It’s absolutely brilliant. After having been caught storing cell phone location data in an unprotected database, Apple just flatly denied everything and unapologetically contradict their own denial. Like this: No, we didn’t track your location information; furthermore, that information is protected. I mean, it’s _really absolutely amazing that they published this Q&A! This is exactly what John Cleese would do in a response meant to irritate someone.
Okay, seriously, first Q, “Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone?”
In 20 words, “we haven’t and won’t.” The elephant is sitting the room with black lingerie and lipstick and a wig. “Why is there an elephant in this room dressed like a phone sex hooker?” John Cleese looks at the elephant and looks back shrugging, “I don’t see one.” The audience laughs.
“Then why is everyone so concerned about this?”
…“Users are confused, partly because the creators of this new technology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about _ issues…” Huh? Helpless fall guy Brit says, “But _there’s an elephant.” John Cleese draws his breath in through his teeth leaning back in his chair and says, “sorry old chap! You only think so – now, there would be an elephant in the room if I had actually said to you, there is an elephant in the room. But,” he closes a folder full of files with a finality, “I haven’t told you so.” What? The audience is beginning to settle in for the joke.
“Why is my iPhone logging my location?”
“The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it’s maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, …”
Apple goes on to say that the database, protected and unencrypted, on your iPhone “is a subset (cache) of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database which is downloaded from Apple into the iPhone,” to help establish your iPhone’s location, which, of course, wouldn’t be, I don’t know, in your pocket or somewhere even closer.
Some tracking goes back more than a year. But not really because Apple has assured us in writing that the database that doesn’t exist on goes back seven days. So the location tracking that doesn’t happen does happen and a year is seven days (possibly answering the whole creation issue too) and (from another answer) the unencrypted anonymous data collected by your phone is actually, encrypted, personalized data sent to your phone by Apple specifically for your iPhone to know its location from crowd-sourced data that can’t possibly determine anyone’s location because, “users are confused.” So, yes it isn’t not tracking and it’s definitely not logging locations of where you aren’t.
I learned that there exists a Number One rule in business and it’s this – Never admit to any mistakes. That might sound like I just made it up, but it’s an unspoken #1 business tactic of jerks but what can be done without violating that Rule, is to admit to coming changes which, coincidentally, will quietly rectify what the customer has called in to question as being your fault. That’s retroactive release from Guilt. And I’ll be damned, here it is:
Software Update
Sometime in the next few weeks Apple will release a free iOS software update that:
- reduces the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone,
- ceases backing up this cache, and
- deletes this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off.
In the next major iOS software release the cache will also be encrypted on the iPhone.
What Apple released today after some days of silence on the issue that isn’t brought up by confused people is just a total, pathetic pity. They were better off being silent.
