iPhone - tracks where you go?

[caseys]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/20/iphone-tracking-prompts-privacy-fears

An interesting privacy article!

Security researchers have discovered that Apple's iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner's computer when the two are synchronised.

The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone's recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner's movements using a simple program.

For some phones, there could be almost a year's worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple's iOS 4 update to the phone's operating system, released in June 2010.

"Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you've been," said Pete Warden, one of the researchers.

Only the iPhone records the user's location in this way, say Warden and Alasdair Allan, the data scientists who discovered the file and are presenting their findings at the Where 2.0 conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. "Alasdair has looked for similar tracking code in [Google's] Android phones and couldn't find any," said Warden. "We haven't come across any instances of other phone manufacturers doing this."

Simon Davies, director of the pressure group Privacy International, said: "This is a worrying discovery. Location is one of the most sensitive elements in anyone's life – just think where people go in the evening. The existence of that data creates a real threat to privacy. The absence of notice to users or any control option can only stem from an ignorance about privacy at the design stage."

Warden and Allan point out that the file is moved onto new devices when an old one is replaced: "Apple might have new features in mind that require a history of your location, but that's our specualtion. The fact that [the file] is transferred across [to a new iPhone or iPad] when you migrate is evidence that the data-gathering isn't accidental." But they said it does not seem to be transmitted to Apple itself.

Picture of image when data has been plotted out - Southern UK

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at the security company Sophos, said: "If the data isn't required for anything, then it shouldn't store the location. And it doesn't need to keep an archive on your machine of where you've been." He suggested that Apple might be hoping that it would yield data for future mobile advertising targeted by location, although he added: "I tend to subscribe to cockup rather than conspiracy on things like this – I don't think Apple is really trying to monitor where users are."

The location file came to light when Warden and Allan were looking for a source of mobile data. "We'd been discussing doing a visualisation of mobile data, and while Alasdair was researching into what was available, he discovered this file. At first we weren't sure how much data was there, but after we dug further and visualised the extracted data, it became clear that there was a scary amount of detail on our movements," Warden said.

The pair of data scientists have collaborated on a number of data visualisations, including a map of radiation levels in Japan for The Guardian. They are developing a Data Science Toolkit for dealing with location data.

Davies said that the discovery of the file indicated that Apple had failed to take users' privacy seriously.

Apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere!

 

[megasad]

I was just about to post the same article but with a specific question; does anyone know the location of this file, how to access it, and how to visualise the data held within it, like the map in said article? It was annoyingly low on technical detail.

I've had my iPhone since last August and have carried it with me ever since, I'd be interested in seeing how I've moved about the world, it would be even cooler if the data could be animated. Bonus points for a little airplane, animated dashes and whizzing noises

On the privacy angle, I do hope Apple add the option to disable the permanent storage of this file, but for myself I'll be happy to leave it activated, so long as I'm the only one who can access the information.

 

[Pravda]

Read this today as well.

At first i thought that one can turn it off via turning off location services, but then i thought what if the data is from cell triangulation?

I dont have anything to hide (not yet at least), but still dont like the idea of my data being shared and viewed by others.




I believed, according to Sarah Connor, Skynet has become self aware yesterday 4.19.2011 at 8:11pm....

 

[icstars989]

And you all thought I was crazy for buying that tin hat and tin bumper.

 

[kdarling]

Is it only location data? Or is other info mixed in?

For instance, as everyone should know by now, Apple has used iPhones to create its own database of WiFi hotspots. (Whenever you get a GPS location, the iPhone also logs any hotspots nearby, to later upload to Apple's location servers.)

This allowed Apple to stop paying for Skyhook's hotspot locator. Perhaps this was part of the project?

(Otherwise, I would subscribe the "it's a goof" theory. Same as when Google trucks were recording hotspot data... it's just test code left in by some programmer.)

 

[centauratlas]

It is stored here: /Users/<your user name>/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backups/
(every sync updates it on your computer)

There is an application to view it here:
http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/


There is more information here:
http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/#faq

It is pretty accurate. I went on a cruise back in December, it had reasonable accuracy - an interesting point was that when you were out at sea and it was showing a very weak signal, you could see which island it had ended up accessing.

I was just about to post the same article but with a specific question; does anyone know the location of this file, how to access it, and how to visualise the data held within it, like the map in said article? It was annoyingly low on technical detail.

I've had my iPhone since last August and have carried it with me ever since, I'd be interested in seeing how I've moved about the world, it would be even cooler if the data could be animated. Bonus points for a little airplane, animated dashes and whizzing noises

On the privacy angle, I do hope Apple add the option to disable the permanent storage of this file, but for myself I'll be happy to leave it activated, so long as I'm the only one who can access the information.

 

[aaronchow]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

I don't mind if this is a programming error, but if this data is created on purpose and have been archiving it on our computer without letting us know, then Apple had gone too far.

 

[megasad]

Pah, I'm too safe; because my iPhone backups are encrypted, I can't access the information. Oh well.

Also, I just realised how lazy this Guardian article is; the information is a year old already.

 

[kicko]

I suppose its only fair since you can find you iphone and tracks its location, that it can find and track you too.