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No they won't. They're not going to delete the DB - they're only storing a week. Did you read the story?

For those of us who regularly travel for work between locations but stay away for more than a week, it will be a hit in performance. I just hope there is a setting that allows a larger data file to be kept.
 
Side story: the credit card companies know exactly where I am better then the cell companies. Every time I swipe my credit or debit card, they know where I am. When I travel for vacation, I am very likely to get a call from my credit card company (on my cell) asking where, when and how long I will be traveling. They know every store and every purchase I've ever made on a credit card.

again - when you make a purchase - you know you're being logged. If you use cash - your CC doesn't know where you are.

Apple's bug saved coordinates whether or not you had locations services on or off. It's different.

The OPTION is what's important and Apple agrees, hence the bug fix. If it was soley a "feature" - they would have stated that the file is required and they cannot offer a way to remove it, yadda yadda

Those that still argue against the solution remind me of the threads on the iPad board. When it was suggested that the iPad needed a camera - so many people were screaming that it's ridiculous for the iPad to have a camera citing form factor, useless feature, stupid suggestion, etc. I argued that having a camera makes sense and for those that wouldn't use it - don't use it.

Same here. Apple will give (actually fix) the ability to turn location services on or off. Use it or not. I'm happy there's an OPTION
 
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SoGood said:
Iraqis are dying, Afghani are dying, Syrians are dying, American soldiers are dying, British soldiers are dying, Australian soldiers are dying, elderly around the world are losing medical services... And civvies and senators are busy complaining about a location log in an iPhone? There are some screwed up heads in this world!

Exactly. Some need to develop a sense of perspective.
 
If anyone wants complete privacy they shouldn't use a cell phone anyway. Or internet, or credit cards, or electricity, or work, or pay taxes. I would think Droid phones would be worse since their creator was Google which is all about tracking you to sell ads. No difference than junk mail, they know your home address and what stores are in your proximity.

Also to Apple logging might mean using the data to track you, which they aren't.
 
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Funny thing is, this is NOTHING compared to the information about you out there already. Keeping a log of cell towers you've been in the vicinity of is positively benign.

Spend 12 years working in accounts recovery and your eyes will open.
 
And assume you go to a place you have been a month ago, wouldn't having the database speed things up when you return to that location a month later?

(Though I agree the effect will be very minor, as soon as you land with a plane, the iPhone will start populating that database, thus having the data from a month ago will only be relevant if you need location data right away after landing.)

How else are you going to check in on Facebook?:p

My layover at some airports is only 45 minutes.
 
I know of no cell tower or wifi device that works up to 100 miles away.

No-one has said this. Apple said the database contains the location of cell towers and Wi-Fi hotspots around your current location.

A bit of research reveals that iOS not only downloads location data for the cell tower or Wi-Fi hotspot nearest you, but also for hundreds of others in the area around you. This is so that when you move location it doesn't have to re-query Apple's location database over the internet. This is what the cache is for - to enable the device to look up locations stored locally instead of having to waste battery and talk to Apple again over the internet. In addition it enables Wi-Fi only devices to still be able to locate themselves even when they have no internet connection.
 
I know of no cell tower or wifi device that works up to 100 miles away.

Ok, nobody jumped on this comment so I'll answer it.

Obviously, the location tracking data is logging locations from within 100 miles of your home location, assuming you might travel 100 miles away.

Oh somebody beat me, nevermind. LOL
 
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There's a nuclear disaster in Japan and treacherous weather throughout, people are jobless and homeless and the dollar's in the sh***er and our Supreme Court ruled that companies can give unlimited financial aid to any politician putting business interests in our government and people are worried about Apple possibly tracking them on their iDevice?

None of which are affecting my day to day life. However, since you say I can't go on living my life until all other worldly issues are resolved, I will be waiting for a e-mail letting me know when I can resume going about my daily routine.

Until then, I will stay fixed in front of my computer screen. :rolleyes:

This argument that we shouldn't worry about anything because bigger things are going on has got to stop. It's the most disingenuous comment you can make.
 
Are you somehow trying to imply that because the credit card company knows so much about you that it is OK to keep that information unencrypted on your phone and backup on your computer?

All people are asking for is that personal information is kept encrypted and secured. No more. No less.

Apple provides the option of encrypting your backups. I suggest that anyone concerned about the safety of their personal information use this feature.

Can you trust anyone to completely cover their bases correctly on this issue? Their "meh" data might be your "personal" data. The only way to be certain that the backups are encrypted is to encrypt the whole backup. Doesn't lengthen the time it takes much either, and you get to set the password to use/access the backup.

Yes, Apple made a bone-head move here. But there's a lot more personal information floating in the backups. SMS message history, 3rd party app data, etc. Not all of it is encrypted, and some of it you probably want encrypted.
 
This is exactly what i wanted to hear from Apple, a clarification on what the system actually does and an update that stops the info from being registered when location services is turned off.
I believe the lawsuit was simply a measure to get this clarification from Apple and now the suit will be dropped for sure.
 
If I were a criminal or a terrorist I would be upset about this data collection. Since I am not, I would rather the data be kept on my phone if it will help my GPS work better/faster.:rolleyes:
 
Does Apple really think this double talk, where they say they keep a database of location but don't log the location is going to fly?

But it is true! They didn't log that I was at this date and hour in this restaurant and next hour I was at position xyz, but it was a cache of something related but also different. For example for every celltower-data there is only one timestamp. So you can't even determinate when a place was first (or even last) visited. For real location tracking this data is really inaccurate and useless. Location tracking was not the purpose of this cache and not the intention of Apple. I think it is legitim and important when they emphasize that in their Q&A.

What this data is useable for is drawing nice circles on a google map and visualizing a path of traveling between cities if you have physical access to your personal computer. And all this points are adressed in a software update.
 
Just to be clear - you think someone who wants to question what is and what is not being tracked is a whiner?

Did I read you correctly. Nice name calling.

After an issue has arose and been debated to death and then even after the manufacturer has addressed the concerns of the paranoid, it is time to give it a rest.
But then when those who wish to beat what should now be a dead horse into little bitty pieces continue, then yes you are correct. Maybe whiner is not the correct title for these people. ;)
 
Problem is, if you turn "Location Services" off, then you can't use "Find My iPhone" which I think is quite a useful feature! :(
 
After an issue has arose and been debated to death and then even after the manufacturer has addressed the concerns of the paranoid, it is time to give it a rest.
But then when those who wish to beat what should now be a dead horse into little bitty pieces continue, then yes you are correct. Maybe whiner is not the correct title for these people. ;)

It's still news. The response came within the last 24 hours. If people are still debating this a few weeks from now - you can call them whiners... but it's current events in my opinion.
 
For those of us who regularly travel for work between locations but stay away for more than a week, it will be a hit in performance. I just hope there is a setting that allows a larger data file to be kept.

Wow. Was your iPhone really THAT slow the first time you used it. I don't recall those complaints hitting the news (yet).
 
How is the talk of slower performance because the database isn't as large any different than the discussion about the data in the first place.

Several people were criticizing people for having tin foil hats when it came to what the data was being used for, etc

And now the same people are wearing the same tin foil hats/complaining about some mythological "slow down" by having a smaller database.

Hypocrisy LOL
 
None of which are affecting my day to day life. However, since you say I can't go on living my life until all other worldly issues are resolved, I will be waiting for a e-mail letting me know when I can resume going about my daily routine.

* Newsflash You can do both *

Until then, I will stay fixed in front of my computer screen. :rolleyes:

This argument that we shouldn't worry about anything because bigger things are going on has got to stop. It's the most disingenuous comment you can make.

Wow, I don't know what's worse, your apathy or the irony. They're called "priorities" and some people need to get theirs together… that would be called "reality"...

PS voting my comment down and others who like my comment, funny… in a sad way… ;)
 
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Am I the only person disappointed to find my iPhone is NOT tracking me? I download the App David Pogue posted on NYT and it didn't work. My iPhone's too old! I wish the damn thing would just die already, but since every Mac I've bought since 1989* still works, what are the odds? Someone steal my iPhone, PLEASE!
*1985's Mac had a coca-cola spilled in it. That can destroy anything.
 
It's nice that this month's "Apple-gate" story will start to die. I can't wait to see what the media generates next month in the "Apple-gate" saga.

Antennagate
Locationgate

C'mon, Apple competitors, think up your next outrage.
 
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