Steve Jobs is tracking you..

[Junai]

Security researchers have discovered that Apple's iPhone keeps track of where you go

[LadyCrimson]

I have nothing to back it up, but I'd guess this isn't iphone specific these days. That is, with all the tracking, gps, bla bla stuff being added to cars, phones, and the kitchen toaster, the notion of true privacy, while always a bit of an illusion, is becoming something you can't even pretend to have anymore. Get used to it. That said, if this is primarily because of all the GPS type programs/uses, such devices should probably have prominent warnings about possible info-risks of using them. You'd be surprised how many ppl forget/don't realize what it can mean.

 

Like, on Twitter, I refuse to allow 'tweet my location' function to be on, and I don't understand the trend of ppl liking to use apps that broadcast their location ("I'm at Mr Boggle's Beer Bar on 123 Ave!") from their phones to win 'titles'. Don't get that at all.

 

...another reason I haven't bought a cell phone yet. And I'm not looking forward to the day when I finally have to buy one of these overly computerized, chipped & gps'd cars, either. Or whatever.

Edited April 20, 2011 by LadyCrimson

[Junai]

Get used to it.

 

 

It's true, people don't seem to care. Last month the Norwegian government decided to implement the EU data retention directive, which allows the police access to every citizen's internet traffic-data. Combined with the iPhone tracker it shouldn't be too hard for them to monitor every Apple-customer's movements continuously.

 

I guess in our collective consciousness the free peoples of the west have decided we've had enough of freedom. We need to be disciplined again? A return to the old Eastern Germany surveilance and zekret polize! I'm ready for it though. Having spent 3 yrs in a buddhist monestary I'm used to having no personal life or personal boundaries. I just don't think the average citizen is ready for a return to ye olde DDR. Especially Americans.

 

 

J.

[Guest The Architect]

Steve Jobs can suck my ****.

[Humodour]

Steve Jobs can also suck my **** while he's at it.

 

More dirt on Apple: International Trade court sides with Nokia and HTC in Apple's lawsuit against them: http://www.rethink-wireless.com/2011/04/20...ainst-apple.htm

 

Meanwhile Apple's newer lawsuit against Samsung reeks of desperation, is full of inconsistencies, and is amusing considering Samsung is Apple's main chip and part supplier... talk about biting the hand that feeds: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383820,00.asp

[Humodour]

Having spent 3 yrs in a buddhist monestary I'm used to having no personal life or personal boundaries.

 

I, too, have recently spent 3 years in a Buddhist monastery. Brothers?

[kirottu]

I have nothing to back it up, but I'd guess this isn't iphone specific these days.

 

According to a finnish news site this is iphone specific.

[Walsingham]

Does anyone mind if Steve Jobs stays the hell away from my undercarriage?

 

I agree that people don't seem to give a ****. Yet if the government did this there would be an uproar and riots!

 

I loved the justification in the license people sign: that Apple needs to be have the data so it can improve its advertising! By all means track me like a pet poodle, provided it means I get my cortex palpated more expertly!

 

I don't have, and strongly resist using a smartphone. I have a simple ruggedised phone, with a large battery, and most of the time it's turned off.

[Humodour]

Smartphones are amazing. Get one. If only for Wikipedia and Google at your fingertips anywhere.

 

Just don't buy Apple products (i.e. avoid iPad, iPhone). The Android range are awesome and have good privacy (turn off the GPS if you're afraid someone will track you anymore than they already can simply be the fact that any mobile phone is on the grid).

 

Personally I have an 'old' Nokia N900. I believe they're discontinued now. Except I've tried lots of smartphones since and nothing quite compares to it. Helps that it has a full Firefox browser and the processing power to run it smoothly.

 

On that note anybody know if you can download Firefox for Android? I don't want those ****ty mobile browsers which load mobile versions of sites.

[Junai]

Having spent 3 yrs in a buddhist monestary I'm used to having no personal life or personal boundaries.

 

I, too, have recently spent 3 years in a Buddhist monastery. Brothers?

I'm not ordained, but - absolutely. How surprising to meet a fellow heathen in here.

 

kirottu; Yup, I think it was only the iPhone. Also, as Wals mentioned, Apple/iPhone user terms do state that Apple reserves the right to collect such data. I guess ppl just don't think it's a problem. The old conspiracy-nutter Junai is on high altert of course. Gotto learn to calm down..

 

 

J.

[Blarghagh]

Another reason to maintain my no Apple policy added to the list!

 

(Other reasons so far include tooth decay and cancer.)

[Enoch]

I loved the justification in the license people sign: that Apple needs to be have the data so it can improve its advertising! By all means track me like a pet poodle, provided it means I get my cortex palpated more expertly!

Yeah, one big disconcerting thing about the iPhone/iPad setup is that, because AAPL controls access to the device and charges such a heavy vig on developers who want to use it, the line between "consumer" and "product" is substantially blurred. If I'm going to be paying a substantial sum to purchase and use their shiny device, I don't want to be made to feel as if I'm being turned out as a product to be sold to people peering back through the screen like a 1-way mirror. (Facebook has this issue to a greater degree, but Facebook is free, so expectations are a little different there.)

 

 

(I do have a rather antiquated ipod, which has to some degree locked me into some of the AAPL infrastructure via devices that interface with it and media purchased with some itunes gift cards that people have given me over the years. But news like this goes onto the pile of reasons to avoid further interactions with AAPL products.)

Edited April 21, 2011 by Enoch

[LadyCrimson]

I have nothing to back it up, but I'd guess this isn't iphone specific these days.

 

According to a finnish news site this is iphone specific.

Oh, sorry. I just meant the notion of invasion of privacy via tech, and that it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of stuff has similar problems that no one has yet discovered/blown the whistle on. That sort of thing.

[Walsingham]

Enoch just clarified an analogy for me.

 

Basically what happens is someone offers you a trip to a private beach, and discounts on fabulous swimwear. Then when you are at the beach it turns out they are charging perverts for the privilege of staring at you from the bushes.

 

It's creepy and wrong, and you shouldn't put up with it.

[Zoraptor]

I have nothing to back it up, but I'd guess this isn't iphone specific these days.

 

According to a finnish news site this is iphone specific.

The specific implementation may be, but similarly themed issues certainly occur with others.

 

eg Google products

 

Search Engine (note, from a privacy concern its webcrawler and indexing would usually be far more important than any actual searches done using it)

Browser (and even if you don't use Chrome, see Ads.

Email (Gmail)

Web Ads (doubleclick is owned by Google, make sure to at least turn off those 3rd party cookies everyone)

SmartphoneOS (Android; things like the app store are gated through google and smartphones whether iPhones or not have a GPS chip)

Google's payment system

Google Earth/ Maps

Cloud storage

Distributed apps

..more..

 

You can build a fairly detailed profile using even a few of those and without needing to find a publicly viewable facebook page or similar and even if you don't you'd have to be careful not to have the webcrawler be able to link stuff.

 

You can do similar with all sorts of things, Credit Cards (where and what you buy, plus the info you disclose on the application); anything with a GPS in it eg vehicles or Sat Nav systems; loyalty cards for shopping; Photobucket, IGN and Direct2Drive (..Myspace, various news websites..) are all owned ultimately by Uncle Rupes and News Corp; etc

 

It's a consequence of the digital and it being easy to get, store, search, duplicate and access information that in previous years would either not be available at all, be available in poorly searchable forms (hardcopies/ paper) or be very expensive to build and maintain. In a world where a $100 hard drive can store 2 trillion pages of text it's simply cheap and easy and there is potentially a lot of value in the information for the company doing the gathering.

[Monte Carlo]

What are Apple getting out of this, some kind of geo-marketing data or are they simply as evil as I always suspected they were?

 

I've never bought an Apple product, never will. My next phone will be a Blackberry thankyouverymuch.

[Walsingham]

My experience of big companies is not that the yare evil, but there is a general acquisitive lean towards getting as much of everything as possible. No one person is saying "let's be over greedy megalomaniacal bastards" but the decision making architecture ensures it happens.

 

This is obviously a pretty mild thing. But unless you smack them on the snout for it now, the lean will just continue.

[Irrelevant]

"...For Google, consumers are the product, Google sell us to advertisers, thats what Google does... they sell access to you to advertisers, Facebook does the same thing. "

"Cloud computing is your data on someone elses computer"

Bruce Schneier

http://risky.biz/RB2-schneier

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4780331430584933656#

People care about privacy but only notice its absent when someone tells them.(Thats why people bitched about Blizzard and now Apple)

These things are already happening but they are still optional and people still have the choice not to use them or to secure themselves(The only thing between anyone nullifying this problem is a couple hundred hours of learning )

Edited April 26, 2011 by Irrelevant

[Walsingham]

These things are already happening but they are still optional and people still have the choice not to use them or to secure themselves(The only thing between anyone nullifying this problem is a couple hundred hours of learning )

 

Would you mind explaining this point to us thickies?

[Irrelevant]

Huh? I'm sorry if I sounded condescending...

Um, what I mean to say was that technologies and the legal framework already greatly facilitate the creation of a police state(at least in the US) as in the things that piss people off about Apple and Blizzard are done by many other companies.

But for the most part their optional which will probably change in the future.

[Walsingham]

Sorry. Didn't mean to imply you were being condescending. It's a turn of phrase I'm used to, and it merely admits what it says - I was feeling a bit thick.

 

So, back to your point. You are saying that information technology is an enabler for a police state. Which is clearly the case. You can't have any control system without information - thermostat to supercomputer. The control has to know the identity and condition of its controlled elements.

 

Of course, a control system is also a beneficial thing. it regulates and protects its elements provided they are within designated parameters.

 

It all comes down to what we expect these systems to define as the key parameters.