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iPhone Tracking Visualized

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HardOCP News

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Remember that article we posted last month about how the iPhone tracks your every move (here)? Well, thanks to some very interesting new research, you can actually watch the tracking process in action.
 
Even with this, they still sold 18.6 million iphones last quarter :)

CUPERTINO, California-April 20, 2011-Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2011 second quarter ended March 26, 2011. The Company posted record second quarter revenue of $24.67 billion and record second quarter net profit of $5.99 billion, or $6.40 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $13.50 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.07 billion, or $3.33 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 41.4 percent compared to 41.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 59 percent of the quarter's revenue.
 
Don't all smartphones nowadays do this in some fashion or another? Or is this some "magical" and "wonderful" feature only available on ones made by Apple?
 
picture preview of the video looks like a giant diseased purple headed sperm. fail.
 
Here's an article about US government asking for answers.

Here's what Sen. Franken wants to know:
Why does Apple collect and compile this location data? Why did Apple choose to initiate tracking this data in its iOS 4 operating system?

Does Apple collect and compile this location data for laptops?

How is this data generated? (GPS, cell tower triangulation, Wi-Fi triangulation, etc.)

How frequently is a user's location recorded? What triggers the creation of a record of someone's location?

How precise is this location data? Can it track the users location to 50m, 100m, etc.?

Why is this data not encrypted? What steps will Apple take to encrypt the data?

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?

Does Apple believe that this conduct is permissible under the terms of its privacy policy?

To whom, if anyone, including Apple, has this data been disclosed? When and why were these disclosures made?
Click to expand...
 
I'm thinking each dot is a cell tower and it's location. Larger dots are higher strength.

Basically, I'm thinking the iPhones are logging snap shots of all the towers it can "hear" every so often. This doesn't appear to be a GPS pinpoint of the phones location. But if Apple wanted to track the phones, wouldn't they just use the GPS data? This seems like some sort a cell tower QA/logging feature that shouldn't be on.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this really couldn't be used to track a user all that well, at least not with the accuracy that a GPS location would.
 
Considering what's shown on american TV, i'd have thought your culture wasn't very privacy conscious. The CSI and NCIS guys could pull private info out of obscure databases (Who needs a guy walking around with a magnifying glass?).

I do wonder how Apple will react if they actually dissect an unmodified iPhone on an episode and use the info on the article on national TV.
 
It's America: Apple would sue someone for reverse engineering their technology and toss the DMCA into the mix on top... obviously. :)
 
Brak710 said:
I'm thinking each dot is a cell tower and it's location. Larger dots are higher strength.
Basically, I'm thinking the iPhones are logging snap shots of all the towers it can "hear" every so often. This doesn't appear to be a GPS pinpoint of the phones location. But if Apple wanted to track the phones, wouldn't they just use the GPS data? This seems like some sort a cell tower QA/logging feature that shouldn't be on.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this really couldn't be used to track a user all that well, at least not with the accuracy that a GPS location would.
Click to expand...

This.

GPS data is avalible with a 10' accuracy on most devices (many higher than that) whereas these cell-tower dots can be... lets jsut say "less accurate" especially if your in an area with very few towers.

I'm going to agree with Brac and say this is a diagnostic feature for the network that isnt meant to be used by consumers/apple, but is for network analysis by ATT/VZW and simply wasnt turned off like it needs to be...

bucket said:
Don't all smartphones nowadays do this in some fashion or another? Or is this some "magical" and "wonderful" feature only available on ones made by Apple?
Click to expand...

Yes and no. All phones have this data but few store it this long and most encrypt it in some form.

Google Android of course is the opposite: people are shocked to find data it DOESNT track! :p

Sly said:
I do wonder how Apple will react if they actually dissect an unmodified iPhone on an episode and use the info on the article on national TV.
Click to expand...

"Any Publicity is good publicity." - old marketing adage
 
sigh....

This outrage is the single stupidest thing I've ever read, and epitomizes the anti-Apple vendetta of so many tech sites. The "tracking" is nothing more than a simple log of the cell towers an iPhone is/was connected to, and the relative signal strength at that tower. If you think other cell phone makers don't also do this, you're out of your mind. Android does the exact same thing, as the FOSS community has already found with android-locdump. I can't say for certain what the use for this data is exactly, but some good guesses are that it's used in the A-GPS, used for diagnostics in the event of a failed radio, or used for billing (specifically roaming) purposes by cell carriers. A device I work on at my job logs your IP address and username (possibly your Kerberos credentials) every time you log in to it, does that mean I'm doing secret tracking too since we could easily resolve those IPs to physical locations?

There are so many legitimate uses and explanations for this, and all the cell makers have been doing it forever, but the iPhone gets lambasted in the press for no other reason than it being made by the company that tech journalists love to hate. Keep it classy tech journalists, whatever keeps the clicks coming in I guess.
 
I don't care if it's iOS, Android, or whatever, just because they all may track, doesn't mean they should. This should be illegal to do without explicit consent no matter how it is done (cell towers, GPS, or wifi). Consent shouldn't just be tucked into a EULA or privacy notice, but actually an opt-in feature that could be disabled again at any time. There are way too many ways to abuse this sort of information. People are paying a ton for their device plus the insane monthly fees and they still try to mine every bit of data they can out of their users.

If people want to broadcast their location to Facebook or whatever, fine give them the option to publish their lives online. Some of us still do try to protect our data though.
 
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