Thanks Apple

[WizardStan]

Not at all. I could encrypt the data.


And as soon as I find out it's missing, I can contact my phone via SMS and enable SSH for me, log in and delete all data within seconds.


So whoever grabs it has to extract the data before I access it

You could, but do you? Are you certain you got it all? Do you actually have to enter a password just so you can dial your friend in your contact list? And even if you specifically do, when I said "your phone" I was talking more about the general public. Does the average smart phone user encrypt their data, or even know how? Does clearing their web cache even occur to them? Do they want to have to enter a password every time they check their email on their phone, or do you suppose they just hit the email button and it comes right up, saved password and all?


iPhone users can opt out of this data caching. It's actually written out in the EULA how to do so. If you're the kind of person encrypting your phone, setting up an ssh server, and keeping everything password locked, I should hope you know how to follow some broad directions on how to disable the location cache. If you (again, the general you, not you specifically) aren't and can't, then I stand by my statement that you're willfully putting far more personal information into your phone than this little database is storing.

 

[Asiyura]

Okay, like I've said, this data on a device that I own wouldn't bother me.


Most of the people are computer illiterate and can't even download and install Open Office, so…

What really bother me is that : http://www.zeit.de/d...ion-malte-spitz http://www.zeit.de/d...-data-retention


If you're really afraid that someone could hack something and find where you live, what are your habits or even who you call and SMS.


You should stop to use a cellular phone right now, no matter if it's a smart or dumbphone!

 

[LuciferRising]

I am not too worried about my phone. I am more worried about all these damn cameras popping up everywhere.


Sorry to go off topic. I will take off my tin foil hat now.

 

[DavidBowman]

Android does this sort of thing as well, but you are alerted to it several times before you can turn it on. Smart phones are crippled without location-based services, in my opinion. I'm not too worried about it. Google knows everything about me as it is anyway.


Selling this information is an entirely different animal, however. Especially if it's personally identifying.

 

[moxie]

See, my view is somewhat different from those posted. If my phone got stolen and the network or provider had a way of tracking it and getting it back to be. I'm fine with that. If it bugs you that much then switch off the GPS in your phone. I'm sure that mobile phone providers and networks have been doing this kind of thing (tracking which towers you use) from the start. How else would they be able to provide the kind of customer numbers and coverage data that they are all so proud of.


tl;dr


Nothing new, nothing to be scared of. Nobody's privacy is being sodomised.

Actually, there are new things here to be scared of.


1) This is not, apparently, something that can help getting it back to you. This is data that stays on the phone and on your synced computers. It does not travel the airwaves. Your service provider can still track your phone from the other end (i.e. by retrieving what towers it has been in contact with), but that is unrelated to this data.


2) This is a lot more detailed than just tower cell data. Better precision, timstamped. A combo of GPS data and triangulation.


3) This (and this is the big one) does, however, get copied - unencrypted and to a known location - to your computer when you sync the telephone. That means that if someone have you in their power - Like a police officer, a border guard, or why not your violent ex-husband - then the only thing they need to do in order to figure out where you've been lately is to sync the phone. If someone a bit more covertly wants to figure out where you've been, and manage to get a little one-on-one time with a computer you sync your phone with - your boss popping into your cubicle whilst you're away on the loo for 5 minutes, your girlfriend sitting by your computer surfing facebook - then it is literally just half a minute of work to pop in a thumb drive, copy the relevant file (from the obvious location) and pop it out again.


This has been commented on in rather irritated tones by journalists working in northern africa recently, for instance. But this has implications in many places - The main idea being that it is not only your provider that owns your data (we all know they do that), but anyone who gets access to your phone or your computer just for a little while. I'd imagine a virus hitting Macs, doing nothing but uploading the consolidated db file to some location and then deleting itself, would be a great hit in the burglary business, for instance. The big problem is not the existence and collection of the data, but the extreme lack of security around it.

 

[cinaed666]

Does it also save WHEN you've been where?


I mean, yeah, great, if a user has BT or WiFi enabled and someone hacks into his phone, he can find out WHERE he lives and WHEN he usually is at work... awesome


I love my N900. In case it gets lost (or stolen), I can send an SMS and it will send me an eMail where it is (or a picture from the front view, showing who's holding it ) and enable SSH so I can connect to it and delete all the important stuff I have there


And if someone changes the SIM card, it immediately sends me an SMS to my other phone telling me the new number.


Now THAT'S why I like Linux phones. They do what I want

Wow. All my Nokia C3-00 does is refusing to buzz when it's charging. LOL.