Security researchers have discovered that Apple’s iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronised.
The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone’s recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner’s movements using a simple program.
For some phones, there could be almost a year’s worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple’s iOS 4 update to the phone’s operating system, released in June 2010.
“Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you’ve been,” said Pete Warden, one of the researchers.
You can get the iPhone Tracker Application here.
Any cell phone can track your movements, since they are in communication with cell towers, and your position can be triangulatued. Apple just made it easier.
Good way to track Fanboys and eliminate.
And they say MS is evil and is in cahoots with the DoD. Morans.
#4 As usual, not disappointing. Showing what a good Dolly he is, he signs the praise to his masters and is a good thing they track him.
Now is telling us that he goes to gay bars, something that falls into the “Duh!” & the “Too much info” Depts.
#10 Don’t worry, we understand that you love to be controlled and be told what to do. Demagogue as well?
You should get together with Dolly on a mac store.
#11 Yup! mac used that state to beta test the app.
#13 You should see him talk politics.
#22 Never saw it that way. Thanks. We can start with Dolly
Apparently most Americans need a refresher course in some of the subtler differences between being under surveillance twenty-four hours a day and living free.
There seems to be a strange dichotomy.
Big government watching me is very, very bad but big corporations watching me? What the hell, go ahead, knock yourself out!
What’s the fucking difference, morons?
Earnings just out: “Apple Inc. (AAPL) reported second-quarter earnings of $6.40 a share. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for a profit of $5.39. The company also forecast third-quarter revenue of about $23 billion.”
They are going to drown in their own money for being so evil.
I ran the app and the results are VERY inaccurate and rather useless. It also ‘tracked’ cities i’ve never been to.
You want to invade the privacy of all your clients and shred The Constitution?
There’s an app for that!
#18 – any other laptops or mobile devices have anything built-in to locate a lost or stolen device? In OS X or iOS, it’s called Find my laptop [or whatever].
Of course all this truly important nerd blather is negatively affecting Apple, today, as you can tell:
http://tinyurl.com/3p5xdoc
It’s a big story because it’s Apple. Nobody cared about the Android security holes or the RIM Playbook crap rollout.
I’m sure everyone here encrypts their phone backups, right? Just like you encrypt your local email directories, right? And you’re outraged by Google handing over gobs of data each month to various governments, right?
I love the mock outrage over security.
I use 4.3 on a VzW iPhone and I just tried to look for this ‘file.’ on my Mac. It does not exist.
Sooooo If my iPhone is stolen or lost and I wipe it with the Find My Phone feature, no harm; no fowl?
BTW: If the feds want to know where you’ve been, cell tower triangulation on a frequently updated basis has always been available with every cell phone since the dark ages.
kinda nothing new
fwiw:
a few years ago i had a motorola razor given to me by a friend who was upgrading. She used the phone’s reset function zero out the phone. (clear the phone book, history etc) and handed me a blank, clean phone..
several months later i ran across a Razor hacking prgm and figured “Ok, lets play”
long story short: her entire phone book and call history etc, along with all my new (and deleted) additions were still in the phone and 100% intact, readable and recoverable in a separate area..
food for thought.
-s
Every black guy in the U.S. should get this just so they might have an alibi.
Sorry Pedro, or Mexican…
#30 – Maybe no one gives a shit where you’ve been.
This goes back to the FBI/CIA wanting complete access after 911 2001. All electronic devices are accessible by the government. Gee I sound like a right wing paranoid.
Perhaps a complaint to the FTC should be made. The complaint might be that the Apple iPhone name is deceptive. It should have been the “iSpy”.
#35 I heard they didn’t install that on your oy!phone because you call them everyday and tell them what you did. I’m pretty sure you also call the government and give them the same report.
You should consider a conference call.
Its the New World Order or perhaps your jealous spouse out to track you down
1984 George Orwell / Eric Blair in our times
I heard about this on Coast to Coast
But will the Android be worse – with what Google knows about us all