and Apple won’t say why. From the Guardian:
There’s an application available here that will display the location data stored on your computer.
I’m putting this in MPSIMS rather than GD or the Pit to spread awareness. It’s clear that privacy is a different thing in the information age, but large technology companies shouldn’t be playing this cavalierly with data about our lives.
Yeah, that’s not sheisty at all…
I was looking into this awhile back when I noticed the Apple “Mobile Me” was always coming up in my sync and I had never downloaded it. Sadly, this is freaky but not unexpected from a GIANT corporation like Apple. People love Apple because it’s hip, fun, easy to use, and “everyone will like me if I have one” - but they miss the point when in reality, Apple is just another GIANT corporation vying for a piece of the pie.
Uh oh, you’ve done it now. You’ve summoned all the Apple fanboys (and girls) who are now going to tell us how this corporate choice is actually good for us.
…
Actually, I’m really curious to see what the fanboys come up with! Thanks, Phlosphr!
Interesting. The info file has the phone number, the serial number of the phone, the IMEI, and all sorts of stuff!
I just came across this a few minutes ago. I can’t exactly say I’m shocked by this, but it is a pretty shitty thing to do. I downloaded the app and, sure enough, it’s got all the major places I’ve been since July. (It’s missing a three-week period in Hungary, for some reason, though, even though I did have my GPS occasionally on, but not my mobile roaming.)
Since it isn’t transmitting the data to Apple, I don’t really care right now, unless this is sucking battery life to record. (Bitches.) The article warns that anyone with access to your iPhone or computer could find out where you’ve been - I would care more that someone stole my laptop or phone.
Oh, and not an Apple fangirl - Windows PC all the way for me. Neat file-checker application, though; I’ll have to play with that when I get home.
I don’t get the point of it. From what I understand the cell phone company is already tracking where you are, they just don’t give access to the info to the user. Why does Apple have the iPhone logging this information? I can’t see how it is useful to them as a company to have a log of where you have been on your computer.
This is why mine is wrapped in aluminum foil like my ham sandwhich. Both of which I just open when I need to.
Probably no real value to knowing where you (indvidually) have been - but potentially value in knowing where iPhones in aggregate are going. Interesting Slate article talking about the unexpected ways Google found value in the data it collects.
This is the #1 reason that a friend of mine refuses to get a smartphone. “Then they’ll know where you are at all times!” I’m like “who’s they?” But the idea just bugs him.
Personally I am with Ferret Herder - in a situation where someone was able to look at all of my location data, the much bigger concern would be that they have stolen my iPhone. Although granted, if I lived with someone that I wanted to keep things from (overbearing parents, spouse I was cheating on, etc.) I might be more concerned about this.
Oh, and my iPhone is the first and only Apple product I’ve owned, by the way.
Given that Apple implemented this non-optional plan without telling anyone, might it stand to reason that they might similarly, in the future, make it so your location history uploads to Apple HQ? At which point, they can sell it to some marketing firm, who can then sell it to whomever they choose.
Does that (currently non-existent, but IMO very likely) scenario bug you at all?
Not really. I mean, I can theoretically understand why someone else might be bothered by it, but I’m not. Targeting marketing doesn’t bother me, I don’t really care if someone knows where I was in the past, and anyway I don’t have any stalkers that would be likely to try to hack into Apple’s (or Apple’s marketing partners’) databases to try to find my location info from six months ago or whatever.
Definitely a weird security gaffe, but only because they don’t encrypt the info. Otherwise, it would be kind of a cool feature. My Garmin GPS produces tracks in the same way and it’s fun to put it on a map and find out where you’ve been.
Does this file ever get re-initialized? Seems like it would eventually eat up a ton of memory.
All your place are belong to us!
Apple
Probably for various apps that are location-based.
Coincidentally, I was watching a review for a regular digital camera that automatically time and location stamps the image files of every photo you take using GPS technology. I have no need for this, I suspect most people don’t need to know that the picture they took of the Statue of Liberty was taken in NYC, but the camera logs the info anyway.
So I’m just assuming iPhones are tracking locations for similarly “helpful” apps of various kinds. Like the “What’s the nearest Thai restaurant?” app. or “Help me retrace my steps so I can find out where I left my glasses” app. Or some other stupid thing like that.
Some company contact our firm to tell us about a “great service” in which they can broadcast a text message to every textable phone within a particular radius of a location of our choosing. So, for example, if you’re out shopping and you’re near my underwear store, my underwear store can text you: “Gotchies 4 sale around the corner from U.”
I assume other smartphones do similar things. Soon, it will be like that Tom Cruise movie where scanners read his eyeballs as he walked past stores recordings would say “Hey Mr. Tom-Cruise-Crazy, take advantage of the 20% off sale, right behind you.”
This. It appears to be nothing more than a log of what cell towers your phone has contacted. AT&T already has that information; now you have a copy of it, too.
Okay, but when you do have a stalker, wouldn’t you like to be able to prevent this data from being recorded?
Can this feature be turned off without turning off the GPS? Can the file just be deleted?
It doesn’t even use GPS. It just uses cell tower locations. I don’t even know how specific this info is. I’m guessing not very.
Seriously, I always vaguely assumed that my phone was doing something like this anyway. If I ever get a stalker, I’ll just start sleeping with my phone or something. Although since I use it as my alarm clock, I basically already do. 
On Google maps you can see flags for pictures taken at a particular location. Sometimes I wonder if the person who took the picture even knows it’s there. After all, my (Android) phone was set to a default that would immediately upload pictures to Photobucket automatically without asking me, right after being taken. If there’s a location marker on the photo file, there you go.