Apple is tracking me around the East Side. Creepy.
Note, I’ve (proudly) never been north of Cedarburg. So some of these towers have a long reach. And this tracking has been going on since before the iPhone 4 because my once-in-a-lifetime-if-I-can-help-it trip to Vegas (for Ari’s bachelor party in 2009) is also dutifully recorded.
By the way, I don’t think we’ve learned anything new yet about the iPhone or who is monitoring us and when. We know that the AT&T knows where we are all the time. I trust Apple more than AT&T (perhaps foolishly). We also know that we can let apps track us and mostly people who even stay away from location based social networking probably let the camera app record their locations in each photo. Today’s revelation isn’t that different in terms of privacy risks.
Do we even know if Apple grabs this database from us? To me the questions involve what they do with the data if they in fact have it. Maybe they use it to bully cell carriers to upgrade their networks based on usage patterns. I’m okay with Apple being my advocate with a fist full of aggregate data. I really don’t want anyone tracking me individually, certainly not in real time. But so far it doesn’t seem like Apple is doing that at least with this newly revealed database.
More from details from DF and Ars has the scoop on Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) request to Apple for more information.
UPDATE: It doesn’t look like there is too much going on here. Gruber suggests that Apple should be deleting the older locations. But I don’t see how that would really change things too much. I still think we’re all much more likely to be affected by a privacy violation through AT&T and not the device itself.
And David Pogue’s take:
Meanwhile, accept it: Yes, Big Brother is watching you. But he’s been watching you for years, well before the iPhone log came to light, and in many more ways than you suspect. And you know what? I’ll bet he’s bored to tears.
