14 DAY TRIAL // United States Senator, Al Franken is addressing Apple CEO, Steve Jobs with a letter in which the politician expresses his deep concern about the recent discovery of an iOS capability that stores data on users’ whereabouts.
As reported earlier this week, a couple of security researchers took credit for allegedly discovering that Apple’s mobile operating system stores information pertaining to an iPhone or iPad owner’s location.
[admark=1]The information, stored in a file called ‘consolidated.db’, can be easily obtained and interpreted by anyone with physical access to the person’s iPhone or iPad, or the computer used to sync that phone or tablet.
According to Mr. Franken, “these developments raise several questions.”
The US Senator wants to know the reasons why Apple collects and compiles this location data, as well as why the company chose to do this in the first place.
He asks Jobs whether Apple also collects and compiles this location data for laptops, and the means through which it is generated exactly.
More or less directly, Franken also asks whether the company intentionally created it to track users, and whether the practice is used for commercial purposes.
One pair of questions should be of particular interest to our readers.
Franken asks: “Why were Apple consumers never affirmatively informed of the collection and retention of their location data in this manner? Why did Apple not seek affirmative consent before doing so?”
While the first question is irrefutably pertinent (users were never expressly confronted with having to choose 'yes' or 'no' to the tracking of their device), the second one may not be.
When a user updates or restores their iOS firmware, iTunes prompts them to agree to helping Apple with Diagnostics information.
Users may decline to give this information to Apple though, admittedly, it is unclear whether refusing results in the exclusion of the ‘consolidated.db’ file.
While the prompt says nothing about recording the user’s locations, those who were thoughtful enough to go through Apple’s Privacy Policy learned that, "To provide location-based services on Apple products, Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device."
Apple pledges that "This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services."