have to become a vegan, burn my iPhone, bra and drivers license.

the shock! the terror!

2012

i wonder if android does this

and if so, i wonder if my phone is telling a mysterious database that i'm a boring loser who rides the same bus every day

if apple wants to know that i have no life that's fine with me.

  On 4/20/2011 at 5:30 PM, luke viia said:

yes, people will still care

:sup:

[agreeing with yue]

I wonder if I could contact them and have them send me a pie chart so I could see how big the section is that indicates my iPhone on porn sites triangulated to a fixed located in my bathroom.

It didn't seem terribly accurate when I used the program last night because I couldn't zoom in much, and it didn't go back more than 2 months. You could see all the motorway journeys I've done fairly clearly but not which street I was on and stuff. But I think the data is there, they just avoided making the program give too much away.

If you're actually just interested in knowing where you've been just take photos every now and then and turn on the 'places' thing, then it puts them all on a lovely map.

  On 4/21/2011 at 1:12 AM, luke viia said:

i wonder if android does this

 

and if so, i wonder if my phone is telling a mysterious database that i'm a boring loser who rides the same bus every day

  Ars Technica said:

What the cellco has on you is now basically being mirrored in a file on your iPhone or iPad without any kind of encryption, and is also being copied to your computer. (Allan and Warden say that, according to their research, no other phones log triangulated cell locations in this way, including Android phones.)

the article quoted above

i think the theory that they're starting to store this in order to show you location-relevant ads is the most credible one i've heard so far.

someone pointed out to me that google is, primarily, an ads company, and if apple doesn't get beaten around enough over this it'll probably happen to the droids as well.

whatever, really, just give me the option to shut it off. don't do it in secret.... that, i feel, is feel is their real faux pas

  On 4/21/2011 at 1:12 AM, luke viia said:

i wonder if android does this

 

and if so, i wonder if my phone is telling a mysterious database that i'm a boring loser who rides the same bus every day

I just wondered this too but don't you have to turn your GPS on? Mine is off by default.

EDIT: I just read Osc's post. PHWEW/

we're all going to be slaves anyways, so why complain about it?

How accurate is triangulation from signal masts really? I was under the impression you could be put within a mile or so but not much more than that. Although I think it can be more precise when you are in a big city with loads of signal stations.

thanks for the info oscillik

i agree with hat. i wouldn't really mind if my phone did this, so long as it told me.

to further awe's point of view,

"Who ain't a slave? Tell me that. Well, then, however the old sea captains may order me about - however they may thump and punch me about, I have the satisfaction of knowing that it is all right; that everybody else is one way or other served in much the same way - either in a physical or metaphysical point of view, that is; and so the universal thump is passed round, and all hands should rub each other's shoulder-blades, and be content."

-herman melville

though I dunno if I agree in just going along with new kinds of exploitation as they crop up. you gotta fight for your right to get BJs in the alley without being tracked, etc