Ties between intelligence agencies and consumer products have to be far more defined than any of us realize.
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Steve Jobs on iOS Location Issue: 'We Don't Track Anyone'
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Ties between intelligence agencies and consumer products have to be far more defined than any of us realize.
Hmm, if this is such a security hole why doesn't some smart guy break into Steve's phone and figure out just where he is?
FWIW
DLM
That's crazy - I just found that site recently when searching for a potential hire... Found the dude's address, parents' name, the fact he had a sister, and how much his house was worth. First listing in Google results, too. And I don't even have an account with it. That was the free information...
Rather ironic how your entire post is not constructive to the argument, and is merely troll-baiting.
You're a n00b to me; I have 2 years on you.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)
You have every right to be paranoid
Governments have for years now had
numerous ways to know where you are and what you are doing... I'm guessing the politicians want what Apple has and they wont play ball .. Google seems quite willing to sell whatever info they have...which makes the original emailer seem pretty clueless.
Blipp said:
You have every right to be paranoid
Governments have for years now had
numerous ways to know where you are and what you are doing... I'm guessing the politicians want what Apple has and they wont play ball .. Google seems quite willing to sell whatever info they have...which makes the original emailer seem pretty clueless.
Is there a link to a site showing that Google logs the tracking info on their servers?
Many of the arguments on this issue seem to centre on the fact that Android's onboard log only stores the most recent entries and then deletes them, but if they're uploaded to Google that would not only nullify that point, but provide an excellent (and legitimately frightening) counter example.
Jut like Antennagate, Apple needs to make this an industry issue not just an Apple issue. Because the truth is all mobile devices are being tracked in some form or another otherwise they simply could not function as desired by the consumer. Everywhere they go your devices leaves a footprint. Get over it this is the new more transparent world we live in.
BREAKING NEWS!
The iPhone backup file also stores: your contacts, Safari autofill data, calendars, call history, photos, Maps searches and bookmarks, notes, bookmarks, web history, tex messages, and voice memos!
If someone gets access to your computer they could read the backup file using any one of dozens of free programs and get all that information!
Seriously, the only "issue" here is that if someone has access to your computer, they could get the file. Duh! If someone is on your computer, they can access a whole lot more, too. Just like they've always been able to.
Lesson: Encrypt your iOS backups and password protect your devices and computer -- like you should have been doing all along.
The iPhone backup file also stores: your contacts, Safari autofill data, calendars, call history, photos, Maps searches and bookmarks, notes, bookmarks, web history, tex messages, and voice memos!
If someone gets access to your computer they could read the backup file using any one of dozens of free programs and get all that information!
Seriously, the only "issue" here is that if someone has access to your computer, they could get the file. Duh! If someone is on your computer, they can access a whole lot more, too. Just like they've always been able to.
Lesson: Encrypt your iOS backups and password protect your devices and computer -- like you should have been doing all along.
What is actually tracked is not _your_ location, it is the location of WiFi basestations around the country. Which Google, Apple, and Skyhook use for their "poor man's GPS" that allows a device with WiFi but without working GPS to find its location. Skyhook started this by having cars drive round the country, recording the position of WiFi devices. Google and Apple, having the infrastructure, use a more efficient method to do this - instead of driving cars throught the country, they use people's iPhones or Android phones to collect the same data. Note they are not collecting _your_ data, they are collecting the data of WiFi base stations that you happen to pass with your iPhone.
The database file is most likely there so your phone knows which information it has already sent, so it doesn't send info about the same basestation twice. That should be easily checkable - is the database full with hundreds of copies of your home location or not? Does it have dozens of copies of locations along your way to work? I think each location is recorded only once, so a crook stealing the phone would know places where I have been, but not how often I go where. So they would have very little clue where to find me.
And the whole scenario seems very unlikely. It would be very, very rare that a specific person is robbed intentionally. That robber will most likely come to your home without having any idea who lives there, or wait in a dark alleyway and rob the next person to come along, not stealing your phone in order to find other information about you and rob you again. It is just a hypothetical danger that is not actually going to happen.
But what actually does happen and worries me (well, I'm not worried, but some people should be), is that apparently it is possible to access Google's database. There is a website where you can enter the MAC address of your router, and it will find its location. It found mine within about 100 meters. That might make it possible to find people who don't want to be found. So anyone who moves to escape a stalker, or goes into witness protection, they better not take their router with them to the new home.
But keep in mind that the data might be wrong. I typed in my real name and it came up with me . . . but with details oddly wrong. Multiple accounts that could be me, but in each case with wrong data. I clearly have messed up some databases along the way (good).
Yeah, you're right. We should all be geo-tagged from birth and have cameras implanted in our eyes so that the Government can catch bad people. We have nothing to hide, afterall.
And remarkably inaccurate when I looked myself up. It has a bit of correct information on my parents. I'm actually surprised at how wrong they were since I have a fairly large internet footprint (of course, these guys probably don't have Google's database since they're just skimming).
Who cares if they do track me? people actually think they are of importance that apple wants to know there whereabouts of some ******* with an Iphone 4?
OK. Call me naive; but it seems the privacy war was lost a long time ago... there is apparently much money to be made by reenacting the battle;
consider the logistics of tracking, storing, and sorting through, what is it 120 million, consolidated.db files. Why. Yes, we are talking about small computer files that may just take minutes to sort through, but who cares what I do? I can assure you that in the grand scheme of things my life is meaningless and so are my consolidated.db files...
consider the logistics of tracking, storing, and sorting through, what is it 120 million, consolidated.db files. Why. Yes, we are talking about small computer files that may just take minutes to sort through, but who cares what I do? I can assure you that in the grand scheme of things my life is meaningless and so are my consolidated.db files...
THE STUPID FACTOR x10000
Simple:
- Just as you would do with your wallet and personal record files, don't loose your iPhone or lend it to someone you don't trust.
- Don't hack your iPhone and then install software that could be unsafe.
- Not necessary, but if you are too paranoid disable Location Services.
Protecting your Privacy involves more than just taking care of your iPhone. Someone could call you saying you won a trip to Hawaii, get your personal information, and then you are doomed.
Or when you purchase something, swipe your Credit Card into their device and retrieve most of the private information they need to steal your identity.
So, don't come and make a big issue about the iphone tracking personal info and people's privacy invaded, blah-blah, without a certain proof.
All this hype is nothing more than a publicity stunt .
Simple:
- Just as you would do with your wallet and personal record files, don't loose your iPhone or lend it to someone you don't trust.
- Don't hack your iPhone and then install software that could be unsafe.
- Not necessary, but if you are too paranoid disable Location Services.
Protecting your Privacy involves more than just taking care of your iPhone. Someone could call you saying you won a trip to Hawaii, get your personal information, and then you are doomed.
Or when you purchase something, swipe your Credit Card into their device and retrieve most of the private information they need to steal your identity.
So, don't come and make a big issue about the iphone tracking personal info and people's privacy invaded, blah-blah, without a certain proof.
All this hype is nothing more than a publicity stunt .
How can you say there is no reason for it to exist? Did you design iOS? Were you part of the team who designed CoreLocation? Of course it has a reason to exist. It exists as a cache of cell tower information to provide rough location info with minimal battery usage. See here for more details: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/12432603/
I have no issue with this file but deleting the file from your Mac won't really solve anything. The file still exists on the iPhone, and even if you jailbroke it and found a way to delete it off the phone, the phone would just generate a fresh consolidated.db file soon after. Then, when you sync the iPhone with your Mac it gets copied back across again.
Nothing to see here...just the unabashed evilness of Apple shining through. I'm sure Apple will 'flash the wad' to the right people and make this issue go away...sad
Welcome to the future guys.
Usual Tea Party troll response from Full of Win
Pretty much sums it up. I knew these companies would be gathering information for advertising or marketing purposes long ago. I dont care what snarky answer SJ provides, I will assume they are collecting the data and move on with my life. Apple and Google are both for profit corporations so I Im not foolish enough to think one is more honorable than the other.
maybe Steve is right in saying that apple is not tracking us. however my iPhone is tracking my movements and stores the data in a unencrypted format that everyone can read out who has access to my phone.
that is the point that apple is critizised for. this is a gaping security hole! nobody has claimed apple is using this information for malicious purposes.
however Steve answered the question if apple is tracking users. a classic strawman.
Hes not acting like a dick, he's just worried because of what hes heard.
I know your email to Steve would begin with "Your Royal Appleness" and end with "Your faithful Man-Servant"
The man has heard his phone is tracking his location, and is naturally, entitled to be worried.
http://samy.pl/androidmap/
It finds my router within 150 meters. This is something that should _not_ be possible. Apple claims that it is not possible to access the location data on their servers, unless you are an iPhone asking for its location. So you should only be able to get the location of WiFi base stations nearby - but you know their location anyway.
It's not about cell towers, it is about Wifi base stations. And it is not about _your_ location, it is about the location of these WiFi base stations.
Give us a realistic scenario where this would be an actually security problem. Where a person can access your phone, and has the time to extract this data without being noticed, finds places where you have been, uses this information to hurt you, and could not get this information or hurt you in another way. That's the important thing: It is only a risk if that information, and nothing else, allows someone to hurt you.
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