In case you missed the news, your iPhone and iPad are recording your every move. Researchers have found a secret file that "contains the latitude and longitude of the phone's recorded coordinates along with a time stamp". The Guardian (UK) reports that it's unclear how this file is being used although PC Magazine tells us that "forensic" analysts and the police have known about this file and have been using it for some time.
As I pointed out before, I believe that such data collection for app development or marketing purpose should be opt-in. And "opt-in" does not mean burying some legalese in dozens of pages of fine print ("Terms and Conditions") which gives customers the choice of letting (insert technology company) do whatever they want or don't use their product.
In addition to the stench, those T&Cs do not provide enough disclosure. If companies want to collect tracking data, they should specify exactly what data is being collected, how it is stored, how long it is retained, why the data is being collected, whether the data is being exchanged with third parties (and who those third parties are, and what they are using the data for), whether the data is being sold for profit, etc.
P.S. This report says that Android phone does the same thing.
Not to mention that this may be against the law in Vermont. "In Vermont: The State's Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities, and Health Care Administration adopted opt-in provisions for information sharing. To comply with the regulation, some companies have simply treated all Vermont residents as having opted-out under GLBA. However, a group of insurance companies has mounted a challenge to the requirements."
Since the phone can be used as a credit card for purchases and has access to your personal and some financial information, it may come under this provision. It's a tenuous connection, but it seems worth exploring.
Posted by: curmudgeon | 04/22/2011 at 11:19 AM
It is an internal file that is used as part of the software and is not available for external access, therefore no laws are broken. See https://alexlevinson.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/3-major-issues-with-the-latest-iphone-tracking-discovery/
Obviously some people will not like the fact that it does track their movements, but someone must have physical access to the phone. I assume that Apple in future will restrict the time period that the data is held.
Posted by: Ken | 04/22/2011 at 05:37 PM