Thursday, April 21, 2011

iOS Keeps Records of Your Location in a Secret File



9to5 Mac reports on a story today about two researchers who have accidentally stumbled on evidence that shows that your iPhone and iPad is storing records of your location in a secret file that is also copied to your computer when you sync your device with iTunes. It’s all explained in the video above, and according to 9to5 Mac, it’s all down to iOS 4, which tracks your geographical location. The discovery has sparked off a big privacy debate on the web today, with some commentators saying that this is a serious issue and something we should all be extremely concerned about, and others, such as Boy Genius Report, dismissing it as a bit of a storm in an i-teacup, saying that you have agreed that Apple can do this sort of thing when you signed up to the Terms of Service for your iPhone or iPad. ZDNet’s Between the Lines blog is also underwhelmed by the story, questioning why some people are so alarmed by the report, when there are plenty of other location-tracking services that people are happy to use, such as Google Latitude and MobileMe.

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