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Apple On Location Logging: You Always Think It’s About You. What About My Needs?

Written by Frank Hayes
April 27th, 2011

Apple finally responded on Wednesday (April 27) to the howls of outrage over the automatic logging of iPhone users’ locations by their phones with a Q&A explaining what’s going on (Apple anonymizes the data and uses it for location services) and promising that within a few weeks the iPhone will get an update that limits how much location data is stored. But Apple being Apple, the vendor still couldn’t admit that it was doing what it clearly has been doing.

Case in point: “Why is my iPhone logging my location?” Apple’s answer: “The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it’s maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested.” Translation from Applespeak: “The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it’s logging the location of everything around you, like hotspots and cell towers, so we know where those things are. Why do you think this is all about you, you self-absorbed jerk? Oh, wait—you’re an Apple customer. Never mind.”

Posted in E-Commerce, IT Strategy/Industry, Mobile/Wireless/Contactless, Security/Fraud
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