posted on Apr, 22 2011 @ 10:18 PM
Two British programmers found a program on iPhones and iPads that records your location up to 100 times a day. The locations have been stored on an
unencrypted file and backed up onto the user's hard drive since the introduction of iOS4. The locations are not always precise, especially away from
urban centres, but their sheer quantity seems to compensate. Although this certainly raises privacy concerns, you actually authorize Apple to store
your location by agreeing to the Terms and Conditions:
■ 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
In addition to location, lots of other interesting information, including local magnetic field strength (!) is stored by your phone. None of these
files are immediately available, and require some digging to find. This
explains the technical aspects pretty well for those of you who know what it means, it was made on 4/20 by the discoverers of the hidden
software (O'Reilly Media).
Apple has declined to comment on the findings. Graham Clooley (sp?), the senior consultant for Sophos, a data security company, says it is unlikely
that Apple plans to use the stored locations for commercial purposes.
(sry in russian)