Why is my iphone tracking my location to a secret database, wifi access points and cell towers?

I just read about this in The New York Times (reference http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/business/21data.html) and am stunned. This is too much!

I would like to disable this "Stasi-feature".

Oh no! You are doomed. Doomed to the realm of stupidity.

One thing I want to point out. This is very similar to the summer when you had the iPhone 4 antenna issue. It wasn't a major issue and not many people complained about it. But what happened? The media found out, exaggerated it and made everyone think there phone was broken. So then what happened? Suddenly, everyone started noticing an issue even though they didn't see one yesterday. Apple did not issue a statement, because they didn't think it was an issue. You had no problems using the phone a month ago, yet suddenly now everyone does because the media said the phone is tracking you. People can find out where you go in various other ways. People stalk you, hack into your email, hack into your cell phone providers firewall to get data from them. This just adds one small way (which has been there by the way for almost a year). So let's be a little realistic. Do you really think that (assuming that no one was doing this before) just because of this report, someone is going to steal your phone hook it up to a computer, jailbreak it, run the utility JUST TO FIND OUT WHERE YOU HAVE BEEN? I mean come on. I mean websites track wherever you go too. Facebook can track every where you have been and go even after you leave their website. Every piece of electronics that you own probably stores sensitive data about you all the time. Just saying, if no one was going to break in and steal data off your phone before, nothing is really going to change because of this.

NiqueXyZ wrote:

It's not the same thing at all...the antenna issue is resolved by usig a case.

But really there was no issue to start. People who DON'T use the case still don't have problems because they don't have the media blowing it up in their face.

NiqueXyZ wrote:

There are reports of people already adding this to viruses and trojans -- so let's say you get a virus, that virus will search your computer for the .db file -- and then upload it to a hacker's server....the hacker knows everything about you now -- where you work, what restaurants you like to eat at, the mac address of your wifi access points at home and work, where your kids (if you have any) go to school -- all of that can be determined from this data.

OK well think of this. If you have a PC then I am sure you have either:

A) Gotten tons of viruses which probably steal personal information from your computer anyway (for example your address). In this case if you haven't been tracked because of the stuff they already stole from you, it isn't going to be much different. If hackers steal all this data, are they going to stalk every person? No, it doesn't make sense.

B) Have a strong antivirus program that will stop the virus anyway.

NiqueXyZ wrote:

Also you mention hooking a phone to a computer to jailbreak it...wrong. Remember jailbreakme.com? It exploited devices without even being attached to a computer...right from safari on the phone. People were going into the apple stores and running it on the demo devices (lol)

Yes and this issue was resolved. And it ONLY occurred if you visited a malicious web page. So as long as you visit trusted websites such as apple, google, yahoo, etc you wouldn't have had the problem anyway.

Basically, there have been tons of data breeches in the past some of which have probably occurred/affected your device. This is just one other one. And yes location data HAS been exposed in the past, but you haven't seen increased crimes of stalking or anything. If you don't have anyone after you or you haven't done anything illegal, you have nothing to worry about.

NiqueXyZ wrote:

"But really there was no issue to start. People who DON'T use the case still don't have problems because they don't have the media blowing it up in their face."

Consumer Reports and other consumer advocate groups disagree with that statement to this day, and wasn't their antenna designer fired as a result? Yes -- he was: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Mark-Papermaster-Steve-Jobs-iPhone-4-Antennagate-iph one,news-7717.html

The fact that the antenna designer left is true but the reason for it is pure speculation. It is unknown whether or not he was really fired or if he just left. The quote on quote "issue" is still there but the point is average users don't experience problems from day to day use. You can MAKE it happen if you try, but daily usage doesn't do much.

NiqueXyZ wrote:

Am I being a little out of control and over-exagerating scenarios? Sure...but when it comes to security and privacy, location is a VERY important thing and should not be brushed off or taken lightly.

I agree with you. Location data is very personal and shouldn't be taken lightly. But honestly the chances of your phone being stolen now is no different than it was before. And as you said encrypting the backups is a workaround. So if someone was VERY concerned about the information stored on their phone or about this issue they would have cared enough to do some research and encrypt their backups. If Apple comes out with an official statement, it isn't going to change anything because the people who cared enough already did the fix while the people who didn't won't look at it anyway.

All I am trying to say is that your data is very vulnerable EVERYWHERE. There are ways to hack into your computer, your records, or any other place personal data is stored. Data has been exploited before. This isn't anything new. The scenarios that you provide aren't likely to happen and there really is not much to worry about.

Apple is, by secretly tracking the iPhone and iPad users, showing a lack of respect for its customers integrity. Like Hall & Oats once sang in their song: "Whatever you do will come back to you!". Apple will lose the trust of its customers, and it will gradually be replaced by a company with as good or better products than Apple, and - not the least - a company that has the confidence of its customers. 🙂

Vossing wrote:

Apple is, by secretly tracking the iPhone and iPad users, showing a lack of respect for its customers integrity. Like Hall & Oats once sang in their song: "Whatever you do will come back to you!". Apple will lose the trust of its customers, and it will gradually be replaced by a company with as good or better products than Apple, and - not the least - a company that has the confidence of its customers. 🙂

You realize that Apple may not have known that it was tracking customers. I recently read an article that mentions the data was stored in a certain cache file that is SUPPOSED to be emptied. It could be that this is a minor bug that is fixed in the next update.

"You realize that Apple may not have known that it was tracking customers. I recently read an article that mentions the data was stored in a certain cache file that is SUPPOSED to be emptied. It could be that this is a minor bug that is fixed in the next update."

1. Please provide a link to the article.

2. Please resolve why Apple would save this file on machines you sync the device to, if they 'may not have known'.

<Edited by Host>

1. http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/04/21/andy-ihnatko-location-log

"The big question of course, is why Apple is storing this information. I don’t have a definitive answer, but my little-birdie-informed understanding is that consolidated.db acts as a cache for location data, and that historical data should be getting culled but isn’t, either due to a bug or, more likely, an oversight. I.e. someone wrote the code to cache location data but never wrote code to cull non-recent entries from the cache, so that a database that’s meant to serve as a cache of your recent location data is instead a persistent log of your location history. I’d wager this gets fixed in the next iOS update."

2. When I say may not have known, I mean they didn't know they were SAVING it. They were storing it because many phones do apparently (android, windows phone etc) for some reason that I am unaware of. So they knew they were storing it they just didn't know they weren't deleting it.

3. I don't think they would forget really. I think that it was either a miscommunication error, the code was never placed into the final version of the OS, or that particular piece of code has a bug that is causing it not to work.

4. Absolutely. Because if they DIDN'T care about users privacy they wouldn't have any market share. People buy apple products because they are reliable and tend not to get viruses. If apple didn't take privacy seriously, no one would buy their products and they would not be a trusted company. You know just because apple had one or two security breaches, doesn't mean they don't care about users privacy. I mean look at google. They accidentally collected thousands of wifi routers' information but do you think that they don't care about privacy? Windows Vista was an OS that received lots of virus attacks that stole personal information but does that mean Microsoft doesn't care about privacy? No.

Aside from the privacy concerns, I'd be just as concerned about accuracy. I use a number of tracking apps based on the GPS, and they are within a few feet. This database, however, is wayyyyy off sometimes. It shows me (i.e., my iPhone) as having been in a city multiple times that is three hundred miles from me. I've never been there once, and neither has my phone!

I'm incredibly concerned about privacy issues and not happy about this report. If it is true, Apple will need to step forward and fix the problem or face litigation.