Police use Apple iOS tracking data for investigations

[Vinnie From Indy]

It remains unknown why Apple is recording and storing iPhone and iPad user location data — but the police seem to be using it to solve crimes.

This week, security researchers revealed that Apple’s iOS 4 mobile operating system, which runs on the highly popular iPhone and iPad devices, constantly tracks and stores users’ approximate location information without their knowledge or consent. It has now been learned that law enforcement agencies have known about the secret iOS tracking for at least the last year, and have used the data to aid criminal investigations, according to CNet.

The information recorded by Apple is not actually users’ exact location; instead, the company tracks which cell tower each iOS device uses to connect to a wireless network

The information on the phone is useful in a forensics context,” said Alex Levinson of Katana, who spoke with CNet. The company’s iOS data extracting software, Lantern 2, is often used by “small-town local police all the way up to state and federal police, different agencies in the government that have forensics units

more at: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/police-use-apple-ios-tracking-data-for-investigations/

[onehandle]

1. You have to have the device itself to access the data. And police commonly examine cell phones.

All brands. You see it in movies and TV shows all the time.

[nebenaube]

3. I code... phffff!

location data base off cell towers? Please, it's GPS coordinates...

[dkf]

2. Apple needs to change this.

We are all going to get paranoid about our privacy.

[villager]

4. Think different... about your 4th Amendment rights

n/t

[Xithras]

5. The "feature" is rather irrelevant for police investigations.

The police need a warrant to search your phone (they can seize it and look at anything they want, but the odds of the fruits of a warrantless phone search stading up in court are very small). People are making a big deal about the fact that an iPhone will now tell those police where it has been.

Police have had this capability with ALL phones for more than a decade. They merely need to hand your cell service provider a warrant, and the provider will hand over their logs showing which towers you were connected to, which is the same data the iPhone is storing. Smartphone, dumbphone, doesn't matter. If your phone is on, its location is being logged somewhere.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. That's a sweet way to look at it. But cops can just lift the phone

use the information and never mention that part of the investigation, no? Well, yes. The way you say 'merely' about a warrant when we are speaking about a way to get the information without a warrant is interesting, but not seaworthy. Good lord.

[ecstatic]

6. This is much worse than the Patriot Act. Where is the outrage?

I wouldn't be surprised if there is a file in the phone that records all conversations and texts.

[Bluenorthwest]

9. What qualifies as 'outrage'?

Senator Franken demanded answers from them. He sounded fairly pissed off to me.

[amborin]

7. people seem to think all phones track:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x934709