Apple's new iPhone can track your every move
You won't just have to worry about keeping track of your next iPhone. You'll also have to worry about it keeping track of you.
Apple's new operating system for iPhones and iPads, iOS 7, will track your movements and save your "frequent locations," as one Hacker News commenter discovered on Thursday. So far, only a handful of developers have iOS 7, which will be released to the general public in September. BuzzFeed confirmed with Apple that this location tracking is, indeed, a real iOS 7 feature that will be available to consumers.
As Charlie Wazel of BuzzFeed reports:
“For iOS 7 (expected to be released to the public in September) users, that information is about to become much more accessible, as one Hacker News commenter pointed out this morning. Using iOS 7 Beta 5, the user noticed that anyone with enabled “location services” can easily access their “frequent locations,” in iOS 7’s privacy settings. The result is a mapped history of the places you’ve been since installing the operating system. Apple confirmed to BuzzFeed that this is a consumer feature for iOS 7 and not a developer-only setting.”
Apple’s latest move – which is actually nothing new, it’s always collected data on your location, only now you will be able to see that data for the first time – will probably scare some people. Or at least, the media will try to spin the news to scare people, as Adam Clark Estes on Gizmodo has already done:
“Creepy new feature alert! Creepy new feature alert! Buried in the Settings menu of the latest beta version of iOS 7 is the somewhat unsettling ability to see everywhere you’ve been since upgrading the operating system. It makes you wonder: Who else can see these maps?”
The screenshots posted by a German living in Hamburg, show how the operating system keeps tabs on its owner's comings and goings.
If you'd rather not have your phone identifying and saving your every move, you can disable the feature. But since the tracking is on by default, many less computer-savvy people won't realize it's there.
The goal is seemingly to give you suggestions of nearby places to visit, but most are finding it more scary than helpful. The information gathered isn't always 100 percent accurate, but it's accurate enough to be freaky.
Another apparent goal: Improving Apple's maps themselves, which were widely-derided when released last year. Another screenshot shows that an iPhone owner can enable Apple to use your frequent locations to improve its GPS data.
The discovery drives home why Apple decided to ditch Google Maps and built its own mapping software last year, despite Google's seven-year head start. Without its own maps app, Apple would have a much harder time building location-based features without help from Google, Microsoft or another rival.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/08/iphone-location-tracking_n_3725437.html
http://siliconangle.com/blog/2013/08/08/ios-7-update-will-track-display-your-every-move/