Iphone secret tracking: Android devices also found to cache location

[hlthe2b]

Al Franken, Ed Markey Press Steve Jobs On iPhone Tracking

UPDATE: 7:25 p.m.] Android devices have been found to cache location data in a similar manner.

Freaked out that your iPhone may be tracking your every move? So are Senator Al Franken and Representative Ed Markey, who have called on Steve Jobs to explain the situation.

Researchers found that iPhones and iPads track and record users' locations by latitude and longitude, sometimes hundreds of times a day, for up to a year, storing the file in an unencrypted format on the device.

--snip--

Franken is joined by Representative Ed Markey in calling for clarity. Both want to know why Apple is collecting this information, how it is collected, what it is used for and who it's been shown to. They also want to know why consumers haven't been told their devices are recording their movements, and why the information has not been encrypted.


more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/21/al-franken-ed-markey-iphone-tracking_n_852196.html

[hlthe2b]

1. For those confused by this issue, strongly recommend the Gizmodo article

Gizmodo has done a good job tracking down the facts: (Go read the entire thing with updates, please, as I could only snip small bits)

iSpy Conspiracy: Your iPhone Is Secretly Tracking Everywhere You've Been, All The Time (Updated)

http://m.gizmodo.com/5793925/your-iphone-is-secretly-tracking-everywhere-youve-been

--snip--

It turns out that all our iPhones are keeping a record of everywhere you've been since June. This data is stored on your phone (or iPad) and computer, easily available to anyone who gets their hands on it. Updated: 1:33 EST

And now, we're wondering whether the same goes for our other smartphones. The opt-in wording of phone location service agreements is pretty nebulous (as agreements tend to be). --snip-- We've also reached out to Apple and BlackBerry-maker RIM for similar clarifications on data collection, but haven't gotten a response yet.

--snip--
The privacy startle, apparently enabled by this summer's iOS 4 release, was discovered by two security researchers, one of whom claims he was an Apple employee for five years. They're equally puzzled and disturbed by the location collection: "By passively logging your location without your permission, Apple have made it possible for anyone from a jealous spouse to a private investigator to get a detailed picture of your movements," they explain. All it would take to crack the information out of your iOS device is an easy jailbreak. On your computer, the information can be opened as easily as JPEG using the mapping software that the security experts have made for download—Try it yourself.

The data itself is jarringly accurate (most of the time). And even though it appears to rely on tower triangulation rather than GPS pinpointing (meaning you're probably not safe with location services switched off), the map I was able to generate with mapping software the security duo released visualizes my life since the day I bought my iPhone 4 in July. --snip--

For now, there is no fix. The only way to remove it from your computer is to wipe your back up files from your computer.]/b] But then you have no back ups to restore your phone in case you lose it. And every time you sync your computer, though, it'll create a new file. And if you do lose your phone, all your tracking data goes with it, right into the hands of whoever found it. And if you upgrade your phone to the next iPhone, the location tracking history goes with it. For now, the best to keep your location data safe is to encrypt your backup files—but that still leaves the roaming device itself vulnerable.

--snip--



Update 1, 12:48 PM EST: Security expert Kevin Mitnick says he's "Quite shocked and disturbed" by the revelation, noting that the logged data could be of great interest to a variety of entities—prying spouses, private investigators, and, he reckons, the government. He speculates that the existence of the log itself "could have been at the request of the government," as such data "can't be used for advertisements. It seems to me more to be a governmental request." He added, "I like to know what my device is doing." And, that the phone's logging of data was in this case like "carrying around a bug and a tracker at the same time."

Update 2, 3:37 PM EST: Google has declined to comment on the record as to the exact nature of their locational data collection.

Update 3, 5:32 PM EST: Microsoft tells us the only locational data they're storing on your Windows Phone 7 device is your last known location—a single data point that's erased as soon as it stores a new one.

Update 4, 5:50 PM EST: IT security expert Jonathan James has poked around inside the iPhone location database file in question and discovered tables labeled "Harvest" and "HarvestCounts," although their use is still unknown.

Update 5, 1:35 EST: John Gruber's got a reasonable-sounding explanation for the covert tracking: maybe it's just a bug.

[hootinholler]

6. Thanks for that link. n/t

[dipsydoodle]

2. Thought it could be the case with Andoids too.

I found it odd at first that pictures were labelled with the location at which I took them.

Anyone who wants to follow me around really should get a life - tossers.

[hlthe2b]

3. kicking for Android users who believe they are unaffected...

While I somewhat buried the lede in this posting, there is another thread that is focused on Sen. Al Franken and Markey launching an inquiry.

The bigger issue is, I think, that Android users need to know that the same thing is happening on their phones.

[hlthe2b]

4. Article link

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/android-phones-also-track-user-locations/
Following reports of the iPhone location tracking capabilities, a Swedish researcher has found that Android phones are doing the same.

On Wednesday, a discovery was made that could result in every divorce lawyer in the country opening a meeting with a new client with the question: “Does your other half have a smartphone?”

The discovery revealed that since last June, when Apple released iOS 4, the iPhone (and iPad) has been capable of collecting data on the movements of its owner. Although it’s thought that the data is not being passed on to a third party or utilised by Apple itself, the news may have come as something of a shock to iPhone users who value their privacy.

The surprising revelation might have caused some owners of Android phones to scoff in derision from across the digital divide at Apple advocates who worship their phones. “Unbelievable,” they may have whispered quietly under their breath while gently caressing their beloved Android phone.

But it has now emerged that phones running Google’s Android operating system are also recording the same location information as their Apple counterparts.

According to a report in the UK Guardian, the discovery was made by a Swedish researcher by the name of Magnus Eriksson. He has shown that smartphones running the popular Android operating system also record the location of their users, albeit for a shorter length of time. Eriksson says he was prompted to take a look under the bonnet of an Android phone after hearing about the iPhone’s location tracking capabilities.

The Guardian report says that Eriksson’s research uncovered the fact that Android devices “keep a record of the locations and unique IDs of the last 50 mobile masts that it has communicated with, and the last 200 Wi-Fi networks that it has “seen”. These are overwritten, oldest first, when the relevant list is full.”

What, if anything, happens to this data is not yet clear, but what is becoming increasingly obvious is the massive weight placed on the growing importance of location-based services, a market which research firm Gartner says is currently worth $2.9 billion, and growing fast.

[frylock]

5. the difference being the android device does not copy the unencrypted data to your computer..

hell, you don't even have to EVER connect an android device to your computer. not so with an iphone, which does it's updates through itunes rather than OTA.