The Guardian reports that independent researchers Pete Warden, a former Apple employee, and Alasdair Allan, a data visualisation scientist, announced today at Where 2.0 that they’ve explored a file hidden inside iOS backups which appears to track the location of the device going back as far as the installation of iOS4. [The first indications of location data in this file were actually brought up some time ago, but with substantially less fanfare. -Ed.]
The above map shows data taken from a test iPhone, and shows a detailed history of the phone’s movements around the south of England. Warden and Allan have put up a page with a FAQ discussing their findings and an Open Source software tool you can run on your own backups to see what you iPhone knows about you. They’ve also published a video demonstrating the problem.
Particularly worrying is that this file is unencrypted on the device (and on your Mac or PC, unless you encrypt your iTunes backups) and so easily accessible by anyone with access to your computer’s iTunes backups folder or with jailbreak access to your device. Because of the way iTunes handles backup-and-restore, the data will even automatically persist across devices if you replace your iPhone.
Continue reading Your iPhone is silently and constantly logging your location
Your iPhone is silently and constantly logging your location originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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