Following similar actions in other countries, the South Korean Communications Commission has opened a probe into Apple's location data collection practices.Apple is being investigated by telecom regulators in Germany, France and Italy after two British researchers recently revealed that iPhones are storing location data.
Last week Pete Warden and Alasdair Allan announced that iOS4 stores a history of cell towers and wi-fi access points, complete with connection timestamps and other identifying data, inside a file called consolidated.db.
Other experts then pointed out that older iOS versions also collect this type of data, but store it within a file called h-cells.plist.
They then revealed that this information is actually sent to Apple to be used for building the company's global location database.
This somewhat obscure behavior has prompted questions from two different members of the U.S. Congress, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) and House Representative Ed Markey (D-MA).
In addition, the subject's coverage in the media attracted the attention of regulators in multiple countries who are now interested in finding out if this practice violates consumer privacy laws.
The Korea Communications Commission is the latest telecom regulator to announce an official probe. The Yonhap news agency
reports that an official list of questions was sent to Apple's local branch.
The commission is interested in learning why location data is being collected, how frequently, why is it not encrypted and if users can block or delete it. This is similar to what Sen. Franken and Rep. Markey asked Apple CEO Steve Jobs last week.
Amid concerns that other smartphones, in particular those using Android, might display similar behavior, the South Korean telecom regulator set up a special team to investigate data location collection across the entire industry.
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