Your Apple iPhone Is Tracking You

Researchers say hidden file stores data
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Suggested by tran_tor
Posted Apr 20, 2011 2:29 PM CDT

This sounds a wee bit creepy: Two researchers say the latest iPhones and iPads are keeping track of your every move. They found a file on the devices that stores longitudes and lattitudes along with time stamps. "What makes this issue worse is that the file is unencrypted and unprotected, and it's on any machine you've synched with your iOS device," writes one of the researchers, Alasdair Allan at O'Reilly Radar. "Anybody with access to this file knows where you've been over the last year, since iOS 4 was released."

PC Magazine notes that this is apparently not a new discovery, though the researchers raise concerns about how relatively easy it is to access the information. They also built an app for users to check their own data. Nothing sinister may be afoot, but "why this data is stored and how Apple intends to use it—or not—are important questions that need to be explored," writes Allan. (For those who want more, see the lengthy video in the gallery.)

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