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Senator Asks Apple About Location-Tracking Issues as Experts Weigh In
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Well that's easy - it seems the purpose of this file is to help you find your location quickly. Without this cache you'd waste bandwidth, time and battery power to look up information that was fixed (cell tower locations). It also means your phone can find your location when you don't have GPS signal, or simply not bother to turn GPS on, which is a win because it consumes so much power. Seems like a pretty compelling use to me. Read this for more info: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/12432603/
AppleScruff1
macrumors G4
It's fun reading about people who try to justify privacy invasion because Apple does it but would be raising a ruckus if it was Microsoft or anyone else. The double standard and blind following is funny.
If that is your idea of fun, you really need to get out more.
See my post above for innocuous reasoning behind all of this. It's nothing like as sinister as you would like to believe. Data is not being sent back to Apple.
AppleScruff1
macrumors G4
An undocumented source proves your point, but Apple makes no reply to the allegations? I thought it was a "bug" in the software? And some police departments have known about it for a while too.
Rodimus Prime
macrumors G4
LTD is posting and been called out directly on this question multiple times and complete is avoiding answering it. It speaking volumes about him.
Who needs an undocumented source when you could watch WWDC 2010 Session 115 'Using Core Location in iOS 4' at 14 minutes and 30 seconds in and hear Morgan Grainger, a man partly responsible for the Core Location framework in the iPhone SDK (read: all location functionality on iPhone) describe how the iPhone caches nearby cell tower information to help the device find its location in the circumstances above.
Given that we have the engineer partly behind this framework explain that the iPhone caches this information, we know that the iPhone has to be storing this information somewhere. This 'consolidated.db' matches the words in the video perfectly, making it no great assumption that this is the file which fulfils this purpose.
Granted you don't sound like a developer and so won't have access to these videos, but any other developer could do the same and corroborate this.
It being a bug is simply a rumour which has no links to an official source. I'm far more inclined to believe the words of a guy who wrote the code that collects this information in the first place
AppleScruff1
macrumors G4
kdarling
Contributor
If you use an ATT iPhone, E911 doesn't use the phone's GPS.
- ATT and other US GSM networks do not currently use a GPS on a phone (if it has one) for E911.
The GPS on the device is used only by on-device apps.
- CDMA carriers Verizon and Sprint have included A-GPS on almost every one of their cell phones since the turn of the century, for E911 and carrier approved on-device apps.
When you dial 911 the CDMA network requests the GPS info from the phone (sometimes just the raw signals if it's a really cheap phone) over a control channel and uses that to help calculate the user's location.
The A-GPS in almost every CDMA chipset is also why even the cheaper phones often could download a navigation app. Also, because the CDMA network is based off GPS time, every tower has a GPS and they could determine if conditions were odd in their region (weather, reflections) and apply the same correction to the device's A-GPS output.
--
This is why I make sure my family has Verizon handsets. If they make an E911 call up here in the mountains, the A-GPS is likely to get closer than than 50' accuracy. On ATT, the accuracy can be the length of 1 to 3 football fields, and that could be a critical difference.
(At one time, ATT's tower method had a slight advantage if you were in a building away from GPS coverage, but the CDMA carriers also later added a tower method as a backup in that case.)
If it's all just speculation, why be so quick to shout "privacy invasion" when you don't know the full story? It can't be one rule for you and another for everyone else.
The technical explanation from an Apple engineer will probably be the best explanation we'll see - Apple's PR rarely go into technical details on such matters. Anntenna-gate has been the only exception to that rule I can think of.
AppleScruff1
macrumors G4
I'm not the one being quick to shout privacy invasion, it was on every tv news channel and news site. Somebody thinks it's a big deal. Now Apple brass is in damage control mode and must come up with some type of answer to appease the public.
Every tv news channel and news site? I certainly wouldn't go that far. And anyway, most tech sites love to post sensationalist Apple stories because they know it draws in the most clicks and hence more ad revenue. Half of the rest just love to spread FUD. Other brits will probably know that from one of our papers called the Daily Mail. They love these kind of stories.
I dug around the log files of Co Pilot (a popular sat nav app) a little while ago, discovered it kept a log of all the journeys I'd taken with it and the latitude and longitude of all the points along the way. It's not encrypted, it's backed up in iTunes and it's not being transmitted outside the iPhone from what I could tell - exactly the same as this story. Didn't particularly bother me and there's been no public outcry about it. The press love a story like this when it's got Apple's name on it
AppleScruff1
macrumors G4
I live in MA and it was on the Boston news channels, CNN, MSNBC, Ars Technica, etc. It hit all of the major news outlets.
Doesn't make it any less sensationalist. It's just a file on a phone after all. Some people I know save their online banking passwords as contacts in their address book. I think there is far more appealing data on a phone besides this that people would rather get hold of (email accounts, Safari autofill passwords, call records ). Good luck to someone who has possession of my phone and now knows where I was 6 months ago, I bet knowing that will be invaluable to them Maybe I should start having an affair or something to make it actually useful.
Judging from the the overwhelming majority of responses in regards to personal privacy violation these days, coming from the younger generations in regards to issues of this nature and typical replies such as.... Don't Care, I'm not doing anything wrong so I'm fine with that, Let them look, They are not violating you're rights, you have a Tinfoil Hat on! etc , etc, etc,
I would have to say that the Government is doing a fine job indoctrinating and spoon feeding everyone through mass media to the extent that we are actually breeding complacent spineless cowards that offer no resistance and have no independent thought process of their own!
In short...You are all good little sheep!
Why is it that no one offers any resistance these days? The problem and all of the problems this country currently faces is due to the fact that We The People no longer govern this country and protect our constitution & Bill Of Rights!
We hire and empower our elected officials to represent our voice and our best interest as a society yet these people take what they want, treat us the way they want, steal from us, lie to us, deceive us & left to their devices they will kill us all in the name of greed. And we just bend over and take it and thank them for it!
I Mean WTF already people? When is everybody going to learn that if everybody would just do their little part in society by being involved on the most very mundane level, we as a people and society would not be plagued with all of these current crisis that we are currently facing in this country!
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS! If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem! It's that simple!
Now c'mon Kids call me crazy and say I am wearing a Tin Foil Hat. Just Remember It will be my Generation that brings the fight, not yours!
I would have to say that the Government is doing a fine job indoctrinating and spoon feeding everyone through mass media to the extent that we are actually breeding complacent spineless cowards that offer no resistance and have no independent thought process of their own!
In short...You are all good little sheep!
Why is it that no one offers any resistance these days? The problem and all of the problems this country currently faces is due to the fact that We The People no longer govern this country and protect our constitution & Bill Of Rights!
We hire and empower our elected officials to represent our voice and our best interest as a society yet these people take what they want, treat us the way they want, steal from us, lie to us, deceive us & left to their devices they will kill us all in the name of greed. And we just bend over and take it and thank them for it!
I Mean WTF already people? When is everybody going to learn that if everybody would just do their little part in society by being involved on the most very mundane level, we as a people and society would not be plagued with all of these current crisis that we are currently facing in this country!
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS! If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem! It's that simple!
Now c'mon Kids call me crazy and say I am wearing a Tin Foil Hat. Just Remember It will be my Generation that brings the fight, not yours!
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Certainly a bit crazy, but regardless, a wholly disproportionate response to a simple file on a device which by all reports isn't being transmitted anywhere or being used for any purpose other than to the help the phone work a bit better. I think there are other areas where your passion could be better focussed
Aye, the usual overly dramatic reaction Brother Esau, like in the days you sold your birthright for a mere morsel of meat and still holds me responsible to this day...
Brother Jacob
Brother Jacob
silentnite
macrumors 6502a
No one should freak out and panic just yet, I'm sure apple has a logical explanation behind this.
KnightWRX
macrumors Pentium
Sure they do, like "we forgot to delete older data". Really, LocationServices doesn't need a 1 year old log of data. Nothing a software update to clean out older entries can't fix.
love this!
It's amazing that a file that is stored locally (iDevices and iTunes) is causing so much uproar. Lolz! If you have access to my iDevices then I should be more worried than you having access to this location cache. Get a clue people.
It's amazing that a file that is stored locally (iDevices and iTunes) is causing so much uproar. Lolz! If you have access to my iDevices then I should be more worried than you having access to this location cache. Get a clue people.
When senators weigh in on privacy issues like this, they betray their foolishness. A litlle study by their aides would reveal what a non-issue this is. Sen. Franken would do better by investigating our own government's spying on its own citizens under the cover of the Patriot Act.
Apple OC
macrumors 68040
Here is a thought ... suppose when the police pull you over and figure they can wrap up a case by using the info they download from your phone and the make of car you are driving.
Defense lawyers are not cheap 😎
And then what? The police know where you've been driving - what's the big deal? If it proves you weren't near the scene of a crime, well then that's definitely good. It if proves you were, then all it proves is you were nearby - not that you actually did anything.
Here in the UK, we often hear about drivers who've had car accidents, the police have dug up the person's phone records and discovered they were sending a text message just before the accident occurred. Seems to me to be a great way to catch people who aren't paying attention to the road and punishing them. What's the big difference here if the police know where you've been?