Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) wants answers. Security researchers Wednesday revealed the existence of a file on iPhones and on their computer backups that logs detailed cell phone triangulation data — and has ever since iOS 4 was released last summer. The information is stored unencrypted by default, and is simple to access. That announcement led Franken to fire off a two-page letter (PDF), asking nine pointed questions of Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
Franken first outlines scenarios in which the release of this data could pose a problem. “Anyone who gains access to this single file could likely determine the location of the user’s home, the businesses he frequents, the doctors he visits, the schools his children attend, and the trips he has taken over the past months or even a year,” he writes. Which raises the obvious question: how would an attacker get access to the data?
1. Why does Apple collect and compile this location data? Why did Apple choose to initiate tracking this data in its iOS 4 operating system?
2. Does Apple collect and compile this location data for laptops?
3. How is this data generated? (GPS, cell tower triangulation, Wi-Fi triangulation, etc.)
4. How frequently is a user’s location recorded? What triggers the creation of a record of someone’s location?
5. How precise is this location data? Can it track the users location to 50 m, 100 m, etc.?
6. Why is this data not encrypted? What steps will Apple take to encrypt the data?
7. Why were Apple consumers never affirmatively informed of the collection and retention of their location data in this manner? Why did Apple not seek affirmative consent before doing so?
8. Does Apple believe that this conduct is permissible under the terms of its privacy policy?
9. To whom, if anyone, including Apple, has this data been disclosed? When and why were these disclosures made?
I like Al Franken. As for Apple and today’s rating as least environmentally friendly status, wait, that can’t be true, since Al Gore is on Apple’s Board of Directors. So why do Liberals love this company so much?
So Al why does Senators like you waste so much time on privacy issues?
Privacy is dead so get over it! If you want privacy dont get a computer, a smart phone or any other device that is connected to the internet, the cellular system or in any other electronic way. Now, maybe you could look into solving our lack of jobs?
>> So why do Liberals love this company so much?
Really? I’m a liberal and it never occurred to me that Apple was somehow liberal.
I’m not even saying McCullough is wrong, It just never thought that liberals liked Apple more than anyone else.
Does this mean conservatives like Microsoft or what?
>> jbenson2 said, on April 21st, 2011 at 6:32 pm
>> Al Franken is striving to reach the same heights that our former Governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura hit. I’ll give Franken a couple more years before he starts ranting that Bush brought down the Twin Towers.
You’re just pulling that from your arse. The few times I’ve heard Senator Franken speak in committee, he’s always the smartest guy in the room.
In the instance, the questions he is asking Apple are the right ones.