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Apple tracking iPhone users from baseband logs

J

jackjackeleven

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 4, 2008
3
0
Here's post from Apple iPhone forum that Apple recently deleted:

iTunes sends diagnostic logs to Apple. I was curious to investigate what exactly is contained in these logs.

On an XP machine, navigate to:
C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Apple Computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\<phone name>\Baseband

You will find tons of baseband log files with each log containing the entries on how many times your phone disconnected from network! Wow, Apple knows how many times my iPhone dropped call or disconnected from 3G! How come its NOT doing anything about it? Anyways... here's a typical log entry:

23:15:22 -0700 DST clm disconnect: duration=57;cause=kNoError;ceer=0;txPower=-41;maxTxPower=0;rat=0;cgi=310:410:42998:10499

Last night, I spent some time analyzing this and I was shocked by last field "cgi"

310 = Country Code for USA
410 = Operator code for AT&T
422998:10499 = Area/Cellsite (tower) with which iPhone was connected to!

Apple thus knows physical location of my phone and time when I was at that location. Considering the number of logs that were transmitted to Apple, it seems Apple can easily create a "trail" of where I travelled during the day!!!
 
jackjackeleven said:
Apple thus knows physical location of my phone and time when I was at that location. Considering the number of logs that were transmitted to Apple, it seems Apple can easily create a "trail" of where I travelled during the day!!!
Click to expand...

Your phone provider will have this info anyway.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

We can only hope that they will eventually do something about the dropped calls.
 
This is super interesting! I'm surprised by this, but at the same time can see Apple and AT&T meeting to see where the highest number of iPhone customers are loosing reception or calls. AT&T can then make the changes that will affect the highest number of customers from no 3G signal to no signal in places at all... So this is a good thing...
 
Its more than likely just so apple can say to AT&T hey look your network is failing here here and here, I doubt they are thinkin OMG hes using the tower by a known underground dogfighting ring call the cops now!!!
 
jackjackeleven said:
310 = Country Code for USA
410 = Operator code for AT&T
422998:10499 = Area/Cellsite (tower) with which iPhone was connected to!

Apple thus knows physical location of my phone and time when I was at that location. Considering the number of logs that were transmitted to Apple, it seems Apple can easily create a "trail" of where I travelled during the day!!!
Click to expand...

What would be the Operator Code for T-Mobile USA? :eek:
;)
 
I rarely think Apple is in the right for deleting a thread, but in this case I have to agree with them.

They know my tower location and network activity. Or actually, they don't. Are our names an account numbers associated with these logs? No. They only know AN iPhone is in a certain spot and it's either doing okay or doing badly in the call drop department.

So what? If Apple really wanted to play Big Brother and track us, there's a much more accurate and powerful GPS chipset built in that could do the job. Not to mention an OS that could keep much more thorough logs in a database of my call activity if that was really the concern.

And why isn't Apple or AT&T doing something about network issues? Because that stuff takes time.

Don't like being "tracked?" Don't like the network quality? You have other choices. Avail yourself of them. And don't forget your foil hat.
 
<sigh>

What surprises me is that people think we have privacy and anonimity. In the state where I live people are routinely located and rescued by their cell phone signals (not calls, signals). From the moment you sign the contact your information seeps into the systems and every connection your phone makes is logged and monitored. The "black helicopter" crowd thinks they are being watched, but a more accurate statement is that you are being anonymously monitored (until you do something that triggers a response). This applies to many systems.

Recent examples in the news: Palin e-mail hack, SJ heart attack rumor, 2 mac owners remote access to their stolen laptops, COMCAST p2p restrictions.
 
deimos256 said:
Its more than likely just so apple can say to AT&T hey look your network is failing here here and here, I doubt they are thinkin OMG hes using the tower by a known underground dogfighting ring call the cops now!!!
Click to expand...

Thats a better way to look at.

But the fact is that Apple knows where every single iPhone user in the WORLD is located. Imagine a targeted advertising campaign - next time you open iTunes, you see pop-ups of popular restaurants in your area. To make it more intrusive, imagine free text messages, and advertisements on your phone. Worst case: Some hacker steals this data and sells it!
 
Another reason to not connect my phone to my computer. I try to do it as little as possible. Think the last time I did was when 2.1 hit.
 
Bearxor said:
Another reason to not connect my phone to my computer. I try to do it as little as possible. Think the last time I did was when 2.1 hit.
Click to expand...
Do you also keep your phone in a 10 foot thick cement room too?
 
jackjackeleven said:
Here's post from Apple iPhone forum that Apple recently deleted:

iTunes sends diagnostic logs to Apple. I was curious to investigate what exactly is contained in these logs.

On an XP machine, navigate to:
C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Apple Computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\<phone name>\Baseband

You will find tons of baseband log files with each log containing the entries on how many times your phone disconnected from network! Wow, Apple knows how many times my iPhone dropped call or disconnected from 3G! How come its NOT doing anything about it? Anyways... here's a typical log entry:

23:15:22 -0700 DST clm disconnect: duration=57;cause=kNoError;ceer=0;txPower=-41;maxTxPower=0;rat=0;cgi=310:410:42998:10499

Last night, I spent some time analyzing this and I was shocked by last field "cgi"

310 = Country Code for USA
410 = Operator code for AT&T
422998:10499 = Area/Cellsite (tower) with which iPhone was connected to!

Apple thus knows physical location of my phone and time when I was at that location. Considering the number of logs that were transmitted to Apple, it seems Apple can easily create a "trail" of where I travelled during the day!!!
Click to expand...
That’s not Apple. Sounds like you are being watched by crooked cops or a wealthy foe… a corporation like apple make plenty of money. Thus placing them into policy restrictions. Think about it .. what would apple do if they really wanted to get someone? they wouldn’t use their trademark or any identifying information available for any hacking data analysis collections. You need to start with those closest to you
 
taf1987 said:
That’s not Apple. Sounds like you are being watched by crooked cops or a wealthy foe… a corporation like apple make plenty of money. Thus placing them into policy restrictions. Think about it .. what would apple do if they really wanted to get someone? they wouldn’t use their trademark or any identifying information available for any hacking data analysis collections. You need to start with those closest to you
Click to expand...
Color me curious but how did you stumble upon a 15 year old post only to reply to the OP lol.
 
  • Like
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I googled how to get questioned by random users still getting notification updates from posts 15 years old. Why would I reply to any OP?
 
BugeyeSTI said:
The thread starter hasn't been active on the forum since the day after he started this thread in 2008 so doubt there will be a response.. I think it's hilarious when someone bumps a thread that's this old
Click to expand...
Especially when the poster sort of just abandoned the forum after. It's like, they got upset enough to feel the need to post, but then probably realized they were being ridiculous and quietly left.

Good for them. :)

Anyway, hello fellow old timers!
 
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