# What Would Apple Do With The Location Data?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-apple-do-with-the-location-data/579454>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 23, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-apple-do-with-the-location-data/579454 "2011-04-23T14:36:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-apple-do-with-the-location-data/579454/1 "2011-04-23T14:36:57Z")

</div>

The revelation that the IPhone records and stores the location of the phone when used has me puzzled. What use would this info be?  
Some possibilities:  
-Apple would sell the data to a “data mining” firm-this cold be sued to generate information seful to retailers, restaurants, etc.  
-Apple would use the data to refine its performance , and improve the product (seems benign to me)  
-Apple would sell the info to law enforcement agncies, to track criminal’s behavior  
-In preparation for the anticipated Federal tax on Internet useage, Apple would sell the data to the Fedral government/IRS  
I await the efforts of hackers to assist users in destroying this data-what do you think?  
I’m not getting an Iphone!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-apple-do-with-the-location-data/579454/2 "2011-04-23T17:43:12Z")

</div>

Seems like the most logical thing would be to make money from retailers by providing some service based on proximity (restaurant in area, store with sale on clothes, etc.)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-apple-do-with-the-location-data/579454/3 "2011-04-23T21:52:34Z")

</div>

As mentioned in that other article, some suspect it’s just cell phone tower locations. What I’d suspect they’d do with it is amplify the towers that are more often used, or add new ones in the area.

Targetted advertising seems odd since you are unlikely to be actually using your device during the appropriate times, and showing it to me later ruins the convenience. But, then again, I can’t understand a lot of advertising that people say works.