My 1st Blog: The iPhone tracking fiasco and what you can do about it

Thursday, April 21, 2011

The iPhone tracking fiasco and what you can do about it

By now you've no doubt heard about a certain iOS database file called consolidated.db. It made quite a splash yesterday when a pair of researchers, Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, from O'Reilly Media announced the "iPhone tracking software" the duo had "discovered hidden on the phones." Here's the problem: they didn't discover it, at least not originally. The file, known to hold large amounts of geolocation data collected from WiFi access points and cell-towers, has been probed by forensic experts ever since the retail launch of the iPhone 4 back in June of 2010. Hell, Sean Morrissey and Alex Levinson published a physical book on the topic back in December 2010, entire excerpts of which can easily be found on Google. So either the team from O'Reilly is being disingenuous with its claims or it's being lazy.

Regardless, the story laid dormant for months until the O'Reilly team was able to visualize the data in a very personal way. Running the team's open-source iPhoneTracker software to see the detailed locations of our worldly travels is absolutely fascinating. Imagining the same data file in the hands of a stalker, misguided detective, or a jealous lover is downright creepy.

But how is it possible that an issue like this has avoided the tech community at large for more than a year? And more importantly, what can you do about it? Read on to find out.

Update: A timely discovery from Vishal -- here's a note from Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell [PDF] to Congressmen Edward Markey and Joe Barton, providing a detailed look at its privacy policy, presumably regarding this issue.

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The iPhone tracking fiasco and what you can do about it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 11:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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