I'm guessing you knew that Android has a cache that rolls over prior to posting - were you just trying to stir up discussion/controversy with the misleading headline?
I did. The title wasn't meant to mislead though. More of a tongue-in-cheek remark. Hence having "tracks" in quotes. Personally I think the whole "OMG APPLE TRACKS US!!" thing going on is overblown.
Looking at it now I guess it can be seen as misleading. It wasn't my intention though.
"OMG APPLE TRACKS US!!" thing going on is overblown
It isn't -- consumers should be aware that these services represent a net loss for their privacy on the long term.
If a device tells you that it is tracking you; eventually giving you the possibility of opting out, deleting all tracks of you on request, then it's fine by me. But otherwise it isn't, and this practice should really stop.
And here I was a couple of months ago, thinking about how cool / evil would be to make an app that tracks someone's route for spying purposes (like your girlfriend for example). Apparently iPhones give it away for free, no extra work required ;-)
Not only jealous boyfriends -- give your employees iPhones, and they'll surely synchronize it at least once a month on your company's computers ;)
Phones with GPS incorporated can be mindbogglingly evil -- just think about the costs involved in hiring a private eye to track the daily route of someone, day after day, for a whole month. People don't do it because of the costs involved and because an incompetent can blow away his cover.
iPhones are equipped with GPS, and that data is there, waiting for you to retrieve it. You don't have to do anything special about it -- you just have to gain access to that iPhone somehow.
I'm not accusing Apple of anything, I really think it was just a minor slip-up on their part. But these things are dangerous ;)
Except, if the employee never uses any location services on the phone, none of the data is ever created/stored in the first place ... at that point you still have gained nothing.
The only records I have for example are from when I explicitly had Google Maps open, no other program on my iPhone has my permission to use the location based services, and as such it didn't track where I was going at all.
The latest entry in any of the tables on my phone (and I've been out of my usual locations for a while now) (CellLocation, WifiLocation) are from almost 4 days ago, which is the last time that I used Google Maps to get directions to chines buffet I was meeting a co-worker at.
If this was being tracked even when using non-location services wouldn't that be updated every time I pass by a new cell tower? Wouldn't it know about the trip I made with a co-worker to a town I've never been to before?
Can you point me where in the tables there is data (based on timestamps) that is updated more often and kept around?
You don't necessarily even need their phone, you could use your own phone as the tracking device and have the person willingly, but unwittingly deliver the data. Just "forget" your phone in their car before you suspect something and after a the suspected event, ask for it to be returned.
Knowing you've been in Göteborg, Sweden recently is one thing (or at least that's what the test data says), but location history going back the device's lifetime is another.
