iPhone Location File Not New, Not Secret....and cops have been using it for a while

[TransitJohn]

iPhone Location File Not New, Not Secret
And it has Been Used By Law Enforcement for Some Time
by Karl Bode 17 hours ago
Yesterday we noted that security researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden announced they'd found that iPhones and 3G-enabled iPads have been tracking user locations and storing the data in an unencrypted file ever since iOS 4.0 was released, while releasing an open source app making it simple for anybody to open that file and track their device usage in visual form. In an interesting bit of analysis, 21-year-old Alex Levinson, a student at Rochester Institute of Technology, says in a blog post that many security researchers have known about this file for some time, and that Allan and Warden didn't do their homework on previous research. He also states such data is routinely used by law enforcement:

This hidden file is nether new nor secret. It’s just moved. Location services have been available to the Apple device for some time. Understand what this file is — log generated by the various radios and sensors located within the device. This file is utilized by several operations on the device that actually is what makes this device pretty "smart". Through my work with various law enforcement agencies, we’ve used h-cells.plist on devices older than iOS 4 to harvest geolocational evidence from iOS devices.

Levinson claims Apple is not harvesting this data, and that he's never seen such data traverse a network. The data is used by law enforcement as part of criminal investigations, and is something the iPhone has been doing since at least iOS 3.2, when the device received a location services update. So what's really new? Nothing, really. The file simply changed forms and storage locations, after which it was discovered by Allan and Warden.

As we noted yesterday, the hysteria surrounding this story is rather amusing in broader privacy context. Devices are tracking you on multiple levels, from GPS triangulation down to specific applications -- and it happens on all mobile devices, not just those made by Apple. Meanwhile, carriers are constantly tracking and storing location data and selling it to the highest bidder on a daily basis, when they're not busy dumping data wholesale into the laps of law enforcement and intelligence organizations with often only a fleeting regard for the law.

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/iPhone-Location-File-Not-New-Not-Secret-113850

[formercia]

1. Data, the new Currency

more valuable than Gold.

TIA in action.

[druidity33]

2. Just blame Apple...

it's more convenient.

:eyes:

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. It is also the truth

No way to disable the "feature" with jail breaking

[cbdo2007]

5. Don't use their phone.

Get a different phone that doesn't have location tracking.

[pintobean]

7. Is Apple giving full refunds?

[Occulus]

11. You really did miss the point of my other post, didn't you?

And you focused on a HYPOTHETICAL use of digital information and social media by employers to dismiss the whole.

Wow, man. Just wow. Talk about denial....

[cbdo2007]

12. haha, I'm not in denial. I don't even do texting on my phone. It is

so old I only have 3 ring tone options included. Nobody's tracking me because I don't use an I-phone, I use a different product. If everyone used a different product Apple would change.

[FLPanhandle]

14. You realize every cell phone is tracked by the carriers

They use triangulation routines and store your cell phone location. The only thing Apple does is have a copy on your personal devices. EVERY cell phone is tracked by the carrier and that data is stored.

[cbdo2007]

15. I know, that's why I'm not getting worked up by the Apple thing like everybody else.

Everyone is overreacting. First, they had this information anyways (as you bring up) and Second, if people don't like Apple's specific take on this they should use a different phone. Easy as that.

[pintobean]

6. They put it there

with no opt in or opt out and they hid it from their customers. Yeah, I blame Apple.

[hobbit709]

3. Phone OFF, battery OUT

90% of the time my cell phone isn't even turned on. I use it when I want to make a call, not to let everyone else bug me.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. iPhone Secretly Tracking How Dull Your Life Is

Apple iPhones secretly track and record their owners’ location, a potentially devastating privacy breach that experts warn could force people to face the fact that they never really go anywhere interesting.
...
“With a few exceptions, I’ve spent the last 10 months of my life within 20 miles of the New Jersey Turnpike,” added Caldwell, N.J. resident Brian Porteri. “I’m not so much angry that Apple knows this information, I’m angry that I know this information.”

Expressing the fears of many iPhone owners, Porteri said he is concerned the information could fall into the wrong hands. “If my dad gets a hold of this file, I am screwed,” he said. “It will validate everything he’s ever said about me.”
...
“I value routine, so for me and my wife, it confirms our life is stable,” said Mark Tedeschi, a computer programmer in London. “It shows I usually go to the same places: work, the shops, our flat, and my best mate Dan’s house. I mapped my wife’s iPhone and it’s the same with her: work, the shops, our flat, and my best mate Dan’s house. Day after day, we’re both doing exactly … hang on.”

http://www.satirewire.com/content1/?p=2787

Via , believe it or not.

[MilesColtrane]

9. Android phones record user location

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/21/android-phones-record-user-locations

Smartphones running Google's Android software collect data about the user's movements in almost exactly the same way as the iPhone, according to an examination of files they contain. The discovery, made by a Swedish researcher, comes as the Democratic senator Al Franken has written to Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs demanding to know why iPhones keep a secret file recording the location of their users as they move around, as the Guardian revealed this week. Magnus Eriksson, a Swedish programmer, has shown that Android phones – now the bestselling smartphones – do the same, though for a shorter period. According to files discovered by Eriksson, 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. It is not yet known whether the lists are sent to Google. That differs from Apple, where the data is stored for up to a year.

[frylock]

16. is it stored on the device in an unencrypted format?

is that unencrypted file then transferred to your computer when you connect the mobile device to aforementioned computer? no, and no.

[MilesColtrane]

17. Yes, I know.

Did I read the story I cited?

Yes, I did.

[Occulus]

18. If that's true, the Apple fanboy's argument falls apart completely.

WTF?

No, seriously. :wtf:

[FreeState]

21. Android goes a step further and sends the data to Google with the phones unique ID (unlike Apple)

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2011/04/report-apple-google-collecting-location-data-on-users/1

As Apple faces scrutiny over the collection of location data from users of its iPhones and iPads, the Wall Street Journal reports that Android smartphones snag the same data and send it to Google.

Citing research from security analyst Samy Kamkar, using an HTC Android phone, the report says the device grabbed location info and sent data to Google multiple times an hour. It also "transmitted the name, location and signal strength of any nearby Wi-Fi networks, as well as a unique phone identifier," the report reads.

[FLPanhandle]

10. The key point of any cell phone is the carriers track this anyway,

"Carriers are constantly tracking and storing location data and selling it to the highest bidder on a daily basis"

People are getting upset about their personal phone having a copy of it, but if they were really concerned they'd never use any cell phone.

[MedleyMisty]

13. at the beginning of the Libyan revolution

Tunisians and Egyptians close to the borders traded SIM cards with the Libyans.

The internet is a very double edged sword. Good for communication, for getting the word out, for sharing ideas. Also good for spying and collecting information. Which is why I laugh at people who say that we're not fascist because we're still able to bitch about the government on DU. Yeah - and they probably also know who we are and where we live.

All we can do is educate ourselves and use tools to try to stay one step ahead of them - you can get a VPN for your phone.

[Supply Side Jesus]

19. duh...

I've personally have tracked down suicidal parties and a wanted serial child molester by using cell tech. this is nothing new.

[Quantess]

20. So then, why can't law enforcement find a stolen iphone?

[Supply Side Jesus]

22. exigent situation has to exist

life endangerment....and all.

Plus, the cell provider has to play ball

[FreeState]

23. Because that data is not transmitted to anyone - that & it's just nearby towers its not accurate n/t

[Canuckistanian]

24. Somebody should make an app that deletes data as it's created

I'd buy it. That is, if I had an iPhone.