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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

#161

Post by bigohms »

burgerbrain wrote: post #118
edw wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not apropos. Can you be raped by your vibrator or your blow up doll? This is about a device passively logging data, not a moral agent doing something to you. Show me the person that Apple has hurt. The only people I've been reading about here taking actions are law enforcement officials, people in black helicopters, and betrayed lovers.

"Can you be raped by your vibrator or your blow up doll?" If either of those has sex with me without my consent, then yes. I would call that rape. Who in their right mind wouldn't?

Exactly. Count me as one feeling Apple's rep is severely damaged. The notion that this device stores gigs of personal data (without my prior knowledge) and has been transmitting it back to Apple, somehow this is okay with you? Not I guy, not I.

More people should know.

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

#162

Post by tienshiao »

jessedhillon wrote: post #157
dedward wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the iPhone actually have real GPS, or is it just based on 3G towers?

It has A-GPS, which is inferior in some ways to true GPS, but is much more accurate than triangulating from towers (which it will resort to under certain conditions.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_devices_with_Assisted_G...

The iPhone (3G, 3GS, and 4) and the 3G iPads have fully functional GPS hardware, and also use A-GPS to acquire a position fix.

If you've ever used a normal standalone GPS in one city and gotten on a plane and flown across the country and tried to use the GPS again, you'll know that it can take 5+ minutes to reacquire a fix that first time off the plane.

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

#164

Post by asmosoinio »

jessedhillon wrote: post #157
dedward wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the iPhone actually have real GPS, or is it just based on 3G towers?

It has A-GPS, which is inferior in some ways to true GPS, but is much more accurate than triangulating from towers (which it will resort to under certain conditions.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_devices_with_Assisted_G...

Inferior in what ways?

My understanding is totally opposite, would you mind explaining a bit more?

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

#165

Post by ugh »

tienshiao wrote: post #162
jessedhillon wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has A-GPS, which is inferior in some ways to true GPS, but is much more accurate than triangulating from towers (which it will resort to under certain conditions.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_devices_with_Assisted_G...

The iPhone (3G, 3GS, and 4) and the 3G iPads have fully functional GPS hardware, and also use A-GPS to acquire a position fix. If you've ever used a normal standalone GPS in one city and gotten on a plane and flown across the country and tried to use the GPS again, you'll know that it can take 5+ minutes to reacquire a fix that first time off the plane.

Assisted GPS seems to be a very poor choice of name. I have repeatedly met people who wrongly believe that Assisted GPS is not actual GPS.

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

#166

Post by nl »

jessedhillon wrote: post #157
dedward wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the iPhone actually have real GPS, or is it just based on 3G towers?

It has A-GPS, which is inferior in some ways to true GPS, but is much more accurate than triangulating from towers (which it will resort to under certain conditions.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_devices_with_Assisted_G...

Assisted GPS is better than normal GPS.

It uses towers to work out how to find the GPS satellites quicker than normal, and additionally can provide some location information when no GPS is available.

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

#167

Post by jessedhillon »

nl wrote: post #166
jessedhillon wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has A-GPS, which is inferior in some ways to true GPS, but is much more accurate than triangulating from towers (which it will resort to under certain conditions.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_devices_with_Assisted_G...

Assisted GPS is better than normal GPS. It uses towers to work out how to find the GPS satellites quicker than normal, and additionally can provide some location information when no GPS is available.

> Assisted GPS is better than normal GPS.

Really? My Garmin device can locate itself without entailing the possibility of communicating my position to a third-party. There is no possibility that my checking my position can enable anyone else to know it as well. That's not true with AGPS.

That is one pretty significant way that standalone is superior.

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

#168

Post by jessedhillon »

ugh wrote: post #165
tienshiao wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone (3G, 3GS, and 4) and the 3G iPads have fully functional GPS hardware, and also use A-GPS to acquire a position fix. If you've ever used a normal standalone GPS in one city and gotten on a plane and flown across the country and tried to use the GPS again, you'll know that it can take 5+ minutes to reacquire a fix that first time off the plane.

Assisted GPS seems to be a very poor choice of name. I have repeatedly met people who wrongly believe that Assisted GPS is not actual GPS.

Some AGPS devices cannot determine their own position from a satellite signal, whereas others can as long as they have received an almanac from a server in the recent past. It depends what you mean by "actual GPS". Some implementations are completely incapable of acting in a standalone capacity.

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

#169

Post by Atomika »

fredoliveira wrote: post #77
andreyf wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although since it's open source, it shouldn't be too hard to remove this restriction.

I just went through the code and it is indeed pretty trivial to remove both restrictions. If you want to do it, in the iPhoneTrackingAppDelegate implementation file: * Change the precision variable on line 149 to something bigger than 100 (10000 did it for me) - this will mark points in the map with higher precision: const float precision = 10000; * Change the timeBucket variable on line 180 to change the date precis…

Yo! I realise the likelihood of you seeing this is very low, but is there any chance you would do a brief runthrough of how to implement this code? I'm very interested to increase the precision of this app but don't know enough and can't locate the iphonetrackingappdelegate file you speak of..

I'll check back often! Thanks..!

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

#170

Post by ugh »

jessedhillon wrote: post #168
ugh wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assisted GPS seems to be a very poor choice of name. I have repeatedly met people who wrongly believe that Assisted GPS is not actual GPS.

Some AGPS devices cannot determine their own position from a satellite signal, whereas others can as long as they have received an almanac from a server in the recent past. It depends what you mean by "actual GPS". Some implementations are completely incapable of acting in a standalone capacity.

Here is what the Wikipedia article you linked to says: "Standalone" or "Autonomous" GPS operation use radio signals from satellites alone. A-GPS additionally uses …

Wrong?

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