iPhone still tracks users when locations services are disabled, test finds

By on Apr 25, 2011 at 6:33 PM
mobile April 25, 2011

The recent rediscovery that Apple’s iPhone is tracking and storing users’ locations — after users all agreed to let Apple track, store and use their locations, of course — has caused quite an uproar. Unlike the last time this was discovered, the ordeal continues to make news nearly a week later instead of being forgotten immediately. In this latest round of outrage, The Wall Street Journal has revealed that Apple’s iPhone continues to collect and store users’ locations even when location services are disabled. The Journal believes that the data is collected using data from cell towers and Wi-Fi hotspots as the iPhone communicates with them. This, too, is well within Apple’s rights — and the rights of other cell phone makers — but the revelation is still likely to result in a new round of chatter. Additional reports reveal that government bodies in several countries including South Korea, France and Germany are investigating Apple’s location-tracking practices, and they will likely make formal inquiries once they have enough information t0 do so.

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  • Anonymous

    Google does this, Microsoft does it, and Apple do it. We all agreed to it in the terms and conditions. This is nothing new or nefarious. Go back to your lives citizens.

    • KCRic

      I’m going to take a guess but I don’t think it’s the fact that locations are cached. You’re right, we know computers cache all sorts of things, we’d bitch about it otherwise due to slow startup times.

      The issue is more about how they [Apple] go about it. Is it encrypted? How accessible is it? How much and how long is the information stored? What components of the OS have access to it? Do you cache information, if so, what do you store in the file?

      Thus far Apple has failed all those questions and knowingly lied about the fact that they even do it. Steve might as well have said the file doesn’t even exist (which we know it does) along with the other asinine statements he made. Google admits to it and offers all the information you can process about it, the software is open source so we can take a look at it ourselves if we fell so inclined. Microsoft, while not open source, still offers information about it and admits to doing it. All the world still waits for Apple to pull it’s head out of it’s ass and give us something along with stopping the blame game and denials.

      That’s what’s making people mad.

  • Zeen3k

    So was it a good idea to actually tell the public where the file is located. Hmmm the media is really not thinking….

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