Tagged with Privacy

Apple Answers to Location Tracking Questions and Points Out Bugs

By Jack Smith | April 27, 2011

After a week of silence, Apple finally offers explanations for the iPhone location tracking and privacy issues brought up by some researchers and journalists.

In the press release, Apple denied tracking the location of customers’ iPhones and that it had no plans to do so. However, it admits that the iPhone is collecting data (geo-tagged location and traffic information) sending them over to Apple anonymously and in encrypted format.

Apple also pointed out some issues concerning security vulnerabilities of the location tracking feature on iOS as “bugs” and promises to provide software update in the next few weeks to fix them.

Read Full Story

Posted in Mobile Phones, Tablets.
Also tagged , , , , , .

Apple Sued Over Privacy Issues

By Jack Smith | April 26, 2011

This certainly does not come as a surprise. Apple is now getting sued by two customers over the recently rediscovered iPhone location tracking controversy.

One of them is an iPhone user from Florida, while the other guy is an iPad user from New York.

The complaint says that the alleged location collection done on Apple iOS devices violate federal computer fraud laws and deceptive trade practice laws in many states.

Google is not off the hook either, as they are also looking at Google’s Android platform for similar privacy issues.

Source: Reuters

Posted in Mobile Phones, Tablets.
Also tagged , , , , .

iPhone Tracks Your Location Even If You Turn Off the Location Services

By Jack Smith | April 26, 2011

Apple had previously stated that the users can opt-out of the controversial location tracking by turning off the location services. However, tests conducted by The Wall Street Journal found that the iPhone was still collecting and storing location information even after the location services were turned off.

This discovery will likely raise new inquiries into Apple’s method of location tracking and issues concerning users’ privacy.

Read Full Story

Posted in Mobile Phones, Tablets.
Also tagged , , , , .

Android App to Help Cover Up Your Tracks

By Jack Smith | April 25, 2011

An Android developer came up with an app for visualizing the location cache information stored on your Android device. This app is somewhat similar to the iPhone Tracker app for iOS, but has additional functionalities which might prove useful.

Location Cache MapLocation Cache app information

Besides just showing you the map, the Location Cache app also gives you the options to delete and block the location cache file. The “block cache files” option will actually change the permissions on the internal files so that the location service won’t be able to update the file with location tracking information.

Read Full Story

Posted in Mobile Phones, Tablets.
Also tagged , , .

iPhone and iPad Caught Tracking Your Every Move

By Jack Smith | April 21, 2011

If you thought that the security vulnerability in Skype app for Android was bad enough, well think again.

Security researchers have revealed that since iOS 4 update, Apple had started tracking wherever you go.

The iOS device is saving details — every latitude and longitude of where you’ve been, along with the timestamp — inside a file on the device. The secret file is then copied (or backup) to the computer whenever you synchronize the device with iTunes.

This secret file is also transferred to the new device when you migrate to another Apple device.

Read Full Story

Posted in Mobile Phones, Tablets.
Also tagged , , , , .