iSpy an iTracker

If you’re using an iPhone or iPad in your job search, there’s a bug in your Apple. Like a fly on the walk it’s watching your every move. Recently security researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden announced they found an interesting file open to anyone that picked up an iPhone, iPad running Apple's iOS version 4.0 operating system or any synced device.

The file "consolidated.db" tracked and logged the locations where the device traveled regardless of usage and was unknown to users. Allan and Warden invented an app called the iPhone tracker to get the word out to the public. Outrage and general "what if" concerns were raised about privacy and how easy it would be for someone to access the information. However, none of the information stored was sent to Apple or anyone else.

When asked what went wrong Apple basically said “D’oh.” The official statement said, "The reason the iPhone stores show much data is a bug we uncovered and plan to fix shortly. We don't think the iPhone needs to store more than seven days of this data." Apple assures customers, "The location data that researchers are seeing on the iPhone is not the past or present location of the iPhone, but rather the locations of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers surrounding the iPhone's location, which can be more than one hundred miles away from the iPhone."

Not everyone is taking the news so calmly. Several senators have been in contact with Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Countries like Germany, France, South Korea and Italy are investigating if any of their communication laws have been broken by the discovery. In Florida, 2 Apple users filed a Federal lawsuit against the company in hopes to get them to stop collecting data.

Apple insists the situation is a complex one and the problem wasn’t the data being logged, it was the encryption on the synced file. "The iPhone is 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," the company said.

It added: "Providing mobile users with fast and accurate location information while preserving their security and privacy has raised some very complex technical issues which are hard to communicate in a soundbite. Users are confused, partly because the creators of this new technology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues to date."

While people don’t necessarily understand it, some are taking the opportunity to have some fun with it, sharing maps and tracking themselves as if big brother was out to get them.


By Heather Fairchild - Heather is a multimedia developer with experience in web, film, photography and animation as well as traditional fine arts like painting and sculpting. In addition to writing for CommunicationsJobsBlog.net, she is co-founder of design and promotion company, BlackChip Solutions with fellow Nexxt blogger, Staci Dennis. Heather’s spare time consists of making puppets, teaching Sunday School, building Legos and doing science experiments with her children.