Everyone’s a privacy nut until they get lost in the woods and need someone to come find them
It looks like I am apparently one of the few, if not the only, tech journalists out there who is not freaking out about the newly discovered “location tracking” file having been found on both the iPhone and the backup the iPhone makes on your computer each time you sync. If you somehow missed it, the short version is Apple has apparently been logging the location of every iPhone on the planet and storing the time and location of everywhere the iPhone has been for at least the past year.
This of course sounds like a huge security hole, and it is – for approximately 0.00000003% of the current iPhone users.
Think for a second about your daily iPhone use, and what it would mean to you if someone were able to get a rough approximation of where you’ve been over the last year. OK, so they would probably know where you live, or at least 400 feet of where you live, which would obviously not be a big deal, since in order to view this file, odds are they have physical access to either your iPhone and/or your computer, so it’s safe to assume they also already know where you live. Now, think of how many location-based iPhone apps you use on a daily basis to broadcast your whereabouts – from FourSquare check-ins to Twitter posts to Facebook photo uploads (possibly with your complete GEO tag location embedded those photos) odds are you’ve been broadcasting that information yourself for years.
But OK, at least you CHOSE to post your info, and Apple’s not telling you what IT’S been doing, right? Well sort of. Unlike YOU, Apple hasn’t actually been publishing the information it has been gathering. As of now, no one knows why Apple has collected this information, but it apparently has not been sharing it with anyone, even itself. And that (for me at least) is the only interesting thing in the story.
So, the press seems to be going nuts because there is a file that someone who REALLY knows what they are doing, and is more than a little tech savvy, and has access to your computer or iPhone can use to find out where you have been within a few hundred feet AS OF YOUR LAST SYNC (this is NOT real-time tracking). Let’s ignore for the moment that the phone companies have also been keeping track of users’ locations on pretty much EVERY phone for years. The only real world scenario where this would be a problem would be for adulterers frightened that their spouses could find evidence of cheating, or perhaps top-secret spies. But if you do not fall into either of those two categories, odds are you can relax. After all, type your name or a friend’s name into a site like PeopleFinders and odds are you’ll find your info is already on the web.
Let me be clear, I’m not saying Apple is right to be storing this file (especially so insecurely), and it appears no other phones currently do this. Apple had also apparently told Congress last year that the data stored on the iPhone was stored privately (which I suppose could still be true, from a certain point of view). But the point here is, few, if any people should freak out about this. In fact, more people should be glad someone has the ability to track them in the unlikely event that they get kidnapped or lost in the woods, but since it is a story with the words “Apple” and “security”, odds are we have not heard the last of this.
(Oh, and sorry about calling myself a “journalist” in the beginning).
“Let me be clear…” inevitably followed by a wishy-washy statement.
I don’t think “Apple is wrong but we should not be freaking out” is wishy washy.
– The Doc
Good article.
Where’s the straightforward “like” button for this?
Headline makes about as much sense as: “Everyone cares about not living in a police state until they need the police’s assistance.”
Not really. It’s more like saying “Everyone hates the police until they’re getting mugged”.
What Apple’s doing is far from a police state, and to blow this THAT out of proportion is ridiculous, but expected, given that it’s Apple. Apple’s double-edged sword is it has created an Apple media feeding frenzy amongst tech sites surrounding all of its products, which benefits them 90% of the time with free positive publicity, but bites them in the ass 10% of the time.
– The Doc
I wholeheartedly agree with you, Doc!
Plus. You ARE a journalist. Like it or not!
I agree with the doc. it doesn’t really bother me. I use foursquare so 50% of time its posted out there and if its not most likely i am at work and hey you can find where i work easily. And when you think about it my bank knows where my card has been if its been swiped so credit card companies do also. And if you really wanna track down where someone lives it wouldn’t be that hard. I don’t see the big deal since its not real time tracking and records it when you sync your phone which i don’t do everyday.
Good article Doc. By the way, Have you tried to use that little tracking app? I think it’s a pretty cool picture if you enlarge the result.
Here is a link. Oh, I linked your article in my comment for that picture.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33788999@N00/5640162695/in/photostream
Yawn-inducing technical esoterica+Apple = OMG hu93 N3W2 5t0Ry!!! If *was* an encrypted file, the black helicopter crowd would be freaking out even more.
Apple should and will fix this oversight. Perhaps it was meant to support some unreleased feature that six months from now we won’t be able to live without.
But this thing boils down to: “If you let an unsavory character take your car keys, they might also steal your car. Even if you haven’t explicitly authorized said additional larceny.”
Yea, it’s definitely comforting to know that this location tracking will help someone find me when I am lost, assuming I go back home, sync my phone, and go back to where I was lost again and wait… lol
🙂
Yeah, it was more “the spirit” of the “Do you REALLY care if Apple/Cell Phone companies” are able to track where/when you were someplace than an actual failsafe rescue plan I was alluding to there.
– The Doc
Hey doc, Facebook removes geotag.