Apple Releases iOS 4.3.3 To Fix Location Tracking

An anonymous reader writes "Apple has released a software update (iOS 4.3.3) to fix the much-talked-about iPhone Location Tracking bug. Apple faced a lot of criticism over the issue — iPhone and iPad secretly tracks users' locations and saves them in the device's cache as well as in a hidden file which is copied to the PC whenever the computer gets synced with device."

Comments

bug?

[Squeeonline]

I'm pretty sure it was a feature, not a bug.

Re:bug?

[Belial6]

Apple says they read your location data.

From the Apple FAQ http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/04/27location_qa.html:

8. What other location data is Apple collecting from the iPhone besides crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data?

Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years.

To produce a traffic database, the location of the phones must be read and transmitted to Apple. Claims that they only send location data and never pull it is clearly false. Of course, the database file on the phone was not the actual problem. It was sloppy to back it up, but it was more a tell tale sign Apples actual bad behavior. The bad behavior was in reading peoples location from their phone when they were told not to.

Google has allowed you to actually turn off tracking by Google. It is part of the setup procedure in every Android phone. They don't even stop you from using location services if you tell them not to collection our location data. If someone shows that Google reading that data when they have been told not to, I will agree that they have behaved badly.

At this point though Apple hasn't come out and said that they will stop secretly tracking iPhones. They have been specifically vauge about what they collect, but leave enough wiggle room so that they can claim they told you. As it stands, they claim that they are reading your location info. They worded it in a way that most people don't realize they are having their location info transmitted to Apple.

That is sketchy at best. The big question is, are they still reading location data when location services are turned off, or are they just hiding the fact that they are tracking you? Based on what they have said, and just as importantly, what they have not said, it sounds like they are still secretly tracking users.

Not very helpful

[warp_kez]

The update does not help if you are using an older unsupported iPhone or iPod.

Re:Not very helpful

[Belial6]

No one has asked Steve if his an alien from the planet Kanzis either. They have asked him if Apple is tracking their phones. Apple has also acknowledged the question has been asked, and in reply to it, they issued a FAQ for the purpose of clearing the air, and yet they still don't answer the question that they were directly asked. Surly, even an Apple fanboy must understand the difference.

FIX

[Anonymous Coward]

FIX or hide somewhere else?

Re:I'm bummed

[cobrausn]

Right, its a useful 'feature' if they tell you about it and let you turn it off. Otherwise it is covert tracking, even if by accident.

Priorities

[chemosh6969]

I like how there's more outrage over apple tracking users and then denying it than there is over all the suicides and anti-suicide pledges from the workers making these devices.

Re:Fact checking not a requirement for posting?

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

My understanding was that what was being logged was not the users' locations but rather that of the nearest cell tower or hotspot.

Your understanding is flawed. It wasn't logging the nearest cell tower or wifi. It was, based on location, downloading to the phone a list of nearby cell towers and wifi networks (from a crowdsourced database run by Apple) so that when the user used an app that requested the location of the phone, this cache could be used to quickly generate a rough estimate and speed up the GPS location. This is a very useful optimization for most of us and the fact that it allowed people to generate a very rough log of our locations over time was simply an unintended side effect.

Re:Implied Admission?

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

Isn't this (the update) an implied admission that the original software tracking was wrong?

Well, wrong in that it kept a large cache instead of a small one. Most users probably care a lot more about rapidly finding their location all the time than they do about the possibility that someone with access to their phone or an unencrypted backup thereof could generate a very rough estimate of their locations over time.

I don't see how it could have been coded in, and have had the behavior described to it, as an accident.

Then you have no idea what the software was doing. Why don't you find out by doing something crazy like reading.

What will become of the data already collected?

Data wasn't collected. It was downloaded TO the phone and cached there. The "collected data" was collected on your phone and stored there as well as in any backups of your phone. What you do with it is up to you if you have an iPhone.

Re:Implied Admission?

[kwerle]

Isn't this (the update) an implied admission that the original software tracking was wrong? I don't see how it could have been coded in, and have had the behavior described to it, as an accident. What will become of the data already collected?

Good grief. Still want this to be an issue?

Design document:
We want to be able to determine location very very quickly. Much faster than GPS.

Developer: ...OK. I'll just keep a cache of visited towers/wifi and their GPS location cached. That'll be super fast!

That's it, folks. The whole thing. non-jailbroken apps can't read the cache, so nobody cares. The cache never gets sent to Apple, so nobody cares. But it turns out that the cache is backed up to the computer, so people freak out. OH NOES!

Design document:
Make people shut up about this file.

Developer: ...Good grief. OK, I won't back up the cache to iTunes. And while I'm in the code, I'll trim the cache size - looks like it was getting big for some people.

That's it. No story.

Re:Fact checking not a requirement for posting?

[dnahelicase]

My understanding was that what was being logged was not the users' locations but rather that of the nearest cell tower or hotspot. But whatever, hurf durf, Steve wuz spying on us.

OK, so you're justifying Apple tracking their users to within a few hundred yards.

What CAN'T you justify, fanboi?

I might be called a fanboi, but they were caching location data in what seemed like a logical manner to speed up location services. Many users, myself included, enjoy speedier access.

Sure, they should have encrypted it by default, but it's not like their users had any expectation that they weren't being tracked. They were surprised by an unencrypted cache of location data, but ATT, Verizon, Sprint, ???, are already readily tracking user locations of all phones on the network. I would think someone silly if they expected the location services apps they are using aren't tracking them as well.

People that get upset and say "OMG! APPLE IS BIG BROTHER!" are the same people who get upset when very private information on facebook is seen by people they didn't realize could see it.

Re:iPhone 3G? SOL

[syousef]

First, it's 2011. Most OEM's support android phones for months, not years.

Second, people like you are looking for something to qq about. you would complain if your water was wet.

Shut up.

I see so you arguments are:
1) Other manufacturers can be bad, so Apple should be too
2) People should never complain
3) You like to abuse and bully people

I bet you'd defend Apple if they went around with squads killing people and committing atrocities. Brand loyalty is for suckers.

Re:Give me a break

[CharlyFoxtrot]

Whenever they're reporting on Apple related news Slashdot turns into a sort of techie version of Fox News, ignoring basic established facts in favor of their own predetermined truth. It's mind boggling really. You don't have to like Apple but ignoring the facts is no way for a geek to behave.