iPhones and iPads track users location!, Glad I'm using android :p Options

[fredzfrog]

Researchers have discovered a file on the Apple iPhone and iPad that reportedly saves every detail of its owner's movements.

The data file in the mobile 3G devices is then copied to the user's computer during synchronisation, reports The Guardian.

"Apple has made it possible for almost anybody - a jealous spouse, a private detective - with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you've been," said security researcher Pete Warden.

The file details the latitude and longitude of the phone's recorded co-ordinates. It also records a timestamp, revealing where the phone was at different times of the day.

Source and more info:http://m.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a315697/iphone-ipad-track-users-personal-data.html

Thoughts? Comments? freakouts?

Imho: wtf?! Seems it started with iOS4 and is secured from apps but is uploaded when you sync.. Allowing access on a pc..
Fail!

[bushi]

Fuck apple.

Is it still considered cool to own these products?

This post has been edited by bushi: Apr 21 2011, 07:06 PM

[Redhatter]

And of course the phone carriers have never ever been logging this sort of information!

(Face it guys, they've been doing something similar since AMPS days when your brick phone was little more than an overglorified 70cm FM transceiver.)

[Linux_Inside V2]

Hatter is right, it's storing cell tower info. We all know how pinpoint accurate that is...

I don't are about apple knowing that, considering I use findmyiphone they have the capability to pinpoint me at any time.
As for third parties gaining this info, this is part of the reason I turned on backup encryption from the start.

[The Tick]

As it turns out Apple isn't collecting the data.

The data is apparently secured on your device so long as you have encryption set (which most phones do as a default IIRC). Your iTunes backup is also encrypted if you set it.

While it will be interesting to see what the idea was behind the implementation, I prefer not to yet set my hair on fire and run down the street screaming (although at least my iphone will badly triangulate my movements so there's a win I guess).

But of course, there will be those knee jerking to the information and for you, I give you:

[Director]

While it will be interesting to see what the idea was behind the implementation,...I'm absolutely convinced it wont be anything sinister that could be used by bad people for nefarious reasons, it MUST be something innocent and well intentioned cos the world is a beautiful place where corporations and corporate controlled authorities only have your best interests in mind, like what if you were having a heart attack, now the ambos can track you with your iphone?

:)

[Redhatter]

In any case, suppose Telstra was tracking me with my Nokia 3310... and lets face it, they need to do a certain amount of tracking if I expect to be able to receive phone calls or text messages (they need to know which tower to call me on), they'd get incredibly bored watching my movements.

If you're so concerned, one has to ask why?

[Director]

Oh I'm not concerned *yet*. :)


(

and lets face it, they need to do a certain amount of tracking if I expect to be able to receive phone calls or text messages (they need to know which tower to call me on)

Sure, but why do they need to KEEP that info?)

This post has been edited by Director: Apr 22 2011, 11:44 AM

[Redhatter]

For billing? Yes. They list the phone tower where each call was made on the bill they send at the end of each month.

For that they need to store that information for at least a month.

[Jeruselem]

Maybe the US government gave Apple money to sneak that in IOS 4?

:D

[Director]

For billing? Yes. They list the phone tower where each call was made on the bill they send at the end of each month.

For that they need to store that information for at least a month.

So you're saying that they couldn't bill people before IOS 4?

Maybe this has something to do with it?

http://forums.atomicmpc.com.au/index.php?showtopic=41810

The Michigan State Police have a handful of portable machines called "extraction devices" that have the potential to download personal information from motorists they pull over, and the ACLU would like to know more about them.

The devices, sold by a company called Cellebrite, can download text messages, photos, video, and even GPS data from most brands of cell phones. The handheld machines have various interfaces to work with different models and can even bypass security passwords and access some information.

This post has been edited by Director: Apr 22 2011, 02:17 PM

[The Tick]

While it will be interesting to see what the idea was behind the implementation,...I'm absolutely convinced it wont be anything sinister that could be used by bad people for nefarious reasons, it MUST be something innocent and well intentioned cos the world is a beautiful place where corporations and corporate controlled authorities only have your best interests in mind, like what if you were having a heart attack, now the ambos can track you with your iphone?

:)

True. Bugger waiting for some facts or the truth to be found before jumping onto the conclusion of a tasty conspiracy.

*grabs tin foil hat and burns iPhone

[Redhatter]

So you're saying that they couldn't bill people before IOS 4?

Maybe this has something to do with it?

http://forums.atomicmpc.com.au/index.php?showtopic=41810

The Michigan State Police have a handful of portable machines called "extraction devices" that have the potential to download personal information from motorists they pull over, and the ACLU would like to know more about them.

The devices, sold by a company called Cellebrite, can download text messages, photos, video, and even GPS data from most brands of cell phones. The handheld machines have various interfaces to work with different models and can even bypass security passwords and access some information.

No, what I was saying is that the telcos aready do store location information, have done since cellular mobile telephony first began, and so this is nothing new. As for the "handheld machines" you speak of... love to see how they'd download any of the above from my old phone. Text messages maybe, but my phone has no photo/video/GPS capability.

Ohh, and The Tick: hope you have earthed your tin foil hat.

This post has been edited by Redhatter: Apr 22 2011, 06:45 PM

[zebra]

This is why I dislike the internet. People read three lines, then run away thinking the sky is falling, when really - they've been fed a pile of half-truth.

Have a look at this:

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/04/2...ko-location-log

Meanwhile - kudos I think are due, to:

'Hatter
Linux_Inside V2
Director
Tick

...who are still capable of seeing through the bullshit.

Frog: Don't let propaganda and poor journalism get the better of you. You're a better person than that.

z

This post has been edited by zebra: Apr 23 2011, 09:16 AM

[Redhatter]

Indeed, but of course if fredzfrog truly believes Apple is harvesting data on iPhone users' whereabouts, he better not look at this.

Interestingly they don't seem to have anything on my AP, and a search on the BSSID of an AP up the road shows it as being somewhere in the US:
http://samy.pl/androidmap/index.php?mac=C8...mp;commit=Probe

That'd be some serious 2.4GHz DX action right there if that were true. (Look out VK4OE!! International DX contact on 13cm coming right up! :-P)

[fredzfrog]

Awww, the corperate news media can make sensationalist claims.. why cant i? :P

[Director]

The plot thickens?

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/137432/201...data-on-you.htm

But it's not just iPhones that are keeping track of their users.

Apple's iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4, and iPad models are also keeping track of consumers whereabouts. Mac computers running Snow Leopard and even Windows computers running Safari 5 are being watched.

The question is why?

The company has remained silent after researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden revealed this Wednesday that the iPhone was storing logs of users' geographic coordinates in a hidden file.

"We're not sure why Apple is gathering this data, but it's clearly intentional, as the database is being restored across backups, and even device migrations," the security experts wrote in their blogs.

While Apple has since remained tight-lipped on the matter, not responding to any media-inquires, another privacy snafu last year gives insight into what the company is doing with the information.

[Redhatter]

Geographic location? I didn't notice any GPS devices listed via lsusb or lspci when I booted Gentoo on the MacBook this morning.

At most they can track the IP address I'm using. Big deal.

[Director]

Yeah they didn't give much detail did they. :)

(Watch this space.)

[TinBane]

Tracking through Safari?
It's probably no better than the tracking that happens when you access any site on the internet.

As for the wording, D, it's pretty emotive and misleading.
If Apple is gathering the information, that implies it's all uploaded to Apple in it's entirety at regular intervals.
I haven't seen any suggestion that this is happening.

This data is stored by Windows 7, Android, iOS, and Symbian devices.
It's stored provider-wise, anyway.