Neither Apple nor Google Is Tracking You Discussion

[EdGreen]

Apple has released an official statement in regards to growing concerns with iPhones and their alleged location tracking function. This comes in the wake of inquiries from lawmakers looking to determine whether iPhones breach any privacy rules by logging user location information.

Read the full content of this Article: Neither Apple nor Google Is Tracking You

Related Articles:

• Is Your iPhone Tracking Your Location?

[Ed Hardy]

Google has already publicly stated that it notifies its users about its anonymous location tracking up front and that they have a choice on whether or not to use it.

Here's the opt-in screen on an Android device:


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[LandSurveyor]

First this and then the president shows us his birth certificate.

No more fuel left for paranoid delusions.

Or are they all lying to us?

[EdGreen]

First this and then the president shows us his birth certificate.

No more fuel left for paranoid delusions.

Or are they all lying to us?

Haha...you know, the same thing crossed my mind earlier.

There will still be those to find some new angle to be paranoid about though, I'm sure.

[Varjak]

Ed, can you disable those two options on that screen separately? I don't want continuous anonymous collection; but I probably would want to let on-the-spot location services (2nd option) to be allowed. And can you toggle those on and off, or are they a one-time selection? Thanks.

[Hook]

Ed, can you disable those two options on that screen separately? I don't want continuous anonymous collection; but I probably would want to let on-the-spot location services (2nd option) to be allowed. And can you toggle those on and off, or are they a one-time selection? Thanks.

They are check boxes, so, yes, by convention, they can be enabled or disabled separately.

[Antoine Wright]

They don't have to track you, most of the information that could be gathered through "following your tracks" is gained through the internet and cellular connections that you make on your device. All of that is fair game for being collected and used by Apple, Google, carriers, and anyone else. For example, just read the Location-Based Services section for Apple/AT&T Terms of Service - why do they need to track anything when cellular is considered a "service" and the device is considered "goods."

Or, read this patent on how mobile profiles can be created by tracking mobile behaviors. Also this article speaking of the same basing the discussion against its legalities. Or this press release where HP has released a product that allows disparate information to be pulled together over LTE networks for the purpose of "customer support."

Apple, Google, et al are right. They don't track you. They get enough information from various other data points that tracking you makes absolutely no sense to them and is a waste of time and resources.

[KSD]

i dont know if anyone brought this up but as far as i know there is no way a tower can read your phone from one hundred miles away. In the article it siad apple said some of the towers could be a hundred miles away.....you got to be joking. (if that was true than i should have 100% signal 24/7)

[LandSurveyor]

I think a cell tower's range is about 6 miles. I don't think that's exactly what was meant.

[KSD]

I think a cell tower's range is about 6 miles. I don't think that's exactly what was meant.

they were referring to towers and access points...basicly anything other than GPS....so i don't know what they are smoking and trying to pull but 100 miles is a joke....sounds like they are trying to pull a fast one on the general public and downsize the issue....just saying

The company goes on to explain that the iPhone is not tracking the users' location, but that it's "maintaining a database of wi-fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location" in order to allow your phone to "rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested." According to Apple, these location points that it keeps track of can be as far as one hundred miles away from the iPhone and certainly do not reveal the identity of the user. Cheating spouses can rest easy.

either the author is mistaken or apple has lost it.


EDIT:maybe they ment this database is streamed in....aka your phone realizes its in chicago so it downlaods locations of all know wifi and cell tower locations in the 100 mile surrounding area...this would make sense but why do they not just say this? Are they hidding something?