phonetracking
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London Underground will track everyone's Tube trip via WiFi
Transport for London, the UK capital's transit authority, will start collecting data on how people move around the Underground system by tracking phones and other connected devices using its extensive WiFi network. The agency's systems will depersonalize the data automatically and won't pick up any browsing or historical information from the devices. The data should offer sturdier details on how people move around the Tube system and even within stations, which will help the agency with long-term planning and providing effective updates to travelers.
Stringray phone tracker use in the UK admitted for the first time
Stingray devices that can intercept mobile calls, track users and block signals are definitely being used in the UK, it's come to light. The first official confirmation that these "IMSI catchers" are out in the wild comes from the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), by way of a freedom of information request from The Ferret. Stringrays have been installed in two Scottish prisons (only one is still active, apparently) to jam the outgoing calls of inmates -- mobile phones being contraband behind bars and all.
Supreme Court dismisses appeal based on warrantless phone search
It's hard to forget a name like Quartavious Davis, but let us remind you anyway: he was sentenced to 162 years in prison with no possibility of parole for a number of armed robberies in Miami. His target locations included big name outlets, such as Walgreens and Wendy's. Now, the Supreme Court's nine justices have rejected the appeal he filed -- based on the fact that feds obtained his phone data without a warrant -- to overturn his conviction. As you may have guessed, authorities used his phone data as evidence in court, showing that his device connected to cell towers near the target locations when they were robbed to make and take calls.
The IRS has used Stingray phone-tracking tech
This year, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice have thankfully put into place more stringent regulations on how government agencies can use "Stingray" cellphone-tracking devices. However, we're also learning more about how widespread usage of such tools was within the government: Today, The Guardian reports that the Internal Revenue Service made purchases in 2009 and 2012 of Stingray equipment from manufacturer Harris Corporation. The documents it received as part of a Freedom of Information Act request were heavily redacted but still revealed that in 2012, the IRS paid more than $65,000 to upgrade previous Stingray equipment to a newer version called the HailStorm.
Mango kills Microsoft's always-on location tracking, makes good on letter to House of Representatives
Remember all that iPhone tracking hubbub back in April? Sure you do -- you probably also recall Apple's denial, the subsequent Senate hearing, and the rest of the fiasco's dramatic fallout. Amid the ballyhoo, Microsoft stepped out to admit that its Windows Phone also collected location data, but quickly promised to knock it off following the next scheduled update. According to ChevronWP7 collaborator Rafael Rivera, Windows Phone 7.5 cinches it: Mango "no longer sends location data prior to being granted permission to do so." Redmond previously told the US House of Representatives that it only collected location data if a user expressly allowed an application to send it along -- a claim which Rivera debunked last week, noting that simply launching the camera application captured and transmitted "pin-point accurate positioning information." The big M maintains that the collected location data was anonymous, and that it shouldn't have been sent at all unless the user allowed it. Either way, Microsoft's chapter in the big location tracking blunder of 2011 seems to be at a close, squaring the firm with Congress, its developers, and hopefully its customers.
Apple iCloud and iWork beta for iOS hands-on
We've had a few weeks to get accustomed to iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion, but one headlining feature has been notably inaccessible since it was unveiled earlier this summer. During his WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs touted iCloud as a service that will sync many of your Apple devices, for free. Macs, iPhones, iPads, and even Windows computers can synchronize documents, contacts, calendar appointments, and other data. You'll also be able to back up your iOS devices remotely, use an Apple-hosted email account, and store your music in the cloud. Well, this week Apple finally lit up its cloud-based service for developers, letting some of us take a sneak peek at the new service. Apple also announced pricing, confirming that you'll be able to add annual subscriptions with 10GB ($20), 20GB ($40), or 50GB ($100) of storage 'atop your free 5GB account. We took our five gig account for a spin, creating documents in Pages, spreadsheets in Numbers, and presentations in Keynote, then accessing them from the iCloud web interface to download Microsoft Office and PDF versions. We also tried our luck at iOS data syncing and the soon-to-be-controversial Photo Stream, so jump past the break for our full iCloud hands-on.%Gallery-129793%
Microsoft outlines WP7 tracking policy, promises to cut it out
Microsoft has managed to avoid a good deal of the heat surrounding the smartphone tracking freakout of the past few weeks, largely missing out on the media finger pointing and, unlike Apple and Google, avoiding the Senate hearings. For those worried that Redmond got off scot-free, have no fear -- Congress asked the company to respond to questions via letter, and Windows Phone head Andy Lees happily replied, stating that, while the OS does, in fact, have tracking built-in, it's intended for "landmarks not users," collecting the locations of things like cell towers and WiFi access points. Just to be safe, Lees also promised that, like the iOS 4.3.3 fix, the next WP7 update will do away with some of that controversial tracking.
