If you didn't already think your smartphone knows too much about you, here's a handy reminder. A duo of UK researchers have uncovered a worrying (and oddly enough, undocumented) feature in
iOS 4: it asks your iPhone to record your location
constantly, then timestamps that data and records it for posterity. Without alerting you that it's doing it and without asking for permission. The bigger trouble with this unsolicited location tracking is that the hidden file that holds the data is relatively easy to uncover and read, making any desktops you've backed your phone up to and the phone itself even bigger privacy dangers than they would usually be. Additionally, restoring a backup or migrating to a new device keeps the data logging going, which the researchers point to as evidence that what's happening isn't accidental. We can't imagine a way in which it
could be accidental. Apple, got anything to say for yourself? See a couple of visualizations of the extracted results on video after the break.
[Thanks, Tom]
Continue reading iOS 4 records your location in a hidden file, syncs it to your desktop when connected to iTunes
iOS 4 records your location in a hidden file, syncs it to your desktop when connected to iTunes originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 10:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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