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iPhones Secretly Send Call History To Apple, Security Firm Says (theintercept.com)
Russian digital forensics Elcomsoft says iPhones send near real-time logs to Apple servers even when iCloud backup is switched off. The firm adds that these logs are stored for up to four months. From a report on the Intercept:"You only need to have iCloud itself enabled" for the data to be sent, said Vladimir Katalov, CEO of Elcomsoft. The logs surreptitiously uploaded to Apple contain a list of all calls made and received on an iOS device, complete with phone numbers, dates and times, and duration. They also include missed and bypassed calls. Elcomsoft said Apple retains the data in a user's iCloud account for up to four months, providing a boon to law enforcement who may not be able to obtain the data either from the user's carrier, who may retain the data for only a short period, or from the user's device, if it's encrypted with an unbreakable passcode. "Absolutely this is an advantage [for law enforcement]," Robert Osgood, a former FBI supervisory agent who now directs a graduate program in computer forensics at George Mason University, said of Apple's call-history uploads. "Four months is a long time [to retain call logs]. It's generally 30 or 60 days for telecom providers, because they don't want to keep more [records] than they absolutely have to. So if Apple is holding data for four months, that could be a very interesting data repository and they may have data that the telecom provider might not."
Well, that's one way to ensure that your off-shore revenue doesn't get touched by the US govt -- provide users' call data to the US govt in exchange for the favor.
Sorry, wireless companies keep records a hell of a lot longer than that. Just log into your wireless account and look at your bill history. That info is not secure if they issue a warrant to the company for your phone records.
But sorry, please start the Apple hate machine....
"Also I'm still a little pissed that my BLU smartphone has been sending my SMS messages to China"
Only a LITTLE pissed? Interesting.
I used this just today actually - I left my phone in my bedroom on it's charger, and I missed a call. I was able to click a 'redial' button on my MacBook Pro and return the call.
It was rather convenient, actually.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
I'm sorry but the people selling you phone service keeping logs of your phone calls is one thing, the people that just made the phone have no business at all logging that data for any reason. But I guess it's ok though because apple did it and apple can do no wrong.
With iCloud enabled calls to your iPhone are also routed to iPads or Macs so you can answer via FaceTime. Apple is "integrating" with your phone service provider.