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Apple responds to location tracking controversy
This morning, Apple officially responded to the location tracking controversy that has plagued the Cupertino company. [Apple executives, including Steve Jobs, spoke on the record with AllThingsD about the issue.] In a press release, Apple asserted that it is not tracking user locations (despite suggestions to the contrary). The 'configuration.db' file stored on the handset includes a database of local cell towers and WiFi hotspots; this cache is used to assist in location services and speed up the device's 'fix' in identifying where it is; a GPS-only fix without any hints from other information could date several minutes. The locations in the file don't represent the phone's actual location, according to Apple; the points recorded may be up to 100 miles away from the phone's true location. The fact that the location data is kept for so long? That's a bug, according to Apple. To ameliorate any further problems, Apple will issue a software update to: reduce the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone cease backing up this cache delete this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off This update will land on handsets in the upcoming weeks. A future update will also encrypt this information and make it less readily available to spying eyes. The 'locationgate' tempest blew up last week when a pair of researchers published a report that revealed Apple was storing months worth of location data on the iPhone and 3G iPad. This information was originally discovered last year and flew under the radar until the iPhone Tracker app let users see the stored location data. This data moves from the phone to the user's computer when the iOS device syncs via iTunes. The iPhone Tracker app grabs the data from the user's computer and displays it in a map that was an eye-opener for most people. This revelation spurned an angry letter from Minnesota senator Al Franken and at least one lawsuit. Show full PR text April 27, 2011 08:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time Apple Q&A on Location Data CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apple would like to respond to the questions we have recently received about the gathering and use of location information by our devices. 1. Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone? Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so. 2. Then why is everyone so concerned about this? Providing mobile users with fast and accurate location information while preserving their security and privacy has raised some very complex technical issues which are hard to communicate in a soundbite. Users are confused, partly because the creators of this new technology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues to date. 3. Why is my iPhone logging my location? The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it's maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested. Calculating a phone's location using just GPS satellite data can take up to several minutes. iPhone can reduce this time to just a few seconds by using Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data to quickly find GPS satellites, and even triangulate its location using just Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data when GPS is not available (such as indoors or in basements). These calculations are performed live on the iPhone using a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data that is generated by tens of millions of iPhones sending the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple. 4. Is this crowd-sourced database stored on the iPhone? The entire crowd-sourced database is too big to store on an iPhone, so we download an appropriate subset (cache) onto each iPhone. This cache is protected but not encrypted, and is backed up in iTunes whenever you back up your iPhone. The backup is encrypted or not, depending on the user settings in iTunes. The location data that researchers are seeing on the iPhone is not the past or present location of the iPhone, but rather the locations of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers surrounding the iPhone's location, which can be more than one hundred miles away from the iPhone. We plan to cease backing up this cache in a software update coming soon (see Software Update section below). 5. Can Apple locate me based on my geo-tagged Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data? No. This data is sent to Apple in an anonymous and encrypted form. Apple cannot identify the source of this data. 6. People have identified up to a year's worth of location data being stored on the iPhone. Why does my iPhone need so much data in order to assist it in finding my location today? This data is not the iPhone's location data-it is a subset (cache) of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database which is downloaded from Apple into the iPhone to assist the iPhone in rapidly and accurately calculating location. The reason the iPhone stores so much data is a bug we uncovered and plan to fix shortly (see Software Update section below). We don't think the iPhone needs to store more than seven days of this data. 7. When I turn off Location Services, why does my iPhone sometimes continue updating its Wi-Fi and cell tower data from Apple's crowd-sourced database? It shouldn't. This is a bug, which we plan to fix shortly (see Software Update section below). 8. What other location data is Apple collecting from the iPhone besides crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data? Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years. 9. Does Apple currently provide any data collected from iPhones to third parties? We provide anonymous crash logs from users that have opted in to third-party developers to help them debug their apps. Our iAds advertising system can use location as a factor in targeting ads. Location is not shared with any third party or ad unless the user explicitly approves giving the current location to the current ad (for example, to request the ad locate the Target store nearest them). 10. Does Apple believe that personal information security and privacy are important? Yes, we strongly do. For example, iPhone was the first to ask users to give their permission for each and every app that wanted to use location. Apple will continue to be one of the leaders in strengthening personal information security and privacy. Software Update Sometime in the next few weeks Apple will release a free iOS software update that: reduces the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone, ceases backing up this cache, and deletes this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off. In the next major iOS software release the cache will also be encrypted on the iPhone. NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit Apple's PR website (www.apple.com/pr), or call Apple's Media Helpline at (408) 974-2042. © 2011 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, iPhone and iTunes are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
A roundup of today's "Locationgate" news
Last week's news that relatively imprecise cell phone tower location data from iPhones is stored in a file that is backed up onto your computer seems to be gathering a lot of attention. It was even the main topic of discussion on last night's TUAW Talkcast. "Locationgate" began when two researchers released a Mac app (iPhone Tracker) that not only finds the file on your computer, but also displays that information. The iPhone Tracker plot of my location information (seen above) shows that I seem to spend a lot of time in the Denver area. That's not surprising, since that's where I live. Bloomberg reported that the South Korean government has contacted Apple for information about location information collection. In South Korea, the collection of GPS coordinates violates privacy laws, so the government wants to know how the information is stored and whether users can choose to turn off the storage of location data. The Korea Communications Commission also wants to know why Apple captures the information and if it is stored on the company's servers. South Korea isn't the only country in which privacy advocates are up in arms -- French, American, German and Italian regulators also want to know why Apple collects the information. Razorian Fly notes that Apple has already explained why it collects and store this data in a letter to the US Congress last year. Basically, it's done so Apple has its own location services and is not dependent on Google or Skyhook for that information. It's this location data that your iPhone queries when it initially tries to figure out where it is, before the device locks onto the GPS satellite constellation.
