Apple Loses My Respect

Langston Holland

Langston Holland

Sophomore
Jan 13, 2011
222
0
16
Pensacola
Apple is participating in the loss of privacy in this country that is sickening. If you have a car that's less than 10 years old, it's likely that you have a "black box" that can be used to expose speed, RPM, etc. which may be used against you by prosecutors after a wreck for example. The Internet is your friend for help with this kind of thing, at least until our government succeeds in it's Chinese-like attempts to censor it. BTW, voting (or not) has consequences.

Below is a link to a site that anyone that uses an iPhone needs to read. If you use an iPhone, Apple has been recording your movements. I have v4 but have found that the tracking includes all of my 3GS history as well (see attached).

As of this moment, I don't know of a way to scrub this data from my iPhone and backup file on my computer without deleting the backup, reinitializing the phone and setting things up from scratch. This of course won't keep Big Brother from recording my movements from this point onward.

http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/

AppleBigBrother.png
 
Re: Apple Loses My Respect

That's surprising and a makes me feel a little weary about it...but it's only to places where you've gone. A cars GPS records places that you've recently been to but only to an extent. However, if it was contacts, etc, THEN I would be really scared.
 
Re: Apple Loses My Respect

I somewhat understand the knee jerk reaction that somehow this is a violation of your privacy, but it is clear in the link that you provided that NO DATA is being transfered beyond your personal device and you personal computer with which you sync that device.

I agree, that it would be nice if they hipped iPhone buyers to the data being stored, and provide a simple solution to remove the service... but this is hardly a violation of privacy in it's current form, as the only person collecting your data.. is YOU.

There has been precedent set in this country that displays the authorities ability to track suspected criminals from their cell phone usage... this precedent outdates the iPhone and anything that apple as brought to the table by miles. If you do something wack whilst carrying a device that connects to cell phone towers, they can generally put you within a pretty close vicinity and time window... given the motivation to do so.

Big Brother is doing just fine without any help from Steve Jobs or the other folks at apple. If you are planning on being somewhere you shouldn't be, or doing something you shouldn't be doing, I wouldn't count on not brining your iPhone, as being any extra protection.

Now, for those of you who are just worried about your wives finding out what you've been up to... you may have a legit complaint, as your records are likely on the home PC...8O~8-O~:shock:
 
Re: Apple Loses My Respect

Steve Milner said:
I somewhat understand the knee jerk reaction that somehow this is a violation of your privacy, but it is clear in the link that you provided that NO DATA is being transfered beyond your personal device and you personal computer with which you sync that device.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure it is... the iPhone transfers data between itself and The Cloud (ooooh!) all the time... encrypted data. One assumes this is simple one's calendar and email updates. My computer talks to Apple every time I open iTunes. I assume this is only various updates as well. The data is there and it is accessible by an unprivileged program. Even if Apple doesn't make it available or store it at the Mothership, it would be child's play for someone else to.

I agree, however, only a stupid criminal would bring their cell phone to the location of a crime they were committing. Fortunately the vast majority are stupid. However, I am not a criminal (and I can prove it!), and I don't want my phone keeping a record of everywhere I've been either. I can think of nothing good to be done with that data.
 
Re: Apple Loses My Respect

oops, the future is happening already. :-)

I won't make the argument for the black helicopter conspiracy crowd, but the problem isn't who we think are criminals, but what crimes are defined as later.

The good news is the government can find their ass with both hands, let alone follow us around... but I suspect some might like to. :-)

JR

PS: They can probably tell when you're speeding on the interstate from the phone data, screw the car black box.
 
Re: Apple Loses My Respect

Bennett Prescott said:
I agree, however, only a stupid criminal would bring their cell phone to the location of a crime they were committing. Fortunately the vast majority are stupid. However, I am not a criminal (and I can prove it!), and I don't want my phone keeping a record of everywhere I've been either. I can think of nothing good to be done with that data.
Click to expand...

During the last batch of snow here, we lost power throughout the majority of the county for 3-4 days. During this time, a local young man went on a little spree of breaking into homes and stealing small goods (small electronics, jewelry etc)... he was apprehended when a homeowner came home and found that although he had fled the scene hours earlier, he had left his cell phone plugged in and charging, as they were in one of the few areas unaffected by the power outage... DOH!!!

I too would appreciate a way to turn the data storing off... but I'm not going to loose sleep over this. I cannot imagine under any circumstance where Apple would think it beneficial to do something underhanded with this information *(if in-fact they have a single piece of it in their possession)... By the same token, if someone is SO interested in tracking your movements that they are willing to commit a crime themselves and gain access to your personal phone or computer, you likely have a larger issue at hand to deal with. Anyone who can legally obtain access to this data, will do so regardless of what model phone you own.

Also, I have yet to hear of or find a single case of the Apple cloud's security being compromised... perhaps it is as you suggest "child's play" to do so, but I haven't heard of it happening yet.

It would be easier of course, if anyone knew for what purpose this data was originally decided to be collected locally... that will be interesting to find out for sure.
 
Re: Apple Loses My Respect

Do I win?

Screenshot2011-04-20at73330PM.png



:lol:


Evan
 

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Re: Apple Loses My Respect

Steve Milner said:
Also, I have yet to hear of or find a single case of the Apple cloud's security being compromised... perhaps it is as you suggest "child's play" to do so, but I haven't heard of it happening yet.

It would be easier of course, if anyone knew for what purpose this data was originally decided to be collected locally... that will be interesting to find out for sure.
Click to expand...
Sometimes technology is it's own end.. they're probably "almost" collecting it because they can... but there is surely some commercial value to knowing any personal information about consumers so this is worth watching.

There was a brief IPHONE data breach back in the early days, but IIRC it was AT&Ts fault not apple, and it was only some user account info (like email)..while embarrassing enough, spammers love to get good emails to phish for CC info and identity theft. IIRC there were some high profile early adopters in that group (one white house aide).

Regarding the young man with his cell phone... if he was a smart crook he'd be in politics...

JR
 
Re: Apple Loses My Respect

Sorry to kill your Apple hate fest, but cell carriers have been able to generate reports like this since handsets have had the ability to transmit their location.
The app is more worrying, as it can be remotely installed on your computer allowing any hacker with half a brain to stalk you.
 
Re: Apple Loses My Respect

Steve Milner said:
During the last batch of snow here, we lost power throughout the majority of the county for 3-4 days. During this time, a local young man went onAlso, I have yet to hear of or find a single case of the Apple cloud's security being compromised... perhaps it is as you suggest "child's play" to do so, but I haven't heard of it happening yet.
Click to expand...

Breaching Apple's cloud isn't child's play, but extracting this data off someone's computer is. We all just did it, with an unprivileged program.
 
Re: Apple Loses My Respect

Tim Padrick said:
Ok, I downloaded it, how do I make it go?
Click to expand...

http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/#faq

How does the application work?
If you run it on an OS X machine that you’ve been syncing with an iPhone or an iPad with cellular plan, it will scan through the backup files that are automatically made, looking for the hidden file containing your location. If it finds this file, it will then display the location history on the map.
Click to expand...
 
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