Apple Is Tracking You To Build Something Very Valuable: Its Location Database

techcrunch.com

16 points·Anon84··8 comments

F-Secure's article on this, http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002145.html, shows that the location database is uploaded to Apple twice a day

They make all sorts of claims in that article but never do they show the data is sent to Apple.

Alex Levinson (cited in the above link) actually states that it has not been shown that Apple is collecting this data: https://alexlevinson.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/3-major-issues...

Alex Levinson says that it's illegal to determine the location or movement of a person.

Apple's lead counsel Bruce Sewell says this is not the case as the identifier is randomized, and that Apple does collect anonymous location data from iPhones in an effort to improve its own database of cell tower and WiFi hotspot locations.

See: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/07/apple-responds-to-...

That's a far cry from "the [iPhone] location database is uploaded to Apple twice a day".

Not really. Many articles discuss that they send the data every 12 hours.

For example, here's one: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Web-Services-Web-20-and-SOA/Apple-T...

They send data every 12 hours, not "the iphone location database", there is a difference.

That explains why Lil Snitch pops up twice a day asking to OK Apple's "locationd" process on my MacBook (I'd say "deny forever" but I like to be reminded that my location is a valuable commodity ;)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2141988?threadID=214198...

In light of the discussions from yesterday, this speculative article comes across as patently wrong.

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