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IPhones and 3G iPads log your location in an unencrypted file on the device

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Re: IPhones and 3G iPads log your location in an unencrypted file on the device

#41

Post by flipbrad »

edw wrote: post #32

Does no one else agree with me that this is awesome? I love being able to visualize my comings and goings. It's the story of the last year or so of my life, in colored dots. I hope Apple doesn't respond to the "outrage" by no longer collecting this data. To a first order approximation, I am with Scott McNealy over in the "Privacy?! Get over it" camp: http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1999/01/17538 As an aside, c…

if the feature was opt-in it might, conceivably, be called awesome. But not being told that my iDevice will log my every move and leave this data open to the next johnny-come-lately to get his hands on my device? Terribly uncool. Logging should be a setting, or better, an app. Not a hidden, no opt-out feature imposed on over a hundred million iDevice owners.

Re: IPhones and 3G iPads log your location in an unencrypted file on the device

#42

Post by taylorbuley »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #14
yardie wrote: post #7

I can sort of understand the outrage but I don't see the utility of it. Apps that are written for the App store don't have access to this data without the permission of the user. And the only way an app would be allowed access to a file outside the sandbox is if its jailbroken. I'm not familiar with the in and outs of iOS LocationManager but it generally gives you the immediate coordinates at the time you request and…

Since the backups are unencrypted it would be trivial to steal the data exploiting a Flash hole or worst case an email virus.

Flash hole... on an iOS device?

Re: IPhones and 3G iPads log your location in an unencrypted file on the device

#43

Post by chadgeidel »

ImprovedSilence wrote: post #30
desigooner wrote: post #19

It might not be directly related but there was a news story on CNET [1] yesterday about cops in Michigan using a device from Cellebrite to download information from phones of people they stopped for violations that includes contacts, phone logs, messages, photographs and location history. Does Apple's decision of having such information stored on the phone unencrypted make it easy for such devices? The device claims…

I've actually used that device before. It's fairly common in law enforcement and inteligence agencies, and it will take everything. Including passwords/deleted info. There is no reason for using it on a traffic stop though, that's just straight up invasion of privacy and would piss me off to no end. It's use is (and should be) for the more criminal/forensic cases.

Perhaps you could answer a question. If the phone screen is locked will this device still gather data? I assume it will.

Re: IPhones and 3G iPads log your location in an unencrypted file on the device

#45

Post by edw »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #40
edw wrote: post #32

Does no one else agree with me that this is awesome? I love being able to visualize my comings and goings. It's the story of the last year or so of my life, in colored dots. I hope Apple doesn't respond to the "outrage" by no longer collecting this data. To a first order approximation, I am with Scott McNealy over in the "Privacy?! Get over it" camp: http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1999/01/17538 As an aside, c…

Sex is pretty awesome, too, unless you don't get any say in the matter.

Wow, you're making a rape analogy. Glad you decided to stay classy and not make your post an instance of Godwin's Law.

Re: IPhones and 3G iPads log your location in an unencrypted file on the device

#46

Post by shekmalhen »

edw wrote: post #32

Does no one else agree with me that this is awesome? I love being able to visualize my comings and goings. It's the story of the last year or so of my life, in colored dots. I hope Apple doesn't respond to the "outrage" by no longer collecting this data. To a first order approximation, I am with Scott McNealy over in the "Privacy?! Get over it" camp: http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1999/01/17538 As an aside, c…

Can you please put it somewhere on the Internet. I'd love to look at it.

Thank you in advance.

Re: IPhones and 3G iPads log your location in an unencrypted file on the device

#47

Post by edw »

acrum wrote: post #27
travisp wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may not worry about this, but others might (and I can think of scenarios where this would be a very bad thing), and it certainly isn't apparent to most people that if your phone gets stolen, the thief has access to your location history.

Well, it probably wasn't apparent to many (or any) thieves either, but it is now. Anyway, of course I'd agree it's worth fixing on Apple's part. In the meantime... hold onto your phones, I guess?

Yes, good point. Note to self: don't accidentally lose phone.

Re: IPhones and 3G iPads log your location in an unencrypted file on the device

#48

Post by hexley »

jstn wrote: post #15

Whether or not this is true, Apple should add something like File Vault to iOS. Encrypting your backups is redundant if you're already encrypting your whole home directory, but none of that matters if they have access to your unencrypted phone. Check out the police downloader devices the ACLU is investigating: http://www.aclumich.org/issues/privacy-and-technology/2011-0...

Everything on the iPhone (from 3GS forward) is already encrypted afaik. That's how remote wipe works instantly (by just deleting the encryption keys)

Re: IPhones and 3G iPads log your location in an unencrypted file on the device

#49

Post by rufo »

gyardley wrote: post #29
petewarden wrote: post #3

I'll be checking in here for technical questions. The github direct link is http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/

Pete, the iPhone Tracker application is showing data points in a grid-like pattern, with multiple points visible simultaneously. I haven't dug into the raw data - is that an artifact of the iPhone Tracker application, or is the raw data already rounded by Apple to fit on a grid, with multiple locations having identical timestamps? How much I care about this depends a lot on the granularity of the underlying data.

From the FAQ:

To make it less useful for snoops, the spatial and temporal accuracy of the data has been artificially reduced. You can only animate week-by-week even though the data is timed to the second, and if you zoom in you’ll see the points are constrained to a grid, so your exact location is not revealed. The underlying database has no such constraints, unfortunately.

Re: IPhones and 3G iPads log your location in an unencrypted file on the device

#50

Post by edw »

shekmalhen wrote: post #46
edw wrote: post #32

Does no one else agree with me that this is awesome? I love being able to visualize my comings and goings. It's the story of the last year or so of my life, in colored dots. I hope Apple doesn't respond to the "outrage" by no longer collecting this data. To a first order approximation, I am with Scott McNealy over in the "Privacy?! Get over it" camp: http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1999/01/17538 As an aside, c…

Can you please put it somewhere on the Internet. I'd love to look at it. Thank you in advance.

You're welcome:

http://bbb.poseur.com/post/4777454362/the-last-year-or-so-of...

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