Apple Users, Beware: iPhones Secretly Tracking Location, Experts Warn

[Skitch it!]

I could care less, and I think the rest of the public should start doing the same.

And that's part of the problem.

 

[HEIST]

When my friend and I crossed the border into the US, they made a copy of all of her text messages.

 

[NateS]

+1

If you aint doing nuthing wrong you shouldnt have anything to worry about, anyway

That's a horrible way to think. Just saying.

 

[spigmu]

Yeah, this is pretty bad but it's not unexpected. Here in NYC we know that having an EZPass for tolls gave them a rundown of where you've been, so lots of people don't go for it just on principle. But what the state doesn't make public is that going back a decade it has taken a snapshot of every plate at every toll (that's how you get that picture in the mail along with a penalty fee when you don't pay the full amount on a coin basket line), and it enters them into a database that gives an itinerary of every driver that uses the highways, and it can legally use them as it pleases.

Subway Metrocards? They keep a tally of where they've been used (and are considered property of the MTA not the rider, so you must relinqish if asked for).

Naturally, most of us say "so what?" But the main issue is that it's all done under the guise of it not being done, without outright denying it.

 

[warwick.hoy]

Nothing like a good dose of paranoia to wash down your materialism and consumerism.

"It's a scary world," Ahearn told FoxNews.com. "I've worked with clients where, for instance, a woman started realizing that her husband knew lots things he just shouldn't have known … eventually we figured out that he could tell where she was based on her phone's GPS."

Hmmmmm,....going places and hanging out with unscrupulous types?

I'm in constant communication with my wife,....I don't need a device to know where she is or where she's been. There are no secrets in our relationship and she is very trustworthy. I guess what I'm saying is there aren't any things about my wife that I "shouldn't have known".

I could give a damn if I can be tracked because I don't misbehave. FWIW,...I only have an iPod touch. I've used the find my phone app several times to figure out where I've left my phone.

 

[spigmu]

Whether a user is misbevaving isn't the point. Do I care if Apple always knows my exact location? Not really. Do I care if the data is shared with third parties, the way tracking cookie data is sold? A bit. Do I care if the third party sells the access to other parties, far removed from any privacy claims the phone makers make? I do.

It doesn't have to do with personal relationships in the least, regardless of whatever softnews bites about infidelty make it to Google News.

 

[totallyfrozen]

The company that sells the Cellebrite UFED advertises it to law enforcement: "Get the evidence you need -- immediately."

The company's website goes on to note: "Easy to use in both the field and in lab environments, UFED extracts vital data such as phonebook, pictures, videos, text messages, call logs … it then gathers the data into reports for research and evidence."

But the ACLU argues that the use of the device by police officers during traffic stops would be illegal, and is attempting to obtain Internal records on exactly how the department uses the devices.

"[The devices] allow them to extract information from cell phones without a warrant," Kary Moss, Executive Director of the Michigan ACLU, said.

"The U.S. Constitution acknowledges that people who are not suspected of a certain crime have certain rights -- police have to obtain a search warrant."

[This invalid link has been removed] for yourself!

 

[Johnny Crab]

Your papers please.

"The EYE phone, it keeps an EYE on you 24/7, for all of us"

It sees you when you're sleeping, it knows when you're awake, etc.

 

[warwick.hoy]

Whether a user is misbevaving isn't the point. Do I care if Apple always knows my exact location? Not really. Do I care if the data is shared with third parties, the way tracking cookie data is sold? A bit. Do I care if the third party sells the access to other parties, far removed from any privacy claims the phone makers make? I do.

It doesn't have to do with personal relationships in the least, regardless of whatever softnews bites about infidelty make it to Google News.

I get that and I understand that this is not what your are saying,...I'm just over the fear and paranoia over literally everything. Not only do I have to be afraid that my phone will give me cancer,....touch off a fire at a gas station,...but now it will give away the location of my secret clubhouse?

I'm done being afraid of everything.

EDIT: I won't be blissfully ignorant,...but I won't live my life in fear.

 

[fdeck]

I bet Android devices are doing the same thing anyway. I dunno, I just don't think I'll care until the **** actually hits the fan, lol.

So far as I know, Android is open source, so its inner workings are not a secret.

 

[ChasBass]

+1

If you aint doing nuthing wrong you shouldnt have anything to worry about, anyway

That attitude is extremely naive and...dangerous.

Our freedoms are being chipped away a little bit every day.

 

[MJ5150]

If you use a credit or debit card, then they can find out WHERE you shop and WHAT you buy!!!! Oh noooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

-Mike

 

[ChasBass]

And where you bought your guns.

 

[adam.beauchene]

There's an open source program called iphonetracker that will show you the data on a map. It looks like the data doesn't show where you gave been per se, it shows the cell phone towers you have connected to. Plus, it's only accurate to a tenth of a minute of arc- about .1 miles. The map showed that I have been to islands on the east coast that I have never visited, so I can't see this ever passing as "evidence" of anything.

Its a good idea to read original articles before they get passed through the Fox News armageddon-paranoia-3-minutes-hate filter.

 

[spigmu]

So far as I know, Android is open source, so its inner workings are not a secret.

Not only that, but being Open Source it's easy to modify a version to jump through any hoops you want (well, easy for a smart programmer). A non- OS system will only let you add extensions to it. Plus, Open Source codes are not held up to the ethical scrutiny that commercial codes are because up until recently they were never more than a miniscule part of running a commercial product, but now this has changed.

 

[MatticusMania]

That's a horrible way to think. Just saying.

So I take it you have a better way to deal?

That attitude is extremely naive and...dangerous.

Our freedoms are being chipped away a little bit every day.

Naive? Its naive to think that there is anything you can do to change it.
Im fully aware that we are losing our freedoms, but theyre not being chipped away, theyre being handed over in exhange for fancy things.

You guys use credit or debit cards? THEY KNOW WHERE YOUVE BEEN!!!!

Whether a user is misbevaving isn't the point. Do I care if Apple always knows my exact location? Not really. Do I care if the data is shared with third parties, the way tracking cookie data is sold? A bit. Do I care if the third party sells the access to other parties, far removed from any privacy claims the phone makers make? I do.

Welcome to the world we have created.

 

[Adef187]

John Gruber at daringfireball.net has got some pretty good bits of analysis on the whole 'consolidated.db' mess, from both sides of the fence. Might be worth checking out, as he's pretty well-sourced.

 

[Pilgrim]

Like anything else, you'd have to have probable cause to access the data. Unless you're Homeland Security.

 

[jaywa]

How this can be a surprise to anyone is beyond me.

 

[spigmu]

This article in PCMag has some good info as well.

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