★ Who Disables Location Services?

John Gruber of Daring Fireball:

On iOS the setting is off by default, plainly labeled, and even when turned on, apparently only logs (a) location data and (b) when a phone call was active. And it doesn’t even log location data if Location Services are disabled — a setting which, again, is plainly labeled and easy to find.

I can’t think of a single iOS user (technical or non-technical) that has ever had location services disabled mostly because disabling it equals nagging screens in every social app and apps like Google Maps and navigation apps like.

During the iOS 5 setup process, you’re asked two questions related to this. The first asks if you want to enable location services. If you don’t, you’ll be nagged to do so hourly by apps and the second questions asks about sending anonymous usage data to Apple. Most users enable both of these features and disabling the usage data transmission takes a few taps to find for novice users.

Apple on Anonymous Location Data Collection:

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.

They’re collecting this data to build a commercial product. I’m not for or against it but everyone should know that Apple may not be collecting keystrokes but they know where you are even if the transmission from your device is completely anonymous. This data is HUGE.