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

[tablo13]

Turn off location services, encrypt backup, or turn off phone. Problem solved? The backup contains more private things anyways. But the media has scared people again, the same people who complain about facebook's privacy while they post all their info on Facebook for everyone to see.

 

[Rot'nApple]

How so? Everything he said fits the facts as we know them.

Shouldn't that read, "Everything he said fit the facts as we NOW know them." And who provided those facts again? Was it Steve?!...

There is NO evidence that this information gets transmitted to ANYONE, and believe me people are looking hard to prove otherwise.

What people are looking? The press? The "journalistic" dingbats of today couldn't do an expose on how to break out of a wet paper bag if their life depended on it. The brilliant politicians?! They don't know squat and are only as informed as (in this case, Apple), their source lets them be. Otherwise they know squat!

So this makes Steve look like he's telling the truth.

That remains to be seen. What about that backdating crap Apple pulled? Steve may have been aware of the action but not necessarily aware of the consequences!

"I apologize to Apple's shareholders and employees for these problems, which happened on my watch. They are completely out of character for Apple," Jobs said in a statement. "We will now work to resolve the remaining issues as quickly as possible and to put the proper remedial measures in place to ensure that this never happens again."

Anyone think, maybe, Steve will have to dust off this speech again to "Sent from my iPhone"?...
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[xdhd350]

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...

Yes, and I have found the information to be laughable at best. I looked up myself when I found out about that site, and it claimed I live in a house worth more than a million. Other information was bogus also.

 

[kreatre2011]

Threatening to go to Android?

Am I the only one who sees the threat of moving to Android as a petty attempt to get Steve to reply? The writer of this email obviously didn't do any research, and he obviously doesn't understand that Steve would see right through a threat like that. This whole thing is a non-issue. I don't care if someone knows where my iPhone has been. I'm worried about far more important things such as protecting my financial information, which I keep in an encrypted disk image in case my laptop gets stolen.

 

[a.phoenicis]

I don't think that is the point here. Apple, arguably the greatest and most customer-centric company with the world's best smart phone, the best OS and magical appliances (at least, that is what I'm being told here over and over again) collects location data without your prior knowledge or consent. If you become a member of MacRumors it is your own, deliberate, decision. But I already can see where this is going. Cue the drone-like Apple defenders, I hear them coming

Bzzt. Wrong. Everyone using iOS has already given their consent for tracking by accepting the License Agreement and not globally turning off Location Services. You can't claim you didn't know or give consent when it's on page 2 of the License Agreement of the fracking phone's OS:

Location Data. Apple and its partners and licensees may provide certain services through your iPhone that rely upon location information. To provide and improve these services, where available, Apple and its partners and licensees may transmit, collect, maintain, process and use your location data, including the real-time geographic location of your iPhone, and location search queries. The location data and queries collected by Apple are collected in a form that does not personally identify you and may be used by Apple and its partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services. By using any location-based services on your iPhone, you agree and consent to Apple's and its partners' and licensees' transmission, collection, maintenance, processing and use of your location data and queries to provide and improve such products and services. You may withdraw this consent at any time by going to the Location Services setting on your iPhone and either turning off the global Location Services setting or turning off the individual location settings of each location-aware application on your iPhone

 

[28monkeys]

Stupid Hypocrites.

 

[0815]

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...

Good thing that most of the information on there is just wrong. I wish some would be true and I would make that amount of money. It doesn't even get information right that is accessible in the phone book. Basically wrong income, wrong house value, got the name of my wife wrong, claims I have no kids, .... . For my wife it shows that she lives at the same address, but with her parents (no mentioning of the husband) and also tons of information just wrong. (basically only the name was right, but that is what I typed in)

 

[Dr McKay]

It's funny how people are panicking about this, but not the Geo-Map feature on any photo taken with an iPhone. Which can be pinpointed to 50m of where you took the photo.

 

[Stella]

Apple could do themselves a lot of favours if they came out with an offical statement, explaining what iOS does in regards of user tracking ( i.e, location database ). Some 1 line email response fired off by SJ doesn't do much good.

Once again, Apple fall down in terms of customer relations / communications. If Apple handled this correctly then all the fuss could go away in a couple days.

 

[toddybody]

Yes, Apple is not the first or last company to use emerging tech to track user information. That said, the information they do collect needs to be understood by the user...including the rational behind the collection. i.e., want to see your location on Google Maps? "Accept Location Services" for this instance...etc


things are far too muddy

 

[tCruzin4lyfe]

Looks like something else being blown out of proportion. It makes me laugh seeing people make threats of switching to another competitor, I wouldn't have responded or just replied "Ok". Most of these people have no idea of how this location thing works, they just hear the news and then their mind starts working overtime and they panic and want an explanation or something free haha.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

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.

They already do that without our knowledge, so why keep worrying about it?
As long as they know where we are when we need help, who cares?

All those street cameras, Toll transponders, Tolls with license plate recognition, cellular tower triangulation, Telephone tapping, Stake outs, curious neighbors watching you (potential witnesses), etc.; that's a lot of tracking going on there... that's without counting on Satellite surveillance available to the government to use whenever they need it.

So the fact is that:
THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS ABSOLUTE PRIVACY!!!

 

[mikeapple]

Hilarious that the email sender said a DROID won't track him...hahahah so funny... as if a "GOOGLE" phone doesn't track their Android user's every move... This isn't really a iPhone matter, its a matter of all smartphones, with maybe a little exception for blackberry's. It's really nothing new... Google even has a stored database for random screen-caps it takes on all its Android users at any time.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Apple could do themselves a lot of favours if they came out with an offical statement, explaining what iOS does in regards of user tracking ( i.e, location database ). Some 1 line email response fired off by SJ doesn't do much good.

Once again, Apple fall down in terms of customer relations / communications. If Apple handled this correctly then all the fuss could go away in a couple days.

It's just a simple answer to a dumb question.

 

[toddybody]

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.

Sorry *LTD* (Since I actually like you alot)...

But that comment is hilarious.

 

[NAG]

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.

Google does track their users via Adsense/Google Search. That tracking isn't just location data either. I have no idea how accurate their location data is but they get your IP address every time you use one of their sites or see one of their ads so they do have at least that. Adsense is all about targeted advertising. It is naive to think that Google isn't tracking you.

Now, does this make the location database (which has never been shown to be transmitted anywhere/used to track you) on the iPhone correct? Of course not (it doesn't make it wrong either). Might as well have everyone jump off a cliff is someone does it first.

Jobs is making two points. The first point is that Google tracks a lot of your information. This is true, this is how Adsense works by design. It has worked this way for a very long time and people don't really seem to care. The second point is that Apple is not tracking you. This is somewhat of a semantic argument as Apple indeed is not tracking you (again, no one has shown that this database is ever transmitted). The reasonable concern is that someone could take or find your phone and use the database to learn where you frequent. How likely that is can be addressed a variety of ways (encryption, truncation, etc...). Apple probably won't tell us how it is going to address this until they've actually pushed the patch out (and they'll address it, eventually).

 

[ChrisNM]

Bzzt. Wrong. Everyone using iOS has already given their consent for tracking by accepting the License Agreement and not globally turning off Location Services. You can't claim you didn't know or give consent when it's on page 2 of the License Agreement of the fracking phone's OS:

I seem to recall Facebook trying to use the same defense with all of its privacy issues and it didn't work so well.

Personally, I think this whole thing is a tempest in a teapot, but falling back on the license agreement is pretty weak.

 

[0815]

I still don't get the outrage of many people. From all the 'tracking issues' out there, this is the one to worry the least about since it is only on your device and is not send to anyone.

If you really worry about anyone knowing where you are or have been, there are better 'targets' to go after, some where information is really send and analyzed by people 'out of your control'.

 

[NAG]

It's inaccurate because it doesn't track YOUR location, just the location of your nearest Cell Tower.

Your context is incorrect. I was referring to the website that supposedly has a lot of information about you, not the location database.

Thank you for the demonstration as to how almost everyone here is acting irrationally, though.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Hilarious that the email sender said a DROID won't track him...hahahah so funny... as if a "GOOGLE" phone doesn't track their Android user's every move... This isn't really a iPhone matter, its a matter of all smartphones, with maybe a little exception for blackberry's. It's really nothing new... Google even has a stored database for random screen-caps it takes on all its Android users at any time.

Android, WinMo, Symbian, WebOS, etc. openness makes them the most vulnerable, easiest targets of all.
The iPhone is more secure in this sense, as it's locked. Not impossible to break, but at least difficult.

We would need to go back to the days of the old flip-phone with no application capabilities: no symbian, no java, nothing!

 

[JBytes]

I've been reading MacRumors for years - only added to the discussion a few times since 08. Not a troll, but still considered a "newbie".

Wow, I just realised I've been on this forum for quite a while.

 

[zephonic]

Am I the only one who thinks it's not a big deal? Your carrier tracks your phone all the ff-ing time. Google has the SSL beta now, but until recently they tracked your every move.

So the issue is that someone may possibly access this data? They'd have to get hold off your phone first.

This is something that needs to be addressed and I reckon Apple will do so in the next iOS update, but to me it just looks as if two guys really went all out for some publicity.

 

[Dr McKay]

Your context is incorrect. I was referring to the website that supposedly has a lot of information about you, not the location database.

Thank you for the demonstration as to how almost everyone here is acting irrationally, though.

I dont know if its intentional, but your Signature link is broken, it has 1 too many h's. It begins hhttps

 

[triceretops]

Boring data

That has to be pretty boring data from my phone. Home - Office - Home - Office - Home - Office - Gas Station - Home (repeat as necessary).

 

[pmz]

News Flash:

He's a Liar.