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Apple Q&A on gathering and use of location data (Apple Press Release)

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Re: Apple Q&A on gathering and use of location data (Apple Press Release)

#21

Post by Cherian_Abraham »

From the press release:

Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years.

....

Let me guess...Where, all roads lead to Apple?

EDIT: I posted this fully knowing it will be unpopular. But reading the press release gave me the feeling that Apple was using a sleight of hands by turning the public's focus from the privacy and security issues this incident has amplified and brought to the public's view, and instead is saying "Gee..We were doing y'all a favor by building a better maps app, and now you come along and screwed that up". Security is not an afterthought people. Hasn't the Sony fiasco that is still unraveling taught us anything?

Re: Apple Q&A on gathering and use of location data (Apple Press Release)

#22

Post by pilif »

sounddust wrote: post #16

I often travel internationally (with no data roaming) and I've noticed that the iPhone's A-GPS is incapable of determining my location when I arrive in a new place, even if I've pre-loaded my route/maps in the maps application prior to arrival. But once I've connected to the internet - even for a few seconds - my phone is permanently able to track itself in that city, even after I've left and returned months later. I…

Well. If you are near an access point apple knows about or just by geolocating your IP address, the iPhone can still download datapoints from that central database that allow it to quickly locate you.

That file on the iphone is just a local copy of the relevant parts of the central database.

Sure. It might be 10 seconds instead of one second now, but that's a reasonable tradeoff compared to the huge log it currently makes. IMHO.

Re: Apple Q&A on gathering and use of location data (Apple Press Release)

#25

Post by [deleted] »

ajdecon wrote: post #13

Sometime in the next few weeks Apple will release a free iOS software update that: - reduces the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone, - ceases backing up this cache, and - deletes this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off. Looks reasonable to me. The only thing missing that I'd like to see is an option to opt out of the tracking data (anonymous or not).

[deleted]

Re: Apple Q&A on gathering and use of location data (Apple Press Release)

#26

Post by pieter »

jkahn wrote: post #12
eli wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to sound flip, but if you're concerned about law enforcement tracking your movements, you should leave the phone at home.

Not flippant at all. Law enforcement can track where you are through your telco even if you don't have a fancy phone. And they can do it live.

That probably only works for local telco's. With Apple's info, US agencies can track anyone with an iPhone in the world, even if the telco's there don't want to cooperate.

Re: Apple Q&A on gathering and use of location data (Apple Press Release)

#27

Post by pieter »

pilif wrote: post #22
sounddust wrote: post #16

I often travel internationally (with no data roaming) and I've noticed that the iPhone's A-GPS is incapable of determining my location when I arrive in a new place, even if I've pre-loaded my route/maps in the maps application prior to arrival. But once I've connected to the internet - even for a few seconds - my phone is permanently able to track itself in that city, even after I've left and returned months later. I…

Well. If you are near an access point apple knows about or just by geolocating your IP address, the iPhone can still download datapoints from that central database that allow it to quickly locate you. That file on the iphone is just a local copy of the relevant parts of the central database. Sure. It might be 10 seconds instead of one second now, but that's a reasonable tradeoff compared to the huge log it currently…

Point is that he's turning roaming off, and probably doesn't have access to WiFi in the foreign city. By having the database, you don't need a data connection at all, thus saving money.

Re: Apple Q&A on gathering and use of location data (Apple Press Release)

#28

Post by ilikepi »

[deleted] wrote: post #8

[deleted]

It's not fluff, it's an attempt to appease many groups of people with different levels of technical ability. You may see some of the information as fluff because you already understand it, but many people (e.g. people who don't read tech sites and have only heard about this issue from a 45-second story on their local TV news) are confused and are looking for these answers.

Re: Apple Q&A on gathering and use of location data (Apple Press Release)

#29

Post by thought_alarm »

I use location services on an iPod touch almost daily and without a network connection. The location cache is currently limited by size. It seems to hold about a small city's worth of wifi hotspot coordinates, which is downloaded in large blocks at a time.

Reducing the size of the wifi location cache to a mere 7 days could severely reduce the usefulness of that feature.

I really hope they're not killing a great feature because of some hysteria and bad reporting.

Re: Apple Q&A on gathering and use of location data (Apple Press Release)

#30

Post by diminish »

this q&a is misleading a bit. iphone downloads locations around hotspots u have already been close to by timestamping, and it means ur approximate location+timestamp was logged indefinitely on ur phone and copied to PC, though indirect.

the whole q&a is a simple game words to trick users. `apple is not tracking ur location` but `your approximate location is downloaded, timestamped and stored on ur mobile phone due to a bug`

this whole wording is can't even trick a child.

look at the result.

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