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Is Apple Tracking iPhone Users Through IMEI?
ariefwn writes ""As I sit here applying a new layer of Reynolds tin foil to my international hat of conspiracy, its been proven that Apple tracks iPhone usage and tracks IMEI numbers of all their iPhones worldwide. Hidden in the code of the 'Stocks' and 'Weather' widgets is a string that sends the IMEI of your phone to a specialized URL that Apple collects. I wonder if there will be any implications to owners of hacked iPhones..."
While I'm not an economist or stockbroker, it seems to me that if apple knows which shares iphoners are most interested in, at a given time, this is extremely valuable information, e.g. to spot trends. Can't be bothered to read the user-agreement (have no iphone) but curious to know whether it gives apple the right to sell this data on to large brokers or even act upon the intel themselves?
Gosh, thanks. That must be why the other ships call me Meatfucker -- GCU Grey Area (Eccentric)
Ever think maybe there was a more benign reason for this? Like to perhaps help in the retrieval of a stolen phone? Granted, it is probably not great for privacy, but if explicitly disclosed a savvy phone stealer could just disable or modify the apps. *This by no means excuses apple's privacy violations.
Get a web developer
The Apple IMEI is TEA encrytped according to the phone's hardware ID and NOR ID. Both of these numbers can be found with a few tools found at iphone-elite.org. The IMEI lives at 0xA003FAB00 address. All you need to do is write out your seczone (0xA003FA000), TEA encrypt a nice Motorola RAZR IMEI number at offset 0xB00, and write it back to your NOR...and voila...your iPhone now looks like a Motorola RAZR.
Maybe they just mesh the IMEI number with location data provided by the GPS and/or AT&T to give you weather information based on where you are located at the time. Ever seen the ad where Google is used to find local eating joints? Don't know about you but I did not see any kind of location information getting entered and so some kind of location info is getting used.
And you know that every ISP keeps records on what phones ping what cell towers and your ISP( AT&T ) already is known to have been very willing to hand out cell records.
So get a pre-paid phone at Walmart if you want to limit your track-ability. After all, getting a "smart" phone from Apple with all the locked down and tied to Apple features isn't a clue that they just might track things? I hope you don't touch anything running Microsoft code.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
Stocks and weather (Along with Maps) don't self-localise, you need to tell them what you want. In addition, it'd be far easier for the phone to send its base station number(s) as position info, since sending the IMEI involves the application server contacting the network provider to ask where the phone is, rather than just looking up the base station number in a local table.
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
Ah, but which quotes I'm looking at is another can of worms. It implies that I either own stock in that company, or plan to. I realize that I could just be watching the stock "for fun," but aggregating this type of information to have the "big picture" is the problem.
And according to a German security site, the ID is the same for every phone that was tested. Conspiracy hats off. Case closed.
Maybe now we can discuss if the Kindle knows which pages you're lingering over and transmits suspicous activity to the NSA...
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.