Reading their privacy policy, I think they’re claiming the data they collect is almost always not in a form that’s tied to your identity/number:
I can’t confirm that since the iPhoneTracker application is for Macs only, else I’d check my own file.
Tracking the cell phone towers is the “A” part of “AGPS,” or “assisted global positioning system.” Triangulation from cell towers is much quicker than getting a GPS lock, and allows the phone to get a general idea of where you are before it gets the more accurate GPS data.
The thing that’s got everyone all (if you’ll pardon the pun) a-twitter is that the iPhone is keeping a complete log of every cell tower you’ve contacted. Permanently. It means that the data is available to law enforcement if they get ahold of your phone. Hackers can get at it (and yes, it requires root access on your iPhone, but as we’ve seen in the past, that can be done from websites with the right hack), although what value the information would be to them I have no idea. And every time you use iTunes to sync with your iPhone, a copy of the file is put on your computer. The data is also of dubious value to the iPhone itself; only the current cell towers are relavent to the AGPS part of the equation, so Apple must have the same underhanded goal as Google for collecting the data.
Now I’m off to check my Desire HD…
Here’s my government conspiracy theory – they look at aggregate traffic/locations and raise the property tax on business properties with the highest traffic volume. And the corresponding corporate conspiracy is the the aggregate data will ne used to raise sales prices in heavily trafficked areas. I’m not even sure either of those would be illegal, but they sure are conspiratorial.
Come to think of it, I can imagine a lot more use for aggregated data than I can for individual data.
But my cellphone company could be doing that too.
They’re saying that the number and your identity are not the same thing (as suggested above), at least as far as how they’re using it. The phone company, of course, can link the number to an “identity,” which is why the police go to the phone company for info in investigations.
Obviously there are ways that Google and Apple could find a name tied to a phone number, especially if you use your real name when you create your accounts with services associated with the phone (and its number), etc. And, of course, whenever you buy an app or subscribe to iTunes, they could make an even more significant (and more realistic) link to your identity (and email/phone number associated with it) through the credit card number you must provide to use those services.
(I’m involved in computer forensics as a quasi-requirement for my professional life.)
The avalanche has already started, it’s too late for the pebbles to vote.
The fact that there’s a record on your iPhone (and on any PC you sync to, if it’s not encrypting the back-ups) of everywhere you’ve been can be added to your Credit card statements, your office ID with RFID tag, Your Grocery store discount card, your EZ-Pass transponder on your car, Pandora, Your browsing History, Your Credit Bureaus, Your TV habits, Your Bittorrent activity, Your ISP logs, Your Cellphone Company, and, and, and
You HAVE no privacy. It can be demonstrated you haven’t for a REALLY LONG TIME. Best to just get used to it.
If this bothers you, feel free to go live in a shack, off the grid, stuff your money in a mattress, and live off the corn you grow. I predict You’re going to get tired of corn tortillas and moonshine.
I used to be paranoid, but I decided to nip it in the bud by carrying around a tracking device at all times. Since I am fully aware that anybody with access to the tracking device or my computer can find out everywhere I’ve been, I am never tempted to go anywhere I wouldn’t want the world to know. If you have nothing to hide, why do you need privacy?
Plus the tracking device can make calls, which is also cool.
Wow… Know how to really mess them up? Mail your phone to a friend in a weird place and have him send it to another friend and so on, like a chain letter. Then get a new phone since you’ll never see that one again…
I NEVER get tired of corn tortillas and moonshine!
This point is well-taken, but I don’t give them my real name or phone number with the grocery store discount card, for example (and I pay in cash), nor do they care. It’s not important to the grocery store discount card system that the name on my card is George Kaplan, or that his phone number is 555-0000.
The question today is not how much we’re completely and inevitably tied into information systems, but rather, “At what point, when, by whom and to whom does all this ever-increasing data become meaningful?”
As the capability to collect and process all this data increases ever more, so do we all become ever closer to being George Kaplan.
This is new, and is Apple denying the phones record the location data that way:
“We’re not logging where you are – we’re logging every place you’re not.”