Is Your iPhone Stalking You?

Posted Apr 21, 2011 at 2:30AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: iOS Tags: apple, ios, news

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I always thought that ‘80s hit by pop band The Police titled “Every Step You Take” sounded more creepy than romantic, and this new report by security experts brings that song to mind. A report by security researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden claims that your iPhone or iPad is tracking every place you go and sharing the info with other devices that can sync with the Apple mobile gadgets. If that wasn’t creepy enough, the data isn’t even encrypted, so crazy stalkers, nosy bosses, disgruntled exes and others that you don’t want to know your every move can view it. The security guys discovered that devices running iOS 4 are keeping a record of time-stamped coordinates inside a file named “consolidated.db.” Connect your device to a computer and the file can be copied onto the hard drive, allowing anyone who opens the file to find out where you’ve been. If the viewer happens to be a psycho who’s obsessed with you, or a jealous spouse who thinks you’re having an affair, they can also fantasize about what you’ve been doing there. Are you getting paranoid yet? Does this happen on all mobile phones? While most cellphone carriers collect such data, they keep it behind a firewall, Apple has made it possible for anyone to track your movements. Thanks, Apple. Are any other smartphones vulnerable to this snooping? Warden says not. “Alasdair has looked for similar tracking code in [Google’s] Android phones and couldn’t find any. We haven’t come across any instances of other phone manufacturers doing this.”

So why is Apple doing it? Warden and Alasdair posted this theory on their site. “One guess might be that they have new features in mind that require a history of your location, but that’s pure speculation. The fact that it’s transferred across devices when you restore or migrate is evidence the data-gathering isn’t accidental.” OK, Apple—how about a new iOS update that will allow users to opt out of this “service.” Especially if they happen to be running from someone who wants to harm them. Or are having an affair they don't want their SO to find out about.

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