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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."
I'm pretty sure it was a feature, not a bug.
The update does not help if you are using an older unsupported iPhone or iPod.
FIX or hide somewhere else?
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.
How does it feel to be a liar with pants constantly on fire?
You can't do something "covertly" "by accident", because covert implies it was done on purpose.
Two years is double or four times as long as other phone providers.
A Sony Ericsson phone is effectively abandonware as soon as you buy one. A HTC phone is released every 6-12 months and with such a large number of phones to support you won't see many or any updates after 12 months.
Apple's support for the iPhone is pretty exception in the mobile phone market. So unless you can provide an example of a mobile operator who provided support after two years I think you need to stop whining.
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.
I think it's more an issue of them thinking that it wouldn't really bother anyone, especially that the point of it was to help the GPS function run better. So this update is probably going to increase GPS location speeds in certain cases (ie. if you're somewhere you haven't been for a while). Apple have said that the data will have its lifespan reduced (ie. it will only keep a short amount of time worth of updates), thus enabling it to still actually work. Also if you turn off Location Services, then the data file will get deleted.
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.
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.
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.
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.
regardless, this demonstrates the benefits of free software. A similar phone loaded with aosp would have lifetime updates thanks to cyanogenmod.
Since it didn't actually track your location, only present a database of known network points around you, you actually couldn't use it to track anything. I had a look at my own data and you couldn't tell where I lived or worked from it, and those are places I go every day.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The database is not of the nearest tower or hotspot. It is of many nearby ones, (e.g. within dozens of miles). By having this cache of local known positions, the GPS can resolve in seconds, rather than in minutes.
Look at any analysis of the actual data and you'll see that the points do a very poor job of tracking locations. Some of the points are predictions on where you might go. The point of a cache is to have the data at hand before it's needed, so that when it is needed, it's right there. It's possible he was somewhere near Las Vegas is not tracking.
OK, so Apple's warranty is for only one year. As far as I know, they haven't violated any of the terms of their 25 page contract I never read. As far as I can tell, their support is as good as any cell phone company. (Not a high bar to get over.) So you're justified in calling me a whiner.
Still, after paying more for that phone than I've paid for some computers, I'm pretty unhappy with Apple. I've been using Apple computers continuously (but not exclusively) since 1985. I guess I'm pining for the days when a computer was still pretty useful and still getting updates 5 years after you bought it.
I really don't want to start another 2 year commitment on a smartphone. And the iPad I'm considering looks like less of a bargain if it is going to be made intentionally obsolete in 2 years.
And People still can't stop making shit up! There is one file. (the Cache) its not hidden. It contains locations of cell towers and wi-fi APs. It does not contain the users location. The data for each tower was over written and only logged when towers came into range. As such the data never could be used to "trace some ones every move". The data would only show the general location of the user (being somewhere near a tower). The app that showed the locations sensationalized the whole thing by showing a week or mores worth of data by default putting in many more data points. Many days would actually contain few or no data points at all. And no one has shown this data being sent to Apple.
Yeah clearly that data needs to be synchronised to iTunes
OK, one last time for the cheap seats: Apple syncs everything as part of an iPhone backup. They do this so that when you restore from backup you get the device back to its backed up state (kinda the point), temporary files included. When you actually look at a backup all manner of cache files are included. It is not only a backup of data, it's a backup of device state.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
1) Other manufacturers can be bad, so Apple should be too
No but ragging on the one which actually comes out ahead of most, if not all, manufacturers in terms of official support is disingenuous. iPhone 3G was supported from july 2008 to march 2011, that's nearly 3 years worth of OS updates for that model of phone. Its successor, the iPhone 3GS, was released june 2009 at which time the writing was on the wall for the older hardware but it was supported well after that.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
WHAT you mean that when I click the button that says use location services the the phone secretly uses location services!!! I'm shocked NOW SHUT UP!
No, the problem is that when you say "Don't use location services", Apple continues to use if anyways.
No, you (and the GGP) are wrong.
I suggest that before installing the update you try for yourself to access the infamous database from your latest iPhone backup. (One of the "fixes" in the iOS 4.3.3 update is that the database will no longer be backed-up). You can get the instructions on how to locate the SQLite database and how to open the CellLocation table using the SQLite Manager plug-in for Firefox directly from the people that "discovered" the issue. The most relevant fields are Timestamp, Latitude and Longitude.
The timestamp field shows the time of an entry in seconds since January 1st, 2001, at 0:00. The first shocking thing is that the data is not acquired continuously or at a regular interval, but rather in "blobs". Each of these "blobs" of data will have several entries, some five or less, but most (in my case) have 60 or more, *many* more, sometimes over 100. All those entries have literally the EXACT SAME timestamp, to the microsecond. I can't believe that my iPhone sees more than 100 different WiFi stations and cell towers at the SAME time.
Furthermore, most of the many entries for each particular "blob" happen to be several miles (up to 25) from the location where I know I was at that particular timestamp (say, midnight on a Wednesday). And indeed the info is close to useless: the average of all the 121 entries in the blob in a particular case was over 1.5 miles away from my actual location, and even the average of the 15 points closest to me (note that that required a priori knowledge of what you are looking for: my location) was 0.55 miles away.
My point is: Apple may be collecting the data from the radio logs to create their famous "crowdsourced" database, but the CellLocation table, which is the center of the whole issue, is not data from the radio logs of your specific device.
The data wasn't sync the users folder was the file just happened to be in it. HEY IDIOT THAT"S WHY ITS CALLED A BACKUP.
If it's temp data it DOESN't NEED TO BE BACKED UP. See, I can yell too.
The irony is fanboys such as yourself are this abusive and don't get modded down, but anyone daring to criticise the great Apple (all hail!) gets modded into oblivion. I'm not the idiot here.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
1) Other manufacturers can be bad, so Apple should be too
No but ragging on the one which actually comes out ahead of most, if not all, manufacturers in terms of official support is disingenuous.
You're kidding me, right? This is the same manufacturer that's famous for selling a phone that drops out if you hold it wrong, and screens that scratch if you look at them harshly.
I've had few things from Apple and their support is my #2 reason for disliking them. My #1 reason is lockdown and crippling in order to sell the next model. #3 is their draconian control of the sales channels.
Every product I've owned or used at work from Apple has given me nothing but trouble. Just junk, and their customer service stinks. Apple is NOT geek friendly, is NOT stylish and does NOT provide good support.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
that was a quote from 6 months ago, repackaged to look like it was said in response to the latest location conspiracy.
Like anyone can even know that
No, it was in the news in July, and then somebody took it and made it look like it had anything to do with this issue. It doesn't.
The information was talking about using people's locations to provide services. Kind of important when you expect your Cheap Gas Finder app to show you prices that are nearby, and such things.
From your posts in this thread, your clear grinding axe and your belligerent "Apple can do no right" dogma, I suspect that the reason "every Apple product" gives you trouble is down to the common factor in all of those interactions: you.
Given today's flurry of posts in this thread your neckbeard must be seriously chafed.
What about licenses and DRM which tie purchases to device, meaning restoring to a different device you can lose your data. (Don't care if it allos 2, or 3 or 5 devices....bottom line if you have trouble with your phone you can lose more than the worth of the phone).
Are you daft, bro? Do you actually have any idea of what you're talking about or just spewing random hater crap?
I've backed up and restored the same image onto THREE DIFFERENT IPHONES now. Including my upgrade from a 3G to a 4. And can you guess how much data I've lost? Bingo! Not a single app. Not a single song. Not a single video.
Go back under your bridge, troll.
That's even more disingenuous. It was never a cache. Your phone told Apple where cell towers and hotspots were. Apple anonymized and aggregated the data. Your phone then downloaded a subset of that dataset from areas that it guessed might be useful to you. That's it. Nothing to do with your actual location at all.
And yes, it was user data so it was backed up and moved to a new phone if you switched. Why the hell would you want to download a NEW dataset when you already had one?
Try reading some. It doesn't hurt much.
Most cell towers have your location because they need to know what cell tower you should be using at that time.
I never said that it was better to use only GPS, but it's point was that GPS only was not enough. Which is bull****- GPS (only) has been enough for loads of applications for a while now, you have to remember that the first pure GPS's were not your phone. It was those little black boxes that simply used satellites to know where you are. They had no wifi or GSM antennae and still worked.
Obviously that anything that assists you on getting a GPS fix faster is good. But it's not essential.