iOS 4 privacy policy updated: Apple can anonymously collect location data, you can take away iAds' cookies
By Sean Hollister 
posted June 21st 2010 10:31PM
posted June 21st 2010 10:31PM
Speaking of sales and personally identifiable data, another addition to iOS 4 is the ad network iAd, which monitors your browsing habits and interests and serves up targeted advertisements respectively. According to the updated privacy policy, however, you don't need to let the OS do that. Simply navigate to http://oo.apple.com to shut down automated cookie collection, and you'll see boring, generic ads instead.
Where do these iAds pop up at.
@Nvtwist
I really like what Apple did with mobile advertisement.
I think I can speak for the most of you who read Engadget, when we think of Ads, we think of trickery, false images and lying, anything to be done for the user to click the ad.
With iAd, we actually know that the ads will be interactive and really cool, and thats what I really like about iAds.
Im not trying to ride steves job, I just think its about time that ads get fun.
Those who complain about the tiny 15 pixel x 320 pixel space it takes up, I think you should grow out of your selfishness, developers need to make money too.
@Nvtwist Licensees?
@uckApple lol iAd fanboy
@Twoleaf
Totally, i cant wait for iAd v2 to come out, Im going to camp outside the Apple store until they announce it.
@uckApple
No anger here? Really? Compared to the Incredible article with the bookmarked screen shots, this comment section is downright happy!
Bookmark screenshots? HORROR OF HORRORS! People can track us now? Meh. Whatevs.
@Nvtwist Engadget: google's been doing it for years, so don't be hatin' apple! cos we really like them!
@brrip
"but some will no doubt be interested to learn that Apple can monitor your GPS"
Well how else would MobileMe "track my iphone" work if they didn't have remote access to the GPS?
@Nvtwist : "Android's done it for years" ...Way to soften the blow Engadget. :)
@who said what
Lol. No. The change in the privacy policy indicates that it's no longer just for finding your iPhone. That was before, this is now.
@Nvtwist
At the bottom of apps. See here:
http://www.tipb.com/images/stories/2010/04/iphone_4_iad_banner.png
@Nvtwist
That was so black, its not even funny.
@brrip Oh quit whining you silly Android crybabies. When the remote kill on Android was revealed they said the same thing: Apple does it too so it's no big deal. Same goes for everything else that was discovered after the fact that didn't appeal to you people.
Grow up already.
@One Love
'But don't worry Hitler did it for years...'
The interesting thing about privacy concerns like these is when someone steals your phone, your immediate reaction is most likely 'why can't someone (Apple/AT&T) track the thief down and get it back?'. But when they put services in the phone to let them do that, conversation turns to 'do I want someone knowing where I am all the time no matter what I do?'.
Make a choice, you can't have both. You can be tracked to your general location regardless so I'd rather be able to track down a thief.
I would guess one of Apple's intentions here would be to track down missing prototype iPhones and their captors to within pummeling distance though.
@TinWard Sure you can have both. The GPS data can go directly to you via mail for instance. It doesn't need to involve Google or Apple. A simple tracking tool on your phone that can be activated, by for instance sending a mail with a code in it to a certain address, which makes the phone send you mail every 15-30min with it's GPS coordinates.
@One Love At least tracking can be removed from Android devices.
@uckApple ...wow. Big box of iSuppositories coming your way. And that "I just think its about time that ads get fun." really nails the cult mentality everyone loves...geesh.
Everything it is means, anyone should accept it.
HAHAHAHHAHAHA
@potretr
and the point is, nobody reads it
Where do these iAds pop up at?
I'm not scared.. What's the worst that could happen? If anything El Jobso could track me down and offer me a ride in that oh so sweet SL 55 AMG.
@BrandonHarris SL 55 AMG? Boy I sure hope he could do better than that! I just spotted me a SL 65 AMG today.
@Bshaw1090
I don't make this stuff up: http://jalopnik.com/5049431/steve-jobs-barcode-license-plate-mystery-has-been-solved
@BrandonHarris
disappointing aha... i'd have thought he'd have a phantom or mclaren slr or something -_-
So when the full jailbreak options are available / updated, Saurik's Privicy app will block all of that. Hooray!
I don't care who's watching me when I get my iPhone 4 on Thursday.
@doasis23
*puts on all black and ski mask*
Classic Grab and Run
@doasis23
Lol so true, so true.
It says "Unsuccessful Opt Out" for me. Anyone else getting the same thing. Running iOS4 on a 3rd gen iPod Touch.
i'm having that same problem with my iphone 3g running iOS4.
Same here. iPod touch and just installed ios4 this afternoon
@jkster107
I think it's because iads isn't supposed to launch until July
If you can't opt out, they blew it.
Isn't this one of the things Steve says Apple customers are "free" from?
Nah he means Apple customers get it for free. :-)
On another note now I can get those Nikes hella fast cuz they'll know where I live already!
iSpy there's an app for that
This alone isn't enough to sway me either way on iOS. As long as it's kept completely anonymous.
I'm interested in seeing how others will react to this though.
What's so hard to understand about this concept of privacy? No, I don't want to be tracked. Stay the hell out of my personal life! Don't get me wrong, I love my iPhone, but this whole concept of iAd just pisses me off.
@Deleteno5 So, when the time comes, opt out. Simple.
But surely you've already been using ad supported apps from the app store? What's the difference?
@DingoJunior diff is the app you download track you
now its by default, you're tracked even without downloading a "bad app (privacy wise)"
gps tracked by default. 1984 hi.
@Deleteno5 (and all the other privacy paranoids out there)
Two things...
There's a button in Settings>General called "Location Services". Turn it off. If you need it for a minute, turn it back on, then turn it off again.
When searching for apps, don't download anything that is iAd supported. Pay more money for an ad-free version.
I don't see what the big conspiracy is, there's a big blue slider that can turn all this off in one tap...
That seems simple enough.
Google collect an incredible amount of data on us. I haven't stopped using their services yet.
@Dale P
Exactly. I get ads in my Gmail that are related to whatever was in my email. That means Google is reading my email... my personal email from one person to another. Even if it's just some Google server collecting keywords from my personal emails... it's still creepy.
But, Gmail is free... and all of the other free email services do it too.
@Dale P
With android you can turn location based services/ads off completely easily.
@neoelectrex Turning off location based services is easy on iOS, too. I haven't tried turning off iAds yet. I'll let you know how I fare.
Google collect far more data about us than Apple ever could. Provided both organisations give us some control over what they collect and how it's used, I don't care.
@Dale P
They don't "collect" data. None of them do. It's all in temporary files in anonymous format. I don't think even Google has enough storage to hold all of the location and search results of every gmail, android, youtube, etc. account.
I don't think neither Apple nor Google wants to take the risk of permanently storing this many peoples personal information.
@Michael Scrip Google all up in your shit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrontojPWEE
@Special Agent Steve You must have heard very different things about Google's data capacity, then. Their data centers are numerous and ridiculous. Here's an article about some of their server tech to give you an idea:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10209580-92.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
I certainly don't think they do any evil, big brother things with their data. For them it's purely about statistically matching ads to eyeballs.
@Special Agent Steve You are joking right?
Almost every email programm analyses emails for Spam on the fly. You need no Server farm for that, even netbooks are powerfull enough. Let's say Logging a search query cost you 100 bytes then you can store 10 Mio request in a GB and that today costs almost nothing. Anonymous doen't mean you can't deanonymize it. IP addresses are also often considered anonymous, but P2P Users have a different opinion on that.