In reply to a post by BatBoy:

You misunderstand

Oh no I don't... I understand you perfectly

In reply to a post by billford:

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

You misunderstand

Oh no I don't... I understand you perfectly

In that case, this doesn't make sense

It doesn't.

It stores it on the machine running Snow Leopard or Safari.

I think that statement is a little unfair in view of the fact that two US Senators and representatives from a number of other Governments (in particular Germany, where they are rather hot on privacy, as well as France, Italy, and Korea) have requested further information from Apple.

It may well turn out that there is nothing untoward happening, but to dismiss this - at this stage - as mere scaremongering on BatBoy's part seems perilously close to the fanboi philosophy that Apple can do no wrong. And I'm sure that you are more sensible than that.

Jobs has said they aren't tracking anyone. So he's either a liar or mistaken. I wouldn't imagine he is lying.

In reply to a post by gilesjuk:

Jobs has said they aren't tracking anyone. So he's either a liar or mistaken. I wouldn't imagine he is lying.

Mistaken then.

Jobs has indeed said that Apple aren't tracking anyone. And, strictly speaking, he may well be right. We shall see how Apple reply to the enquiries made by those Governments.

But, it seems, BatBoy is quite right that your iPhone - if not Apple - is tracking you and keeping a record of that tracking data on the phone and on the computer that it links to. You may see nothing wrong with such unencrypted data being available to the Police, a spouse, or an employer; I'm not sure that everyone would agree. I'm not sure that Apple in 1984 would have agreed either.

But, whether you agree or not, it is not unreasonable that some people see this as a cause for concern. So to dismiss BatBoy's post as "scaremongering" is treading a little too close to the fanboi line for my liking.

It's very sketchy data and it lists places I've not been to. So it's pretty useless for "tracking" someone.

Not to mention you need physical access to the phone or a computer to actually view the information.

At least it is easy to get to, Google have hidden their version away and made it harder to access (and therefore harder to remove).

Edited by deleted (Tue 26-Apr-11 21:03:10)

He's a huge control freak, there is no way he would be mistaken.

you need physical access to the phone or a computer to actually view the information

And a spouse or employer wouldn't have that, would they? In the US the Police are already making use of this information (much more convenient than having to go through the courts to get access to data from the phone companies).

He's a huge control freak

I think that sums it up nicely. It also explains the presence of the tracking data (not to mention US Patent Application 12/553,554).