Apple now collecting your location and sharing it

[ipoddin]

Story just starting to spread:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/06/apple-location-privacy-iphone-ipad.html

 

[Chupa Chupa]

I'll hold fire until more info is available. It doesn't seem like the LATimes has the complete story. If there is no easy "opt out" then Apple is gonna get a FaceBook black eye. It's pretty creepy.

 

[ipoddin]

I'll hold fire until more info is available. It doesn't seem like the LATimes has the complete story. If there is no easy "opt out" then Apple is gonna get a FaceBook black eye. It's pretty creepy.

Here's the story on Mashable:

Still, there seems to be no effective method of opting out of the data storage and sharing

http://mashable.com/2010/06/21/apple-stores-iphone-location/

 

[dmx]

Wow, this really surprises me.

Just because it is "anonymous" doesn't make it OK.

Bad decision by Apple.

 

[dissdnt]

This is only in apps that ask for your location info. How else do you people think these things work? They aren't grabbing your location without your knowledge.

 

[Irish Rose]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8A293)

Just goes to show you that big brother is "always" watching!

 

[ipoddin]

This is only in apps that ask for your location info. How else do you people think these things work? They aren't grabbing your location without your knowledge.

No, this is Apple's ability, not third parties, to store the real time location of your device, and share it, without your consent. Read the story.

 

[chrisperra]

oo.apple.com is the opt out URL.

EDIT: only iOS 4 devices

 

[dissdnt]

No, this is Apple's ability, not third parties, to store the real time location of your device, and share it, without your consent. Read the story.

I did. Developers grab your location from apple instead of directly from your device. This is a layer of anonymity.

The article is making conspiracy leaps of logic from a vague line in terms of service.

 

[LoganT]

oo.apple.com is the opt out URL.

EDIT: only iOS 4 devices

Exactly.

This was already on the front page. The LA Times Blog is making a big deal about nothing.

 

[ipoddin]

oo.apple.com is the opt out URL.

EDIT: only iOS 4 devices

That's just to opt out of iAds, no?

Unsuccessful Opt Out
This device is not running iOS 4. iAds are only served to devices running iOS 4.

 

[ipoddin]

I did. Developers grab your location from apple instead of directly from your device. This is a layer of anonymity.

The article is making conspiracy leaps of logic from a vague line in terms of service.

That's not what Mashable's story says:

Apple’s new privacy policy contains a small new paragraph of big importance: it gives the company license to store “the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device” and share it with “partners and licensees.”

EDIT: Ok, maybe you're right after rereading it. Will see how this develops.

 

[macklos]

Settings, General, Location Services On/Off! Globally or by app. "Allow the apps below to determine your approximate locaction" and "An app that has requested your location within the last 24 hours will show the location services icon next to its name"

Further more an app that uses location services will ask you to allow or don't allow.

Yes this information must go to a server to be of use to you and the service.

You decide if you want to use it or not.