{"id":2255,"date":"2011-04-20T14:29:45","date_gmt":"2011-04-20T18:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/?p=2255"},"modified":"2011-04-20T14:29:45","modified_gmt":"2011-04-20T18:29:45","slug":"ios-devices-are-tracking-each-and-every-movement-we-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/04\/20\/ios-devices-are-tracking-each-and-every-movement-we-make\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2605 iOS Devices are Tracking Each and Every Movement we Make"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today, at Where 2.0<\/a> in San Jose,\u00a0Pete Warden and Alasdair Allan will announce <\/a>that they have discovered iPhones and iPads with 3G are tracking our location at nearly every moment of the day since the release of iOS 4 last year. The location data is possibly retrieved from triangulation of cell phone towers (using Skyhook Wireless’ technology) or is polling the GPS’ location information from time to time. The truth is, mobile phone carriers have always had this data even when cell phones were used for calls and had limited data capabilities. It was always understood that this data was private but, according to the folks at O’Reilly, this data is stored on your device and and in your iTunes folder on the computer that you use to sync. Also, the file,\u00a0“consolidated.db<\/a>” is unencrypted and easy to copy if your computer’s security is compromised.<\/p>\n

Alasdair on what is stored in this file:<\/p>\n

This contains latitude-longitude coordinates along with a timestamp. The coordinates aren’t always exact, but they are pretty detailed. There can be tens of thousands of data points in this file, and it appears the collection started with iOS 4, so there’s typically around a year’s worth of information at this point. Our best guess is that the location is determined by cell-tower triangulation, and the timing of the recording is erratic, with a widely varying frequency of updates that may be triggered by traveling between cells or activity on the phone itself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The easiest way to secure this file is to set your iTunes backups to encrypted which can be configured within iTunes. You can set this up with info detailed in this Apple Knowledge Base article<\/a>.\u00a0On Apple’s reasoning, Alasdair adds, “We’re not sure why Apple is gathering this data, but it’s clearly intentional, as the database is being restored across backups, and even device migrations.”<\/p>\n

iPhone & iPad users can review what their devices have been storing using a piece of software developed by Pete Warden and published to the web here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can see more details in this video published today by O’Reilly to YouTube<\/a>:<\/p>\n[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GynEFV4hsA0&w=640&h=390]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today, at Where 2.0 in San Jose,\u00a0Pete Warden and Alasdair Allan will announce that they have discovered iPhones…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-technology","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-An","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4684,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/06\/08\/linked-stalking-your-friends-with-facebook-messenger\/","url_meta":{"origin":2255,"position":0},"title":"Linked: “Stalking Your Friends with Facebook Messenger”","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"June 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"via Medium: Go ahead and see how many messages in your chats have locations attached. I\u2019m guessing it\u2019s a lot of them. And if this isn't already starting to get a bit weird, the first thing I noticed when I started to write my code was that the latitude and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3301,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/12\/01\/who-disables-location-services\/","url_meta":{"origin":2255,"position":1},"title":"\u2605 Who Disables Location Services?","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"December 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"John Gruber of Daring Fireball: On iOS the setting is off by default, plainly labeled, and even when turned on,\u00a0apparently only logs (a) location data and (b) when a phone call was active. And it doesn\u2019t even log location data if Location Services are disabled \u2014 a setting which, again,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7296,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2018\/01\/08\/my-ios-homescreen-2017\/","url_meta":{"origin":2255,"position":2},"title":"My iOS Homescreen 2017","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"January 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I haven\u2019t done this in a few years although I am in the habit of taking SpringBoard screenshots every year which do act as time capsules for me. Both devices are very organized for optimal usability in the kind of things I do on them. There are obviously some changes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"My iOS Homescreen 2017","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4687\/39546413032_2fe42bd3e6.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4719,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/06\/25\/tapping-into-passive-goodwill-with-smartphones\/","url_meta":{"origin":2255,"position":3},"title":"Tapping into passive goodwill with Smartphones","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"June 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"On FieldGuide, there is an article titled, \u201c4 Ways to Use Your Smartphone for a Good Cause\u201d. I\u2019ve been thinking about this for a while both personally and professionally. Today\u2019s modern cellular phone collects more data than we ever could have envisioned. My iPhone and Apple Watch inform me of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2287,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/04\/27\/apple-qa-on-location-data\/","url_meta":{"origin":2255,"position":4},"title":"\u2605 Apple Q&A on Location Data","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"April 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Apple.com\/PR: 3. Why is my iPhone logging my location? The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it\u2019s 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5321,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/01\/07\/technology-my-2015-ios-homescreens\/","url_meta":{"origin":2255,"position":5},"title":"Technology: My 2015 iOS Homescreens","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"January 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Inspired by ParisLemon\u2019s post on Medium: This was another banner year of basically giving up on more cutting-edge stuff. In December, I installed Overcast and Slack despite using the built-in Podcast app for years and doing all of my messaging through Google Voice. Slack is used by only my GF\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"iOS 2015 Homescreen (iPhone 6S)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1496\/24121741282_10147502e9_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}