Steve Jobs on iOS Location Issue: 'We Don't Track Anyone'

[Swift]

Call me naive (or perhaps paranoid) but I've been assuming my location is being tracked since I bought my first smart phone years ago.

Here's a way that is tracked. Every 12 hours, your iPhone sends its location. Just that, not personal info. There's an iPhone here in Glendale, CA. About say, 12,000 of them. From other databases, advertisers know the demographics, salary data and so on for that zip code. This determines who the ad might be shown to. Will everyone in Glendale be sent a particular ad? Or do you want to send the ads to Beverly Hills?

Seems okay with me. In the Terms of Service, that's what they say. Every time you ask for GPS, it tells you and you have to click. Every time, not just the first time you use the app. That's exact info. Things like Yelp! use it, and they're compiling data about the iPhone users in 91202. And sell the numbers to advertisers. Apple doesn't see that, either.

Don't like that? Try a magazine subscription. The magazine sells your name, address and other subscription data to advertisers. A lot MORE than an iPhone gives. So you find all kinds of crap, for years, showing up in your mailbox, and you can thank the publishers. Oh, by the way, 30% that Apple charges is a better deal than most distributors give. Why are some fighting that deal? Because Apple won't let them collect your data for their use.

 

[macUser2007]

Was there some Flash ad that told you this? Probably why I missed it.

Nope, it was a Flash site.

But then you can't see Flash sites.... Only iAds. And those are getting fewer and fewer.

 

[bella92108]

Wow, that would be an awesome joke, except that both parts are false. Funny guy.

I thought it was funny.

 

[viewfly]

I do agree, however, that the consolidated.db file should at least be encrypted if it is to remain on the device. Now any good crook knows all they need is your iphone to find out when best to rob you.

This is the best quote yet: Er...if a crook has your phone...I think they already have robbed you....

 

[koruki]

If its not sending where you are to Apple, who cares.

FFS everyone thinks they are the freakin president, as if anyone gives a rats ass where you went last week.

 

[thepisces]

ImmuneZone is Awesome!! True true true........

Are you people really this naive? Do you just love your iPhone to death?

Of course you are tracked!!! Of course S.J.'s says no!! You are tracked through

all cell phone's. iPhone just makes this easier. I am sure before the iPhone

was approved by the FCC this was something they had to except or no iPhone.

Why can't we think for ourselves? Do we just ignore vital pieces of info like this

because we just love these material gadgets so so much.

Last word, yes we are always tracked through cell phones, iPhone's, email and

probably thousands of other ways. Be smart if you do not want to be tracked.

You can still own your little fancy gadgets if you want. Just only let them

track what you want them to. If you do something not so legal, leave the

phone at home, remove sim card, turn off, or just use you brain dammit.

ImmuneZone

This post is very very true. I can't believe all the people protecting this subject, really just trying to find a reason for loving the iPhone. Well i have an iPhone too. I love it too. So what? A fact is a fact! It's maybe not apple tracking you, but definitely apple allowing someone else too.

Think about it......

 

[viewfly]

They all collect location data, but Apple keeps it for months, while Google deletes all but the most recent locations. That's the big issue with the Apple way of tracking.

Your iPhone collects it...not Apple. Read the article.

 

[Porco]

There's lots of types of tracking going on all the time, be it by cell tower, IP address, device ID, cookies, social media log-ins, and other profiling techniques. I find it a little bizarre that this story has blown up into such a big thing when there are much worse, more pervasive, consistent and intentional data mining exercises going on all the time. If this is the furore over a location log that doesn't ever leave the user I have to wonder why on earth no-one seems to care about some of that other stuff quite as much. Perhaps it's in the 'too hard to understand' box where the average user assumes everything must be ok because the media isn't going on about it on the news. The news media that is paid for largely by the same advertising industry that wants data-mine us to within an inch of our lives of course. /rant/

This whole hyped-up storm is about the consolidated.db though right? And until there is any evidence that the consolidated.db is sent back to Apple, they aren't automatically 'tracking you' in the way that I think many people have misled into thinking they are.

Now if you turn on location services, then guess what? They need your location to provide you those services. No news there either.

Basically Apple just need to add a 'empty location cache' button in settings. The End.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Wow 14 pages because someone claims that Jobs emailed them. He called me on the phone earlier today and said that Apple is working on a statement for the media that will explain everything.

 

[iEvolution]

Wouldn't even matter if it was from Steve Jobs or not. He isn't exactly a beacon of truth.

This is the same guy that tried to convince the world that antenna issues with the iPhone 4 were a non-issue and were normal.

The guy is in the market to make money, like he gives two-craps about you, in fact the only time he seems to give a crap is when it becomes a PR nightmare and has the potential to affect sales.

The ones that think this tracking behavior is fine and who gives a crap where you were last week? For me its not the issue of people finding out where I was last week but it is more of crossing the line of ethics. The more you allow and accept this behavior the more your rights get taken away. If you say its fine who's to say they don't take it a step further?

I have a feeling if it was the government doing something like this (which they probably already do behind closed doors in the name of the Patriot Act or Homeland security) people would change their tune real quick and call it absurd, but since its apple for some reason its ok.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Wouldn't even matter if it was from Steve Jobs or not. He isn't exactly a beacon of truth.

This is the same guy that tried to convince the world that antenna issues with the iPhone 4 were a non-issue and were normal.

The guy is in the market to make money, like he gives two-craps about you, in fact the only time he seems to give a crap is when it becomes a PR nightmare and has the potential to affect sales.

Be careful, you may be exiled from the board for saying something bad about Uncle Steve. He is all wise and all knowing.

 

[MacMan86]

Wow 14 pages because someone claims that Jobs emailed them. He called me on the phone earlier today and said that Apple is working on a statement for the media that will explain everything.

Have you read the posts? The majority of them aren't about the claimed email - they're about the wider topic in general.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Have you read the posts? The majority of them aren't about the claimed email - they're about the wider topic in general.

But you all believe a claim that anyone could easily make up. And then the apologists take over. Steve is great. Steve is good. I believe.

 

[MacMan86]

But you all believe a claim that anyone could easily make up. And then the apologists take over. Steve is great. Steve is good. I believe.

You honestly think MacRumors would get an email from a reader and stick it on page 1, no questions asked? How many of those do they get a day do you think…? I think they're well aware anyone could say they've had an email from Steve. What isn't difficult is to view the headers of the email and verify the sender. You can bet the reader had to send MacRumors those headers before they published it. When Eric wrote up the article, he wrote "Jobs reportedly responded…" as they always have to, every article with an email from Steve has those words because it's not a published press release from Apple.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

that does not answer the question ask.

SJ answer could mean that they just strip off all personal identify information.
He said Apple is not tracking you. Does not mean Apple is not tracking iPhones with out any identifiers.

Still does not ask why the info is stored for the life of the device. On top of that it is a classical example of a memory leak. That file is going to keep growing as new info is added.
Google at least came clean and said yes they collect it and remove identifying info from it.

 

[AppleScruff1]

You honestly think MacRumors would get an email from a reader and stick it on page 1, no questions asked? How many of those do they get a day do you think…?

I'd like to think not, but judging by some of the things that make the front page, it wouldn't surprise me. It's like the National Enquirer at times.

 

[MacMan86]

I'd like to think not, but judging by some of the things that make the front page, it wouldn't surprise me. It's like the National Enquirer at times.

OK… but I'm still inclined to believe they have enough journalistic integrity to ensure the email headers match… It's not difficult to verify. If I was the reader concerned, trying to shop this story around, there are far less reputable blogs who have a habit of printing anything that I would have gone to first.

 

[AppleScruff1]

OK… but I'm still inclined to believe they have enough journalistic integrity to ensure the email headers match… It's not difficult to verify. If I was the reader concerned, trying to shop this story around, there are far less reputable blogs who have a habit of printing anything that I would have gone to first.

If it is verified the way you have said, that should be enough evidence to give it credibility.

 

[koruki]

that does not answer the question ask.

SJ answer could mean that they just strip off all personal identify information.
He said Apple is not tracking you. Does not mean Apple is not tracking iPhones with out any identifiers.

Still does not ask why the info is stored for the life of the device. On top of that it is a classical example of a memory leak. That file is going to keep growing as new info is added.
Google at least came clean and said yes they collect it and remove identifying info from it.

I think the question should be does Apple even collect it?

One should also consider, google can use the data for their advertising business, what about Apple?

 

[MacMan86]

I think the question should be does Apple even collect it?

One should also consider, google can use the data for their advertising business, what about Apple?

It might be worth having a look at Section 4 b) in their SLA http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/iphone.pdf

I would paste the relevant section in but the PDF is locked against copying and pasting. Essentially, you agree to them potentially collecting real-time location data, but without any personally identifiable information. That said, I can't see them tracking you - 160 million data points is an awful lot to plot on a Google Map mash-up... I haven't read Google's equivalent, it might be similar.

If you want to create an iAd campaign, you can target people by age, gender, location (only as deep as a country I believe) and a few other demographics. I would imagine most of this data comes from iTunes accounts however, as I doubt my iPhone knows how old I am.

 

[iCrizzo]

Why suddenly use the words "we" and "us"? You been a very anti (any) apple products and simply calls anyone not in agreement with you as fanbois.

Maybe you ought to change your name that befits you, Full of -aps.

Ignore him...

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I think the question should be does Apple even collect it?

One should also consider, google can use the data for their advertising business, what about Apple?

personally I am not a fan of it. Google or Apple. It is just a little too deep for my taste. Apples is by far worse than Google's. Googles system has a set size and will not grow in terms of file size. Apple system keeps growing for the life of the device getting larger and more useless over time as it takes to many CPU cycles to go threw mostly completely useless information.
It either is going to go threw it 1 at a time and take for ever as the file gets larger or it going to be spending huge amounts of CPU power redoing the array of info every time a a new items add so it can do a binary search.

At least with google it is a set size and honest I find it a much better use of memory and CPU cycle time which mean better power usage.

 

[philip-j-fry]

Directly from Apple's privacy policy page

"We may collect information such as occupation, language, zip code, area code, unique device identifier, location, and the time zone where an Apple product is used so that we can better understand customer behavior and improve our products, services, and advertising."

Give it up. Apple tracks you, Google tracks you, everyone tracks you. Except the government as they probably need to get a warrant or some other legal excuse to do so.

 

[MacMan86]

personally I am not a fan of it. Google or Apple. It is just a little too deep for my taste. Apples is by far worse than Google's. Googles system has a set size and will not grow in terms of file size. Apple system keeps growing for the life of the device getting larger and more useless over time as it takes to many CPU cycles to go threw mostly completely useless information.
It either is going to go threw it 1 at a time and take for ever as the file gets larger or it going to be spending huge amounts of CPU power redoing the array of info every time a a new items add so it can do a binary search.

At least with google it is a set size and honest I find it a much better use of memory and CPU cycle time which mean better power usage.

Woah woah that's a pretty big claim - talking about CPU cycles and battery usage when you have no connections with iOS designers, or even software development it would seem. You're way off. Consolidated.db isn't a flat text file, the CPU never spends huge amount of power creating an array of the info. The clue is in the filename '.db'. It's an SQLite database. If databases performed with O(n) performance, the internet would fall over. Computational complexity (big-O notation et al) is a big, complicated topic - you can't fudge your way through it on an internet forum. Inserting into a database is O(1) time, retrieving is typically O(log n). SQLite databases are used absolutely everywhere throughout the iPhone (Contacts, Messages, Notes…). They're incredibly efficient (think how fast Messages loads your history of text messages) and CoreData, the iPhone SDK method of storing 3rd party app data is built upon SQLite.

Please don't make this stuff up as you go along.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

See what your iphone tracks look like with this free program. The program is here

As you can see it only saves cell tower locations...if you think otherwise, believe me I cannot jump around like that...it is not tracking my gps individual coordinates.

If you think you know where I live in Boston from this data...you actually would be wrong.

Pretty useless for tracking a person in any detail...
This is for all time. If I did one day...it still shows several towers that are so far apart and on this grid...that you would only know that I'm in Boston.

Image

You mean you don't jump in and out of worm holes to plot a perfect grid of points equidistant to each other?