14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has posted a comprehensive Q&A for those seeking clarification on why the iOS is tracking their location, how that information is used and by what parties, and so on.
In a nutshell, iOS does this for the location-based features it offers, Apple said today.
The fact that it stores a year’s worth of data (and other aspects pertaining to the storing of this information) is a bug that Apple plans to fix in a free software update on its way to iOS customers in the coming weeks.
The rest of Apple’s mile-long Q & A is nothing but technical details and re-assurance that Cupertino is doing everything in its power to ensure users are safe and sound using the iPhone.
Answering what is perhaps the most burning question of the lot, “Why is my iPhone logging my location?”, Apple puts it plain and simple saying “The iPhone is [in fact] 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,” says Apple.
“Calculating a phone’s location using just GPS satellite data can take up to several minutes. iPhone can reduce this time to just a few seconds by using Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data to quickly find GPS satellites,” Apple explains, “and even triangulate its location using just Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data when GPS is not available (such as indoors or in basements).”
”This data is not the iPhone’s location data—it is a subset (cache) of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database which is downloaded from Apple into the iPhone to assist the iPhone in rapidly and accurately calculating location,” the Mac maker stresses.
“The reason the iPhone stores so much data is a bug we uncovered and plan to fix shortly.”
The company promises that “sometime in the next few weeks Apple will release a free iOS software update that:
· reduces the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone, · ceases backing up this cache, and · deletes this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off.”
Apple also promises to encrypt the cache in the next major iOS software update as well.