Apple Tracking Sparks Talk of Privacy Hearings

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

Reports of a hidden iPhone feature that silently tracks its users' whereabouts prompted widespread unease from smart phone customers Wednesday. Now, Capitol Hill lawmakers are demanding answers from Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden on Wednesday released findings that Apple's iOS 4 software automatically tracks its users' locations, and stores that information in a file on iPhones and iPads. Privacy watchdogs say the unencrypted data could easily be compromised by third parties or hackers, especially when the devices are connected to a computer to "sync" music and other media.

"Anyone who gains access to this single file could likely determine the location of a user's home, the businesses he frequents, the doctors he visits, the schools his children attend, and the trips he has taken," Minnesota Democratic Senator Al Franken warned in a letter to Jobs. "There are numerous ways in which this information could be abused by criminals and bad actors."

Franken, recently named chair of a congressional subcommittee on privacy and technology, hinted that the iPhone software controversy could factor into hearings on Capitol Hill. "I haven't announced exactly when our first hearing is, but I will announce that very soon. And I certainly have been looking at mobile phones and privacy," Franken told home-state FOX affiliate KMSP.

Franken is asking Jobs to explain how and why Apple collects location data, citing concerns that "millions of children and teenagers" could be exposed to danger because of the tracking feature.

"I certainly don't know why they would allow it to unencrypted," Franken said of the data file. "People didn't know their whereabouts were being tracked all the time...and so part of the reason to have these hearings is so the public knows, and so we know, what these companies are doing, and to...keep our laws updated with the technology."
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Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't tracking you...

[Argyle58]

I find it ironic that the folks that are working to mandate "black box" technology in cars, linked to GPS systems, have a problem with Apple's inclusion of the same features into their telephones.

 

Seriously, what privacy is left anymore? And why pick on Apple? Google and Yahoo regularly track your web habits, credit card companies record and categorize your spending habits and actually sell the information.

 

The U.S. government tracks your education, job, property ownership, income and net worth histories. Coming soon, under Obama Care, your health and medical histories.

 

State and local governments have surveilance cameras, traffic cameras, check points and all manner of intrusions into your privacy.

 

Proposed regulations by both Federal and State agencies include mileage tax and satelite monitered vehicle maintennance technology, either of which can be used to plot your travel patterns.

 

These hearings are all smoke and mirrors. The only way to achieve anything close to privacy is to divest yourself of virtually all technology that has arisen over the past 20 years, close your bank accounts, sell your properties and move to some secluded place and live off the land.