So news came out today that iOS 4 has a hidden plain-text tracking file stored on every computer your iPhone has ever synced up with. Privacy folks are in an uproar (when are they not, honestly???) but I for one think this is pretty cool.
Sure, it’s a bit of an unexpected surprise, but look at what you can do with this unexpected data! You can map it out using the iPhone Tracker app! And if you’ve read this site for a while you’ll already know that I’m all for visual data — even if it means giving up my location (which isn’t a big privacy concern for me — it’s actually a safety feature in my book).
Do you have an iPhone running iOS 4? Give the iPhone Tracker app a try. It’s free.
I think the major privacy issue is not that the iPhone is tracked (hell, all cellphones are tracked by your cell provider), but that this file is easily accessible in iTunes and can be nabbed by anyone. For instance, if someone were to get onto your wifi network and get to this file, they could plan a robbery by extrapolating the best time to strike around your iphone’s location history. I agree that for most people this discovery isn’t an issue, but due to the unencrypted nature of the file (and therefore lack of expertise needed to decode it) I could see why this is a slightly frightening development.