iPhone Keeps Secret Record of Everywhere You Go

April 20th, 2011

Via: Guardian:

Security researchers have discovered that Apple’s iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronised.

The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone’s recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner’s movements using a simple program.

For some phones, there could be almost a year’s worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple’s iOS 4 update to the phone’s operating system, released in June 2010.

“Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you’ve been,” said Pete Warden, one of the researchers.

Only the iPhone records the user’s location in this way, say Warden and Alasdair Allan, the data scientists who discovered the file and are presenting their findings at the Where 2.0 conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. “Alasdair has looked for similar tracking code in [Google’s] Android phones and couldn’t find any,” said Warden. “We haven’t come across any instances of other phone manufacturers doing this.”

4 Responses to “iPhone Keeps Secret Record of Everywhere You Go”

  1. sapphire says:

    That is just plain creepy doing that.

  2. steve holmes says:

    I posted some info about intelligence surveillance on my facebook page-
    http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Ftechnology%2F2011%2Fapr%2F20%2Fiphone-tracking-prompts-privacy-fears&h=8e83d

    http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fpublicintelligence.net%2Fnsa-begins-construction-of-massive-utah-data-center%2F&h=8e83d

    http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.akdart.com%2Fpriv8a.html&h=8e83d

    http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FJames_Bamford&h=8e83d

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicky_Hager

    In other words, what the state troopers are doing is really secondary. The info is already collected by the NSA and stored for eternity, including every keystroke (google Carnivore) and every verbal conversation. Everything is then analyzed and elevated at the slightest suspicion and passed on as deemed necessary.

    The TIA (Total Information Awareness) program was the letting of the cat out of the bag- it had no doubt already been going on for years.

    If you think simply switching your phone off will give you privacy, you’re deceived- BADLY. If there’s a microphone, it can be turned on covertly- and in some cases, you can think of a speaker as being a giant and very sensitive microphone.

    Personally, I find government paranoia to be somewhere between psychotic, delusional and bat shit crazy, but that doesn’t mean they don’t monitor everything they possibly can. They absolutely do. Go back and watch Will Smith and Gene Hackman in Enemy of the State. That’s NOT sci-fi fantacy.

  3. tito says:

    @ steve holmes, “I posted some info about intelligence surveillance on my facebook page-”

    That’s kind of like writing “for a good time call suzy” on the wall of suzy’s bathroom.

  4. steve holmes says:

    Tito-
    Agreed- but occasionally, I do have a few friends that drop by and use my bathroom.
    xoxo
    Susy.
    PS- Come up and see me sometime 😉

    Actually, I was just having a discussion with my wife about starting my own “official” plagiarism blog. Not sure I want to go through all that much trouble….

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