14 DAY TRIAL // Internet and tech companies are known for using people’s information, even the private data, such as location and IPs. Sometimes it’s for their own use, such as advertising deals, while other times it’s for the users’ benefit, such as delivering geographically relevant information in search results.
Just recently, it was revealed that an improved Spotlight Search, which is a central feature in the new Yosemite Apple operating system for Mac, gives the company access to people’s search queries, but also to the location of their computers.
This is done by default and the only way to stop Apple from getting its hands on your exact location is to turn off the entire system. Basically, Apple says that in order to deliver relevant search suggestions, Apple may use the IP address of your Internet connection to approximate your location by matching it to a geographic region.
The data doesn’t stay on Apple’s servers forever, but it does linger around for an estimated 15 minutes, although the truth may be a little bit different than that since the info comes from the company itself.
Microsoft syphons some of the data, too
The bigger issue, however, is that since Bing is the default search engine in Spotlight Search, Microsoft is also getting some of this information. While Safari continues to have Google as the default search engine, the Spotlight Search from Yosemite favors Microsoft’s tool. Bing is also the go-to search service for Siri, so we may see a shift in Safari soon, too, although in a web browser it is extremely simple to pick your own.
“We also worked closely with Microsoft to protect our users' privacy. Apple forwards only commonly searched terms and only city-level location information to Bing. Microsoft does not store search queries or receive users’ IP addresses,” Apple said in a statement.
This means that while it won’t get anonymous information about the individual who was searching for shoes, such as IP address, it will still get data about where they are in a city, which is more or less the same thing. Just because that individual’s location can’t be pin pointed to a few miles, it doesn’t mean much for companies who will use the data for their profiling and advertising needs.
The fact that Apple adopts a “take it or leave it” attitude regarding the Spotlight Search and people’s right to privacy is bothersome, even though, as mentioned above, it’s not at all uncommon for a tech company to temporarily collect such data on people.