Then, last night the Wall Street Journal published an article with a new revelation: Apple and Google (with its Android devices) are both sending some location data from these devices back to their home servers. That sounds pretty sinister, but as a long-time Android user it didn’t ring true to me — I vividly remembered a checkbox that asked if I wanted to allow Google to collect anonymized data, which means it isn’t really a secret, and you can opt-out of it. Unsurprisingly, Google confirms that this is indeed the case.
HTC Android phone collected its location every few seconds and transmitted the data to Google at least several times an hour. It also transmitted the name, location and signal strength of any nearby Wi-Fi networks, as well as a unique phone identifier.
Apple didn't respond to requests for comment.
http://techns-news.blogspot.com/2011/04/q-and-smartphone-location-tracking-ap.html
Q-and-A: Smartphone location tracking
Q: What can I do to prevent this information from being collected?
A: Fortunately, it's easy to turn off the tracking capability through the settings menus. The same goes for phones built on Google Inc.'s Android operating software. Unfortunately, doing so cripples a lot of applications that make smartphones "smart" in the first place, such as maps and the Foursquare social media service. Turning off tracking means those applications won't have access to your GPS locations either, making them useless.
Related articles
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-04-22/news/29463084_1_iphone-location-data-apple
LONDON: iPhone users beware! Make sure you've got nothing to hide, or your phone might reveal your secret flings.
It has emerged that iPhones have an 'infidelity app' that can secretly keep track of love cheats and could be viewed by a jealous spouse.
Two British software developers recently exposed that the Apple iphone saves the user's locations and movements, along with a time and date stamp, and stores them in a file.
It then copies the data to the owner's computer whenever the two are synchronised.
"Apple has made it possible for almost anybody - a jealous spouse, a private detective - with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you've been
http://www.wfmz.com/berksnews/27644165/detail.html
"I just started poking through the iPhone's back up in my laptop and I stumbled across the file,"
But some say tracking consumers is a sign of the times.
"You look at Facebook, it's tracking everything from consumer likes to who your friends are. So I'm not surprised at all," said Raymond from Reading.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-iphone-20110423,0,1609775.story
The most talked-about feature of Apple's iPhones and iPads these days isn't a clever new software application. It's a hidden digital record on every device of the locations where it has been used — a numerical travelogue that effectively traces its owner's movements by noting the times and places it has been used.
The "consolidated.db" file has been discussed by security researchers for months, but it didn't receive widespread attention until the O'Reilly Radar technology blog published an expose April 20. Within a day, two members of Congress had dashed off letters to Apple demanding more information, including an explanation of why the data were being collected and stored in unencrypted form. And now several European countries are launching their own investigations.
Apple has remained mum.
http://news.google.com/news/story?ncl=drdjy3EK4-PblSMkxOGsv43bvmFbM&hl=en-US&ned=us
Results of about 383 related articles.
record of every place you've been, or, at least, every place your phone's been. That data is stored in a file on your phone, unencrypted. Shock!
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383984,00.asp
I would like to know what Google and Apple are doing with the tracking data from our phones. It can't be anything good.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20056626-245.html
Tools wipe location data from (some) iPhones. !!
Another tool, Location Blocker, goes further and wipes all historical data from the consolidated.db file and also blocks the device from storing any further cell and Wi-Fi location data. Step-by-step instructions for installing it are here.