Federal Lawsuit Filed Over Apple's Location Tracking in iOS [Updated]

Look out Apple...the chattel are beginning to rise. I hope these power-hungry thugs (Apple) get taken to the cleaners. Sad that Apple now views our location as a resource to be exploited.
 
hobo.hopkins said:
To say that it is an invasion of privacy is just false, however, because the information remains private.
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It is not an invasion of privacy, it is an unnecessary (and unpublicised) risk to your privacy.

Any company that stores sensitive data of yours, eg, a CC number, is expected and to some degree legally bound to take any reasonable precautions to keep your data private (eg, by securing their servers). Apple simply failed to take reasonable precautions (by clearing the cache). Not on something extremely serious but an oversight for which they could except some slight scolding.
 
MY goodness people!

What the heck would ANYONE do to cause harm to you by knowing what cell towers you ping off of?

Please... give me one good example of how this harms you in any way shape or form.
 
Law is not justice, and one of the few absolutes in this shaky profession is that if a company is big and doing well, then they are a target, both to plaintiffs and to the lawyers who cash in over these attacks on Apple.

Apple will probably have to pay out some sort of millions over this, and for Apple, it's the price of doing business. Hey Apple, welcome to the territory that once belonged to the Microsofts and Dells of this industry. When suits this big and frivolous come out, it shows Apple has reached a prime level of success. My old contracts professor called this the deep pocket theory and the frivolous lawsuit we tackled that night was one just as ridiculous but against Dell, who was on the rise for #1 at the time and it went all the way to the Supreme Court and took years and many tens of millions of dollars to iron out. Expect this suit to be ugly.
 
Regardless of how acurate the info is and how far it is from any given cell tower or whatever, can someone just explain why this information is stored on the device as well as the backup in the first place?
I mean what is the purpose of this data?
 
hobo.hopkins said:
That's why the information is stored locally and can't be accessed by third parties. The information IS private. Unless a device of yours is stolen, in which case almost anything can be done or accessed.
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Is it really? Is it open for people to look at how it is accessed? I don't think so. If that were the case, it would have been revealed earlier and more easily.

Apple needs to do the right thing and be transparent in this process.
 
brayhite said:
IANAL, but AFAIK, here in America, having rights infringed upon is reason for sueing. That, in itself, is a "damage". Hence why Apple is being sued. They apparently are infringing upon the consumers' rights to privacy.
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But how would a judge or jury quantify the size of the claim..? And surely the settlement should go to everyone who has had their right infringed upon, hence why a regulatory body should be responsible for protecting the people's rights so that any fine imposed by the regulator can be further used to protect peoples right to privacy when using a mobile..?

I understand the fact that the people who sue are taking the risk and costs of the lawsuit, but surely there are times when people's rights are being infringed but because nobody is prepared to sue, nothing ever gets done... If it was primarily the responsibility of a regulatory body to protect the consumer, then people's right to privacy would be protected not only when someone felt they had a case that they could make money out of :/
 
0815 said:
Because Apple is not tracking you. Apple does not get any of that data, they will never see or touch it. It is data that is stored locally on your phone out of reach from everyone except you. "Apple tracks you" would mean that the phone is sending the data 'home', but it doesn't. APPLE HAS NO IDEA WHERE THE F YOU ARE OR WERE (and they probably couldn't care less)
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Prove it.
 
Apple may ( are probably ) innocent, but they mis managed this. If they pushed out an official press release to explain why this, instead of keeping quite then the whole thing would have blown over.
 
macaddiict said:
I haven't read this lawsuit, so I don't know if they're claiming things that aren't true... but I really do not like the fact that the iPhone has a breadcrumbs database of my travels for the last 3 years!

This type of thing should not happen without users' knowledge... and it was. Or else this file would not be news!
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If you didn't know this maybe you should get a trac phone.
 
Keep in mind

...The "tracking" is widely used by many apps. Perhaps we should all just wait and see the details before you jump on the "OMG I'm being tracked, and the sky is falling" wagon.

If you are really paranoid about it, delete the darn file and there...Done!

Ommid said:
Wounded, Apple will go on strike and remove all GPS from future devices now. ;)
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ten-oak-druid said:
Is it really? Is it open for people to look at how it is accessed? I don't think so. If that were the case, it would have been revealed earlier and more easily.

Apple needs to do the right thing and be transparent in this process.
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The information is private. It is only accessible to you and anyone with direct access to your devices. I agree that Apple should provide details as to why these locations are being cached, or possibly a way to opt-out for those who are concerned. To say that this is a privacy invasion is simply not true because the information is still private.


manu chao said:
It is not an invasion of privacy, it is an unnecessary (and unpublicised) risk to your privacy.

Any company that stores sensitive data of yours, eg, a CC number, is expected and to some degree legally bound to take any reasonable precautions to keep your data private (eg, by securing their servers). Apple simply failed to take reasonable precautions (by clearing the cache). Not on something extremely serious but an oversight for which they could except some slight scolding.
Click to expand...

I don't want them to clear my cache, and I think most users wouldn't either. If this information has a beneficial purpose (which it very well might) then I don't want it cleared. I agree that there should be a way to clear this if a user so chooses. Apple offers a way to encrypt your backups so I don't see how they haven't taken reasonable precautions.
 
Full of Win said:
Look out Apple...the chattel are beginning to rise. I hope these power-hungry thugs (Apple) get taken to the cleaners. Sad that Apple now views our location as a resource to be exploited.
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Why do you do nothing but troll here? You goo fans are lame.
 
Popeye206 said:
What the heck would ANYONE do to cause harm to you by knowing what cell towers you ping off of?
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Anybody doing credit card fraud would have a somewhat better chance of staying undetected if they knew you usually whereabouts. Credit card companies use highly evolved software to track if a CC transaction is unusual.

I think it is save to assume that most people do not store their credit card number in plain text on their computer. If some piece of software (eg, a browser) would do this, wouldn't this be something you preferred it would not do?
 
I think most people are missing this key bit of info - Location Services was turned off and the database was purged, and it still made a new database with new data...
 
Honestly If this does not bug you it should Apple along with Law enforcement have know about this they have been using devices to read this info and use it against the Phones owners if the info proves useful. Good I totally support a lawsuit Apple should be embarrassed and ashamed this is a big deal. Nothing should trace where your going and keep a record. This info can also be used by criminals but the true criminal here is Law Enforcement since they knew about this info and used it against suspects.

Please take note suspects are not criminals they are you and me and getting pulled over or involved with the Police. It can happen to anyone for many reasons other than causing a crime.

Apple has just brought us the closest we have EVER been to 1984.

Protect our Freedoms
 
Waste of time

Maybe I have a bit of tunnel vision but is simply storing location data of customers on THEIR own machines so wrong? I heard in some comments that this info could be used for caching purposes.

If it's illegal to store location data unknowingly on my own machine then Apple has lost this case already. But I think not. I say prove that Apple did upload and use this location info. Otherwise Apple can simply claim they used it for caching or for a secret location based app they were planning on releasing for people to opt into.:)hint: for Apple's lawyers)

If Apple loses this then I hope lawsuits follow for similar companies that also do such things. When you're on the top people like to bash for the smallest of things.
 
manu chao said:
The point is that I would have assumed that any app or part of the OS creating a database would be open and transparent about it.
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What do you expect? Every application that you use will store information in databases. MacOS X keeps a database that contains every single word in every document that you ever create on your Macintosh, did you know that? Are you going all paranoid about it or are you just happy that Spotlight can find any document you are looking for in no time? Safari keeps track of every website you ever visited. Does that worry you? Do you want a list of all the thousands of databases on your Mac, and on your iPhone? Really? Did you know that Angry Birds keeps track of how well you played and stores the information on your phone without telling you? Are you really angry now?
 
DotCom2 said:
Regardless of how acurate the info is and how far it is from any given cell tower or whatever, can someone just explain why this information is stored on the device as well as the backup in the first place?
I mean what is the purpose of this data?
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"Background location - Navigation apps can now continue to guide users who are listening to their iPods, or using other apps. iOS 4 also provides a new and battery-efficient way to monitor location when users move between cell towers. This is a great way for your social networking apps to keep track of users and their friends' locations." right from apple's site, this is part of the answer to your why question.

The file is in the “User Data Partition” on the device. This is a logical filesystem that maintains non-system level privileges and where most of the data is stored. When you perform an iOS Backup through iTunes, it is backing up this partition. And that is the answer to your how question.
 
Lawsuits are filed against Apple every week. That's why they have their own legal department and engage powerful firms as outside counsel. Any idiot can file suit. Nothing to see here, move along.

Personally, if anyone were to gain unauthorized access to either my computers or my iPhone, I've got far more serious problems than someone knowing my day-to-day travels. Hacker's Law: Once I have physical access to your computer, it is no longer your computer. Anyone who doesn't treat his smartphone with the same care and attention he gives his wallet will soon have neither.
 
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