Do you have an iPhone? Let’s face it…probably! Well then, you maybe already suspect that Apple can trace your every move, but did you know that the tech monolith many of us web-addicts are slave to is also keeping a record of everywhere you go? Oh yes they are! Steve Jobs totally knows you went to see the Justin Bieber movie — at the IMAX no less!
Reports the Guardian:
Security researchers have discovered that Apple’s iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronised.
The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone’s recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner’s movements using a simple program.
For some phones, there could be almost a year’s worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple’s iOS 4 update to the phone’s operating system, released in June 2010.
A security expert told the paper that the file enables anyone with enough motivation and tech savvy to access your phone or computer to “get detailed information about where you’ve been.”
And if that bit of privacy creep wasn’t enough to freak you out, CNET reported last night that cops in Michigan have been using “extraction devices” to steal all sorts of information from the phones of motorists they encounter.
The Michigan State Police have started using handheld machines called “extraction devices” to download personal information from motorists they pull over, even if they’re not suspected of any crime. Naturally, the ACLU has a problem with this.
The devices, sold by a company called Cellebrite, can download text messages, photos, video, and even GPS data from most brands of cell phones. The handheld machines have various interfaces to work with different models and can even bypass security passwords and access some information.
The problem as the ACLU sees it, is that accessing a citizen’s private phone information when there’s no probable cause creates a violation of the Constitution’s 4th Amendment, which protects us against unreasonable searches and seizures.
That sound you hear is George Orwell, turning over in his grave, punching himself repeatedly in the genitals, and as$-raping himself with the walking stick he was buried with. (DISCLOSURE: I have no idea whether Orwell was buried with a walking stick or not — it just seems like a very Orwellian thing to do, for some reason.)
(Photo via Geekologie)