Apple Denies iPhone And iPad Tracking
After nearly a week of silence Apple Inc. denied the accusation that it was tracking iPhone & iPad users but it has also discovered some bugs responsible for location data being stored in the devices.
#-Link-Snipped-#The reason for the controversy, according to the company, is that users were <em>confused</em> with the technicality of the issue, n data stored in the devices are geographical data, which provide location based services such as map-directions, etc. The stored locations , are not of the users’ whereabouts but a database of nearby cellular towers & Wi-Fi access points known to Apple.
Keeping the rising concerns in mind, Apple even enlisted Steve Jobs to answer questions about the data collection. Jobs told the Wall Street Journal that the company was not tracking anyone and that an upcoming software update would reduce the amount of location data on the devices to about seven days' worth from as much as a year.
As reported in #-Link-Snipped-#, Kevin Bankston, a senior attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online civil liberties group, praised Apple for taking steps to reduce the amount of personal data on the phone but said consumer technology companies should be more upfront with their users about the data they collect.
"We shouldn't have to be in a constant battle with companies where the public is continually uncovering new privacy problems that the companies were opaque about before.", Bankston said.
Apple explained that the stored data does not reveal the user’s real time location but a Wi-Fi access point, which can be miles away. But experts believe that Wi-Fi and cell-tower location data may soon be as specific as the highly precise GPS satellite data.
Apple has promised to fix the way data is stored, called the “bugâ€. These fixes will take a few weeks to come, and would include shortening the list of stored locations and enabling users to prevent the devices from keeping them in the first place, said the company.
#-Link-Snipped-#The reason for the controversy, according to the company, is that users were <em>confused</em> with the technicality of the issue, n data stored in the devices are geographical data, which provide location based services such as map-directions, etc. The stored locations , are not of the users’ whereabouts but a database of nearby cellular towers & Wi-Fi access points known to Apple.
Keeping the rising concerns in mind, Apple even enlisted Steve Jobs to answer questions about the data collection. Jobs told the Wall Street Journal that the company was not tracking anyone and that an upcoming software update would reduce the amount of location data on the devices to about seven days' worth from as much as a year.
As reported in #-Link-Snipped-#, Kevin Bankston, a senior attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online civil liberties group, praised Apple for taking steps to reduce the amount of personal data on the phone but said consumer technology companies should be more upfront with their users about the data they collect.
"We shouldn't have to be in a constant battle with companies where the public is continually uncovering new privacy problems that the companies were opaque about before.", Bankston said.
Apple explained that the stored data does not reveal the user’s real time location but a Wi-Fi access point, which can be miles away. But experts believe that Wi-Fi and cell-tower location data may soon be as specific as the highly precise GPS satellite data.
Apple has promised to fix the way data is stored, called the “bugâ€. These fixes will take a few weeks to come, and would include shortening the list of stored locations and enabling users to prevent the devices from keeping them in the first place, said the company.
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