Apple is not “recording your moves”

Post by jws » Thu, Apr 21, 2011, 12:23 PM UTC

alain94040 wrote: post #33

jws wrote: post #4

Interesting analysis that strongly suggests the coordinates are for cell towers, not the iOS device.[1] Personally, the fact that the file is in a cache directory path, and that some people don't have much data, or any, suggests to me that some programmer forgot to trim his cache or picked a ridiculously large size before he decides to trim. "locationd" wants to know the coordinates of the cell towers you communicate…

You do realize that the towers themselves have had that information about you forever, so AT&T (or now Verizon) can plot your every move.

Post by allwein » Thu, Apr 21, 2011, 12:54 PM UTC

mercurio wrote: post #3

angusgr wrote: post #2

The conclusion about a "general place at a general time" seems entirely true when you're on a highway, moving quickly and hopping infrequently to large distant cell towers. No wifi points anywhere close. Just like the chosen example. I bet its entirely different when you're in any kind of built-up area. Wifi points every few hundred meters, small cell towers every kilometer or two. I bet in those situations, someone…

I'm not the author. But I believe the O'Reilly researchers claim that the co-ordinates logged are of the device itself. It is not clear at all that this is true and the author of this post presents some evidence that would suggest otherwise.

Post by allwein » Thu, Apr 21, 2011, 1:03 PM UTC

Pahalial wrote: post #20

The piece is specifically positioned as a retort to a somewhat sensationalist O'Reilly piece, and in that context it's perhaps decent. But this headline alone on HN is at least as sensationalist - redefining "your phone is tracking your movements between cell towers with a general accuracy of 2km or less" to "your phone is not recording your moves" is just newspeak. Argue that the accuracy makes the data less usable…

Post by allwein » Thu, Apr 21, 2011, 1:08 PM UTC

angusgr wrote: post #18

I actually think my honest opinion on this fiasco is "someone can derive a user's movements from this database, but how big a deal is it really?" I still think this should be fixed, Apple should explain it and release an update that pares it down to the bare minimum data for whatever function it serves. However, let's honestly go through the implications of this: - The user's cell provider already knows this. [1] - I…

Post by allwein » Thu, Apr 21, 2011, 1:11 PM UTC

justsee wrote: post #42

angusgr wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For instance imagine you're a police informant or undercover cop: a technically savvy mob would be silly not to hoover up the location data of everyone in their org, Sure, but if they have root or physical access to the phone (which they need) they can install a realtime tracking snooper to follow you around instead. I agree this lowers the barrier, but fundamentally it seems to come down to - if you don't want peopl…

The point to be made here is that Apple's provided almost universal, historical snooping capabilities without any individual actors having to get James Bond on the situation. Every iOS device has the potential to reveal someone made a trip to a police station, or spent a lot of time in a suburb that doesn't match with a particular story. The fact that people of sufficient technical capability and motivation can alway…