Q-Tel smart location tracking

San Francisco — the revelation this week, the iPhone and iPad devices popular Apple s save files of the users of location information raises legal and ethical questions. By Ahn young-John, AP

Apple and Google says the only location is a collection of data is kept anonymous.

By Ahn young-John, AP

Apple and Google says the only location is a collection of data is kept anonymous.

The company has not commented, but bamhalokt said the company only collects location data remains anonymous and can not be tied back to specific users. Google said it about where data is stored on smartphones running the Android software. Both companies have maintained the practice clearly described in their privacy policy.Here's an overview of the significance of the problem for you, and what you can do to protect your location data, as well as ease of compromise that entails.Asked: what Apple collection?Reply: technically, Apple itself is collecting very little. Depending on the company letter sent to Congress last year, Apple only collects information about the location of nearby cell towers and Wi-Fi networks. He says that the data is anonymized so that it isn t connected a phone user s. However, security researchers have discovered that the iPhones iPads to store geospatial coordinates practice and at least a year.Q: what happens to this information?A: information appears to remain on the devices themselves, but also move computers that synchronize the device. This concerns yourself security experts because the information is passed in an unencrypted form, making it a target for hackers. Who specialize in hacking the products Apple s say difficult to steal the remote file due to security changes made recently to Apple. However, anyone with physical access to the phone device has been lost or stolen can easily see the data.Q: what can I do to prevent this information collected?A: Fortunately, it's easy to turn off the ability to trace through the menus and settings. Same goes for phones built bandroaid Google's operating software. Unfortunately, this cripples so many applications make smart smartphones in the first place, such as maps, Foursquare social media service. Disabling tracking means won t these applications have access to GPS, making them useless.Q: what do his party about follow-up?A: for now, a few rules apply. Federal Communications law prohibits the sharing of customer data, including information about location, with third parties without the consent of the customer of telephone companies. These rules still apply to Apple, and other device manufacturers or on the new mobile ecosystem of applications made by third-party developers. What's more, that these rules were written for phone service, it's not clear if they apply to mobile broadband service at all well for wireless carriers such as AT&T, with Verizon. FCC Federal Trade Committee say they are considering this issue.

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IPhone, the location of the registry-Android sparks privacy concerns

Discoveries on how Apple iPhones and Android Google keep track of all where user s every day send shocks through tech and privacy communities. Sen. mprnkonia El, D-Minn., and Rep. Edward Markey, D-Assistant, separate letters late last week to Apple CEO Steve jobs and asked him to provide details about how and why iPhones and iPads compile and store data Historical logs timestamp of each user's location and called Saturday for Markey. official Congress of Apple and Google. Personal information may be Unprotected location for the personal vocabulary is expressed, says The letter to Markey. tasks came after two British researchers Alan Alasdair warden Pitt, revealed the discovery of the mechanism for registering a quietly introduced by Apple iPhones and iPads in the early-to mid-2010 announced on Friday., Google lpikojo grasp. The guard disclosed the existence of a similar feature location listing on Android, the discovery by the Swiss scholar, Magnus Ericsson; Wall Street Journal and verified the evidence collected by the Los Angeles-based researcher Kamkar Sami, shows how most Android phones around the world already has an active GPS location coordinates to the coordinates of any nearby WiFi networks, back to Google at least the past six months, Apple did not respond to interview requests. Senior Manager of Google's public affais, Chris Gaither, said that the company does not do interviews. Instead, the search giant issued a brief statement confirming the location of the data is transmitted back to the Google servers, but it should be noted that it is tracking such data to certain people. Meanwhile, the tech and privacy communities are abuzz with discussion. One big risk for the Apple iPhone ifyour patrons or iPad is lost or stolen, says IDC analyst al Hilwa application development. It's easy to come up with schemes to author for users, such as people or bosses to spouses to work, says Hilwa. Apple and Google are in intensive control on one of the hot new sectors: tech s around the service will rotate the exact location of the consumer. Revenue derived from the so-called location-based services are expected to swell up 8.3 billion by 2014, more than 2.6 billion in 2010, according to tech industry research firm, Gartner, a British researcher. Allan, last week, Bangkok and stumbled upon a file stored on the hard drive of his MacBook laptop with 29,000 locations a timestamp log of every place he went on the previous 300 days. The file is created on the iPhone, was automatically his laptop computer when it is synchronizing the two devices.Alan's research partner, the warden, created a software application that plots the location data interactive map time stamp. The application is simple to download free for use by any Mac owner. The warden is working on a version for people to sync iPhones to don t Windows PCs. We know exactly what triggers the registry, says warden. See We register with frequent intervals as every few minutes longer, and we don t know what format It is. it is not clear whether Apple is going to somehow these enable data for location-based marketeers. Location data is used more and more to customize the online ads, to help parents keep track of their youth and to help prevent fraud charge, says cybersecurity analyst Chenxi Wang, at Forrester Research. None of these scenarios justify year s worth of storage location dataSays Wang. It continues to surprise me how companies always choose the privacy-intrusive features such as default.aspx Kamkar, Los Angeles, says he discovered that all of the recently purchased Android phones are set up to continually report on specific GPS coordinates, as well as the coordinates of the nearby houses WiFi networksBusiness to Google, He says, Google can. coordinate timing and frequency of use of the telephone to find the exact home address and owner s Android. If your phone is in the same location during the night, they know where you live says Kamkar. If the location of your phone is in motion, they guess that you re driving, even calculate how fast the car moving. Kamkar says also, Android devices track coordinates of any nearby WiFi systems, even those encrypted. If you have an Android phone, Google knows where you are, say Kamkar. Even if you don t you own Android phone, but not your neighbor, Google can triangulate who you are by tracking only your wireless network. "to disable this tracking by phone Android is to turn off the GPS and the wireless, he says, but today people., Especially those under 30, aren t tends to turn innovative features, says Fran Maier President TRUSTe Privacy programs, rather than a Web site on Wednesday, TRUSTe's plans to release the survey results showing 44% of 18-to 20-year say they feel safe and in control when using mobile devices. Privacy is a big deal now, even among young people, says Meyer. But they believe they re smarter, more adept at managing their information older than Even people., reflective mprnkonia comments in a letter that American jobs are maintained in many location data can be abused by criminals and bad actors. Rep. Markey asks jobs if he is afraid of how wide array of accurate location data recorded by these devices can be used to track the minorsAnalysts, expose them to harm potential and experts. Tech Google Privacy is likely to face similar questions. There seems to be this huge industry behind closed doors with business models premised in the collection of massive amounts of detailed information, says Hilwa. Only the Government can introduce regulatory sanity back into it's addressed. For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ. To report corrections to vabarot, contact standards editor Jones Brent. For consideration of publication in the newspaper, send your comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, telephone number, city and country for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections. usatoday.com. We have updated the guidelines of the conversation. Changes include a brief overview of the process of reduction and explains how to use the button "report". Read more.