14 DAY TRIAL // Just like devices running mobile operating systems from Apple and Google, handsets based on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 are collecting location data and send it back home.
Technology media sites and blogs have been abuzz in the past week with news about location data collection practices on smartphones.
It all started when two researchers revealed that Apple devices running iOS4 are keeping a history of cell tower and wi-fi access points they used, complete with their exact GPS location and other identification data.
Smartphone location data collection is not exactly new to people who keep informed about technology issues and has been discussed before.
Companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft, who offer location-based services, are interested in building global databases of cell towers and wi-fi access points so that people's location can be determined without relying on the battery-hungry GPS chip all the time.
The approach to the data collection and/or storage they take differs significantly and in some cases can pose serious privacy risks.
For example, Apple stores this info inside a file called consolidated.db, but the records can go back over an yer. This is a problem because the file is backed up by iTunes and can potentially be stolen from computers by malware.
In comparison, Android handsets only store the last 200 Wi-Fi access points and 50 cell towers. However, while iPhones submit this data to Apple every twelve hours or so, Android devices upload it to Google every few seconds.
According to a Microsoft's website, Windows Phone 7 devices send the MAC address and signal strength of wi-fi access points, the user's precise location if GPS is turned on, and an unique device ID that changes over some time.
The fact that location data collected by mobile OS vendors is linked to unique device IDs, even if temporary ones, poses additional privacy risks and could expose people to warrantless tracking.
To stop data collection in Windows Phone 7 users need to turn off all location-based services on the phone using the global setting provided for this purpose.