So they can track your movements as long as you don't hold it wrong and mess up your signal strength.
ZING!
ZING!
i'm pretty disturbed by this. i mean, hell, i have an evo now, and i can turn on google location and it does the exact same thing. but that's the point---i have to turn it on. it doesn't automatically do it while i'm unaware of it. in my opinion, this is a major invasion of privacy.
a co-worker of mine finds no problem with this. i told her she's crazy.
a co-worker of mine finds no problem with this. i told her she's crazy.
Iphones have that feature also for the map app. This is only controllable if you know how to navigate the iOS and remove the "feature". I would almost guarantee the evo does the same thing without you knowing. I have had my 3gs for a year and the file this data is stored in is only 20mb. So you wouldn't even know it was storing it.
Unless you tether your phone as a wifi connection, that is unsecured, this info is not traceable unless someone has the device in hand or access to the itunes account.
Without commenting on whether it is a good or bad things, i do have two points. First, you are assuming yours doesn't do this, just as most apple users were unaware of it until a few days ago. Second, it's not legally a violation since it's part of the TOS.
First came the internet cookies and we let them get away with it, now this.
I find it very disrespectful for a company to track a customer without his knowledge whether on the internet or through the phone.
I find it very disrespectful for a company to track a customer without his knowledge whether on the internet or through the phone.
Um... cell signal triangulation has been around for a long time. It's not "smart phones" that are only doing this, but any cell phone even back 10 years ago. Yes, they're better at it now, but it's always been available, especially to law enforcement. The difference now is that this information is more widely accessible even to the users of the phones. Google maps on the iPhone and Android uses triangulation to quickly find where you are and then uses the GPS to pinpoint exactly where you are on the map. The very nature of cell phone technology requires that the cell towers "track" you. That's just the way it is.
Going off tangent, most users actually want gps location based services and want to be tracked. There's quite a few mobile apps and games that use your location as part of the app/game and some even give you location based deals, awards, coupons, ect. Lots of people use apps like foursquare and Gowalla to do just that and they both feed into Facebook places. Heck, even I'm working on a couple of mobile apps that tracks your location and everyone that you're connected to in the app.
If that freaks you out... just by visiting a website, it's easy to find the general location of where you are accessing the site from, usually down to a neighborhood and sometimes street block. This is just on visit without the use of any cookies. With cookies, it's easy to know who you are exactly. A company I used to work for would use this information to target specific ads, messages, and even different content from the website. We knew down to the street that if you lived in X street in X part of town, then you're likely to make X money, buy X things, enjoy X foods/restaurants, go to X bars, and spend X dollars on average for various things. That was just what the company knew... we were blown away with how much more search engines knew about a person or household in meetings we had with them.
Going off tangent, most users actually want gps location based services and want to be tracked. There's quite a few mobile apps and games that use your location as part of the app/game and some even give you location based deals, awards, coupons, ect. Lots of people use apps like foursquare and Gowalla to do just that and they both feed into Facebook places. Heck, even I'm working on a couple of mobile apps that tracks your location and everyone that you're connected to in the app.
If that freaks you out... just by visiting a website, it's easy to find the general location of where you are accessing the site from, usually down to a neighborhood and sometimes street block. This is just on visit without the use of any cookies. With cookies, it's easy to know who you are exactly. A company I used to work for would use this information to target specific ads, messages, and even different content from the website. We knew down to the street that if you lived in X street in X part of town, then you're likely to make X money, buy X things, enjoy X foods/restaurants, go to X bars, and spend X dollars on average for various things. That was just what the company knew... we were blown away with how much more search engines knew about a person or household in meetings we had with them.
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I seem to recall when I read the EULA for my Mom's iPod that you agree to allow them to track you... I'd have to go back and look at it again, but pretty sure there's something in the EULA to that extent.
It's true that if you have a cell phone, you can be tracked. It's been that way for a while. Several years ago, in another position, one of the Sr VPs used that function at least once that I was aware of. It wasn't cheap ($600 per request in 2004). I did a paper in college for a graduate class that described the ability of an entity to track you using a cell phone, it's uses and possible abuses.
Then again, how many people raising a fuss use Google Latitude or any other service that does this? I leave the AGPS and GPS features off on my phone until I need something - then I just use the GPS.
Besides, you don't hear talk like this about Google. Their plan (and I'll have to go find my reference again) is to know who you are, who your friends are, what you do and your various habits. Example given (by author)If you're walking around, they want to be able to notify you that you're low on milk and that you're a block away from somewhere that sells milk.... That doesn't seem much further from what they're working towards. Some people may find that handy, but that's scary to me.
Yes, I'm paranoid, to a degree, of technology. (Which may be strange since that's my livelihood)
Edit: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704901104575423294099527212.html
2nd Edit: Link for Apple EULA: http://www.apple.com/legal/sla/
It's true that if you have a cell phone, you can be tracked. It's been that way for a while. Several years ago, in another position, one of the Sr VPs used that function at least once that I was aware of. It wasn't cheap ($600 per request in 2004). I did a paper in college for a graduate class that described the ability of an entity to track you using a cell phone, it's uses and possible abuses.
Then again, how many people raising a fuss use Google Latitude or any other service that does this? I leave the AGPS and GPS features off on my phone until I need something - then I just use the GPS.
Besides, you don't hear talk like this about Google. Their plan (and I'll have to go find my reference again) is to know who you are, who your friends are, what you do and your various habits. Example given (by author)If you're walking around, they want to be able to notify you that you're low on milk and that you're a block away from somewhere that sells milk.... That doesn't seem much further from what they're working towards. Some people may find that handy, but that's scary to me.
Yes, I'm paranoid, to a degree, of technology. (Which may be strange since that's my livelihood)
Edit: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704901104575423294099527212.html
2nd Edit: Link for Apple EULA: http://www.apple.com/legal/sla/
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