IPhones and 3G iPads log your location in an unencrypted file on the device

http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/04/apple-location-tracking.html

by petewarden • 15 years ago

415 190 15 years ago

radar.oreilly.com

ceejayoz3• 15 years ago

> We're not sure why Apple is gathering this data, but it's clearly intentional, as the database is being restored across backups, and even device migrations.

My understanding is that all data and files is persisted in that manner. Not sure why they're implying this file has been singled out.

petewarden2• 15 years ago

The intention was to indicate that it's not just a temporary log file that's not being deleted properly. Poorly expressed though, I agree.

petewarden2• 15 years ago

I'll be checking in here for technical questions. The github direct link is http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/

cjkarr• 15 years ago

Thanks for putting it online. I have a similar project not involving the iPhone logs, but I'm looking to using your visualizations to make sense of the data that I've been collecting.

gyardley• 15 years ago

Pete, the iPhone Tracker application is showing data points in a grid-like pattern, with multiple points visible simultaneously.

I haven't dug into the raw data - is that an artifact of the iPhone Tracker application, or is the raw data already rounded by Apple to fit on a grid, with multiple locations having identical timestamps?

How much I care about this depends a lot on the granularity of the underlying data.

rufo• 15 years ago

From the FAQ:

To make it less useful for snoops, the spatial and temporal accuracy of the data has been artificially reduced. You can only animate week-by-week even though the data is timed to the second, and if you zoom in you’ll see the points are constrained to a grid, so your exact location is not revealed. The underlying database has no such constraints, unfortunately.

savrajsingh• 15 years ago

Thanks for the app -- quite eye-opening. The data looks good, except there is a bunch of data in Minnesota. I've never been to Minnesota! Any ideas?

http://imgur.com/ORgYu

EDIT: Data appears around the time I flew from NJ to Seattle -- perhaps my phone was on in-flight and connecting to MN cell towers? Seems unlikely, though, given the # of points.

zcid• 15 years ago

That could be related to the iOS location bugs. I know there were a couple where the phone would refuse to believe that it was anywhere but 1000 miles away.

jbrechtel• 15 years ago

Also unlikely because if your phone had not been in the "off position" then your plane would have undoubtedly crashed.

smackfu2• 15 years ago

If this is only tracking cell towers as has been reported in a few places, why are there so many more dots than cell towers? Actually the FAQ says it is using triangulation, how accurate is that supposed to be?

gpambrozio• 15 years ago

Apple has been known to collect this information for a while now [1] but storing all this information in a database should not be required for this.

If you tuink about how much information you have on your phone, if somebody has access to it or to your backups, I think your locstion history is the least of your problems. But I do agree that it should not store this information, encrypted or not...

[1] http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20010948-260.html

acrum3• 15 years ago

The simple solution is select encrypt backups in your iTunes options. If my computer or phone got stolen, I'd have more important things to worry about than whether the thief can find a list of locations I've been. It's fun/interesting to see it mapped out though.

ceejayoz3• 15 years ago

Encrypting backups won't encrypt the original file on your phone.

ichilton• 15 years ago

I thought they added something in iOS 3 that did encrypt the phone and that's why the erase is so fast now?

I also assume that if you put a passcode on with the 'erase after 10 incorrect attempts' setting that this would be permanently erased if they get your passcode wrong 10 times...?

travisp• 15 years ago

You may not worry about this, but others might (and I can think of scenarios where this would be a very bad thing), and it certainly isn't apparent to most people that if your phone gets stolen, the thief has access to your location history.

acrum3• 15 years ago

Well, it probably wasn't apparent to many (or any) thieves either, but it is now.

Anyway, of course I'd agree it's worth fixing on Apple's part. In the meantime... hold onto your phones, I guess?

Duff• 15 years ago

How will encrypting my backup prevent someone with access to my phone from getting this information?

acrum3• 15 years ago

Someone with access to your phone can also access your emails, text messages, contacts, photos and more... I guess to some people location data is more sensitive than those things, but not to me.

yardie4• 15 years ago

I can sort of understand the outrage but I don't see the utility of it. Apps that are written for the App store don't have access to this data without the permission of the user. And the only way an app would be allowed access to a file outside the sandbox is if its jailbroken.

I'm not familiar with the in and outs of iOS LocationManager but it generally gives you the immediate coordinates at the time you request and nothing more. As for why the database of locations? It's entirely possible they are using it for QoS.

As for access to device backups. If someone has unauthorized control of your desktop computer you have bigger problems.

pdenya• 15 years ago

What is QoS?

I agree that it's not a security risk from an app store perspective but I'd still prefer not to be tracked.

yardie4• 15 years ago

Quality of service. Like when the iPhone 3G first came out you could only buy it in areas where 3G service was available. AFAIK, most carriers already do this on all their handsets but their data is restricted to just a few days to a a few months.

cooldeal2• 15 years ago

Maybe because of things like this?

>A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections.

>"Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags," a CelleBrite brochure explains regarding the device's capabilities. "The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps."

delano• 15 years ago

Do you have references for those claims?

cubicle67• 15 years ago

and can even defeat password protections.

yes, with access to a plist file from iTunes

[credit to morganpyne http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2465752]

crocowhile4• 15 years ago

They are collecting private information about a person and make them somehow accessible.

I'll give you an example: now your technologically savvy and pathological jealous partner can open that file on your phone while you are sleeping and check where have you been in the past months, day by day.

Iphone users should be aware of that possibility.

EDIT: Actually, now that I looked at the software presented here, it doesn't even require access to the phone, just to the computer. Your partner can do this while you are at work.

yardie4• 15 years ago

The iphone doesn't have a file browser and apps are sandboxed. So how they would get access to this file without jailbreaking or the backup file is a much better case.

Besides, everyone knows mobile me is a jealous stalkers best friend. And it doesn't even require tech savvy, just access to the iPhone to activate the service is enough.

edw13• 15 years ago

Yes, your partner can do this if you let him or her access to your computer's account. Keep in mind that if you let your partner use your account, he or she can also look at all your cookies, your browser history, and probably your Facebook account and Gmail accounts.

If you don't trust your partner and want to rummage through his or her computer—or if you worry about the prospect of your partner rummaging through your computer—you may want to go to a couples' therapist.

MatthewPhillips• 15 years ago

Since the backups are unencrypted it would be trivial to steal the data exploiting a Flash hole or worst case an email virus.

taylorbuley• 15 years ago

Flash hole... on an iOS device?

jstn• 15 years ago

Whether or not this is true, Apple should add something like File Vault to iOS. Encrypting your backups is redundant if you're already encrypting your whole home directory, but none of that matters if they have access to your unencrypted phone. Check out the police downloader devices the ACLU is investigating: http://www.aclumich.org/issues/privacy-and-technology/2011-0...

hexley• 15 years ago

Everything on the iPhone (from 3GS forward) is already encrypted afaik. That's how remote wipe works instantly (by just deleting the encryption keys)

r00fus2• 15 years ago

This is incorrect. Device encryption on 3GS and later devices are only for 1) Apps that implement Apple's device encryption API (ie, stashPro now has this) 2) If you have a strong password set and 3) Unless you have a device released with iOS4.x, you will need to wipe, then restore it with the flag turned on

http://www.tipb.com/2011/03/18/daily-tip-enable-data-protect...

tlear• 15 years ago

This is a perfect timing for promotion of Playbook and BB security. I am sure RIM will miss the opportunity though.

foobarbazetc2• 15 years ago

And I'm sure Playbook has its own gaping security holes that no one will find or care about because no one's going to buy it.

desigooner• 15 years ago

It might not be directly related but there was a news story on CNET [1] yesterday about cops in Michigan using a device from Cellebrite to download information from phones of people they stopped for violations that includes contacts, phone logs, messages, photographs and location history.

Does Apple's decision of having such information stored on the phone unencrypted make it easy for such devices? The device claims to subvert phone passwords though.

[1]http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20055431-1.html

ImprovedSilence2• 15 years ago

I've actually used that device before. It's fairly common in law enforcement and inteligence agencies, and it will take everything. Including passwords/deleted info. There is no reason for using it on a traffic stop though, that's just straight up invasion of privacy and would piss me off to no end. It's use is (and should be) for the more criminal/forensic cases.

chadgeidel• 15 years ago

Perhaps you could answer a question. If the phone screen is locked will this device still gather data? I assume it will.

kovar6• 15 years ago

And it doesn't work on all devices out there, and doesn't fully collect the devices it does work with.

Most forensics labs have multiple tools such as this, and still have issues fully collecting devices.

huhtenberg• 15 years ago

I wonder if that device utilizes some form of "law enforcement backdoor API", a phone analog of the "lawful intercept" in networking. Because frankly I don't understand how else it could retrieve previously deleted data from the phone.

BigZaphod• 15 years ago

If the man really wants your location, he can just ask the phone company.

jeffreyg• 15 years ago

'the man' could always get that info, sure. but now, anyone with access to your phone or computer can.

trotsky• 15 years ago

Including anyone that hacks into either, and they wouldn't even have to install anything suspicious to do location tracking or even have compromised your phone during the period they were interested in.

ImprovedSilence2• 15 years ago

I'm not so much worried about the man, (I've given up on that battle) as much as I'm worried about the people out there who like to stick it to the man by whatever neferaous means of looting and pilliging they see fit.

mirkules• 15 years ago

Funny, I had to go to a location without internet access, but where I periodically have to "mark" where I am so I can reference it later. I was about to write my own app for this purpose when I saw this post. To boot, I had my iPhone on me the last few days anyway, so this will definitely come in handy.

Despite the utility I got out of this, I wish we would be told about it...

chadp• 15 years ago

Someone should make an app for jailbroken phones to disable this location logging (or delete it regularly).. many would likely pay for it!

ChuckMcM• 15 years ago

Interesting idea, although I actually like just injecting noise (add say 500nm to all of the co-ordinates or some such) which would basically corrupt the database that this was being injected into.

On a more interesting note if you put '); droptable; into your file could you delete the receiving database? A whole new vector for SQL injection hacks I suspect.

calloc2• 15 years ago

According to http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2467895 it is being used to get a faster fix for Locations based applications, so doing that would remove the ability for that work.

edw13• 15 years ago

Does no one else agree with me that this is awesome? I love being able to visualize my comings and goings. It's the story of the last year or so of my life, in colored dots.

I hope Apple doesn't respond to the "outrage" by no longer collecting this data. To a first order approximation, I am with Scott McNealy over in the "Privacy?! Get over it" camp:

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1999/01/17538

As an aside, can real outrage even exist anymore in this age of the easy forum post or re-tweet or tumblr entry or Facebook post? And if it does, how do you identify it? And if you can identify it, what does it mean?

jokermatt9992• 15 years ago

I love being able to visualize my comings and goings.

Then use something like Latitude. There are options for you if you want to see this data other than having Apple collect data from all users whether they like it or not.

edw13• 15 years ago

I think you are confused: you say that "Apple collect[s] data." Apple's software is collecting data, but is it the case that Apple has access to this data? I don't think so. There are issues of agency here: in my interpretation of things, my phone is collecting and storing the data, Apple isn't.

I guess I have some sort of perverse desire to see my karma auger into the x axis thanks to this issue, because people seem to be whiny hysterics on it. Computers log data. A phone is a computer. The history of the phone's location is conceivably useful—it's like a geospatial stack trace—and even if this data is going to the Apple mothership, I don't care as long as the data gets Tivo-ified.

pavel_lishin2• 15 years ago

Sex is pretty awesome, too, unless you don't get any say in the matter.

edw13• 15 years ago

Wow, you're making a rape analogy. Glad you decided to stay classy and not make your post an instance of Godwin's Law.

flipbrad• 15 years ago

if the feature was opt-in it might, conceivably, be called awesome. But not being told that my iDevice will log my every move and leave this data open to the next johnny-come-lately to get his hands on my device? Terribly uncool. Logging should be a setting, or better, an app. Not a hidden, no opt-out feature imposed on over a hundred million iDevice owners.

calloc2• 15 years ago

Set up a passcode, now they can't access the data on your phone unless they have the passcode, or your iTunes plist file ...

shekmalhen• 15 years ago

Can you please put it somewhere on the Internet. I'd love to look at it.

Thank you in advance.

edw13• 15 years ago

You're welcome:

http://bbb.poseur.com/post/4777454362/the-last-year-or-so-of...

aj700• 15 years ago

Okay, but do the devices do this if 'Location Services' are turned off.

And I assume Cydia will now get an app that forces them off if the os ignores the setting.

cube13• 15 years ago

Could this be related to the mobleMe "Find my iPhone" feature that Apple added in 4.0?

If so, this is probably a non-story. I'd be interested if it still logs if Location Services are off, too.

ugh11• 15 years ago

If it is, the database is seriously overengineered. Find my iPhone will not let you access past locations, it seems to always only let you access freshly requested location information.

Such sensitive data should not be saved without the user's explicit permission if it's not needed for some purpose the user explicitly wants to use the device for.

ljdk• 15 years ago

In addition to cell tower and Wi-Fi hotspot locations iTunes keeps a backup of all text messages and recent calls. A while ago I've even made a small web app to chart it - http://datalysed.com/?p=130

runjake2• 15 years ago

I didn't know this was news. I and other security researchers & law enforcement have known about it for a while. I assisted in one court case where the data was used as evidence.

I suspect the slick-looking iPhoneTracker app finally made it interesting to the media.

Edit: There was a similar deal on iOS 3 but it seemed more like a bug, not a feature. Data would be purged at some unpredictable interval. I can't recall the file path and don't have an iOS 3 device handy.

PandaPacha2• 15 years ago

In deed nothing new. About a year ago a man discovered that his wife's iPhone was sending about 75 Mb of data to Apple via wifi in early morning : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2450738?threadID=245073... It turned out it was dumps of GPS data and other stuffs.

Apple acknowledged that to the House of Representatives. They're gathering data about their customers, including GPS : [PDF] http://markey.house.gov/docs/applemarkeybarton7-12-10.pdf

II / C / 1 / a. : "Second, to help Apple update and maintain its database with known location information, Apple may also collect and transmit Cell Tower and Wi-Fi Access Point Information automatically. With one exception, Apple automatically collects this information only if the device’s location-based service capabilities are toggled to “On” and the customer uses an application requiring location-based infomiation. If both conditions are met, the device intermittently and anonymously collects Cell Tower and Wi-Fi Access Point Information from the cell towers and Wi-Fi access points that it can “see”, along with the device’s GPS coordinates, if available. This information is batched and then encrypted and transmitted to Apple over a Wi-Fi Internet connection every twelve hours (or later if the device does not have Wi-Fi Intemet access at that time)."

runjake2• 15 years ago

Good info, thanks.

It's important to note that the above use of "anonymous" is laughable in context.

In order for that uploaded data to be useful by Apple, it needs to maintain both the lat/long and wi-fi access point ethernet addresses & signal strengths. This is pretty much a globally-unique identifier.

code_duck• 15 years ago

I noticed Google asks to do this in Android, too. They make you explicitly OK it though, at least on my (Verizon Droid) phone.

In location options, if you check certain options it warns you that Google will be logging wifi info and other details even while apps that access this info are not running.

The warning shown when you click "Use wireless networks" in Location settings is

"Location consent Allow Google's location service to collect anonymous location data. Collection will occur even when no applications are running."

My analysis is that this turns the phone into a mobile sensor that performs the same function as one of the Google mobiles driving around with cameras performs relating to wifi and location logging. Google probably collects the GPS coordinates and SSID of every wifi network that comes into range of a phone with this enabled. Given their recent legal troubles relating to wifi discovery, hopefully it doesn't gather more than that.

smackfu2• 15 years ago

"and the customer uses an application requiring location-based infomiation"

Curious. It certainly seems to be logging way more than just when the location services icon is showing.

r00fus2• 15 years ago

What's news to me is that this is persisted forever on the device in an unencrypted format.

earnubs• 15 years ago

Hopefully I have a better solicitor than the poor chap who had iOS location data submitted into evidence ;)

kovar6• 15 years ago

Given the response on HTCIA, HTCC, and the CCE lists, this was news to many people in the LE community. I think your edit touches on the difference - this is a new source for the information, and it is very easy to collect from the sync host.

jhowell• 15 years ago

Makes me curious about what else "isn't news" that I don't know about this "discovery". That's a lot of awkwardly disclosed (if at all), personal (why do they even care), unencrypted data points (I'd be in trouble for not encrypting) for the one of the world's most valuable companies to persist into eternity. Would it be news if this was MSFT?

Maybe the news just hasn't happened yet?

guelo• 15 years ago

Side question, could you explain your ethics in helping the cops bust someone by using a tracking device they did not know they were carrying? Personally I find it repugnant and would not participate, the right to privacy is more important than a single crime.

pgio• 15 years ago

This was noted last September by C. Vance here:

http://blog.csvance.com/?p=39

Good detail on how and why it is generated.

nicklovescode• 15 years ago

Apple is simply building a mandatory foursquare competitor, it's not a big deal guys

tomkinstinch• 15 years ago

For those with jailbroken iPhones and SSH, the data can be accessed or copied directly. The information is stored in this file: /private/var/root/Library/Caches/locationd/consolidated.db

The file can be viewed with any ol' SQLite browser, and the location information is stored in the "CellLocation" table.

After using an iPhone 4 since release day, I have ~1400 entries.

xpaulbettsx• 15 years ago

To make it work with Pete Warden's app, add this block to the bottom of loadLocationDb, before the displayErrorAndQuit:

    if (!loadWorked) {
        loadWorked = [self tryToLoadLocationDB: @"/path/to/your/consolidated.db" forDevice: @"iPhone"];
    }

jawngee• 15 years ago

Jailbreak + cron + rm

jschrf• 15 years ago

Best be cronning every minute or so, because unfortunately you can't rm on Apple's servers.

zenocon• 15 years ago

About 6 months ago, I left an ipad on a plane. Unsurprisingly, all my attempts to recover it led to dead ends. I didn't have the mobileme / findmyiphone app installed on it. I understand privacy concerns, but I'd actually like it if Apple did have a copy of this db, and they allowed me to proxy through them / law enforcement so that I could locate this lost device. I know someone has it b/c I can see they were using my Netflix account.

minalecs• 15 years ago

I think you're looking for something more like prey : http://preyproject.com/

ck22• 15 years ago

BTW all cellular devices are recorded as they move through tower locations while they are on and police don't feel they need a warrant for such data, so your location is pretty much available without that file.

bittermang• 15 years ago

My phones location is available. Not my location.

anonymous2463• 15 years ago

Way to miss the point.

Earlier, entities recording: cell company. Earlier, entities with access: police, cell company

Now, entities recording: cell company, Apple Now, entities with access: police, cell company, anybody who temporarily gains access to my phone, anybody who temporarily gains access to my iTunes computer

See, how the "attack surface" is dramatically bigger now?

ck22• 15 years ago

Oh I am not saying this isn't a huge scandal.

I'm just saying keep in mind this info is also available to others without an iphone.

ramynassar• 15 years ago

This has been happening for a long time, has it not?

serialx2• 15 years ago

Created a GPX file generator. Use it to convert the database into a GPX file format. Open it up with Google Earth.

https://github.com/serialx/iphonegpx

rtheron• 15 years ago

I'd love to use this data to geotag the photos I've taken on my digital camera over the past year, so I've downloaded this script along with the consolidated.db file into a directory, however, when I execute: python iphonegpx i get the below error, could you provide some more detailed usage instructions?: C:\Users\<xxxxx>\Desktop\serialx-iphonegpx-a124079\serialx-iphonegpx-a124079>pyth on iphonegpx.py File "iphonegpx.py", line 24 <time>""" + data[0][0].isoformat() + """</time> ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax

serialx2• 15 years ago

Maybe you are using Python 3?

make print statement to print() function.

templaedhel• 15 years ago

From what I understand, at least with google, this data (the data sent anonymously) is used amoung other things, for the maps traffic feature. If a fair number of phones are traveling below the speed limit on a road, it can be assumed that the traffic is bad on that road. Not sure if the apple data is used for that, or if they get the traffic data from google, but it is one legitimate use.

dgulino• 15 years ago

A workaround for hacked iOS devices:

http://technicalmusings.blogspot.com/2011/04/ios-consolidate...

plainOldText• 15 years ago

I can imagine a jealous spouse saying now to the other "i love you so much honey and from now on i will do your iphone backups. Just to make sure everything is safe for you" Then the jealous spouse downloads the iphone tracker visualization tool: "So honey, where were you last night? Really ? Dont you dare lie to me" :)

sambeau• 15 years ago

If you have a 3G device the cell towers already know this and the data is already tracked. So what is new here?

rdouble• 15 years ago

The data is in an unencrypted file on your device and synced computer, instead of in a database at AT&T.

awakeasleep2• 15 years ago

I wish this wasn't presented as sinister.

The fact is, that phone companies store all that data for EVERY cell phone, and it's always available to government agencies and divorce attorneys after a subpoena.

All this does is raise the common man's awareness, and possibly provides an afternoon of fun looking at your travel history. If you want your iphone data secret, it prompts you to encrypt your backups when you first plug the phone in.

earl• 15 years ago

No. Given eg the police in Michigan using devices to dump phone contents on a regular basis [1], there is an enormous difference between unencrypted data on a device just sitting there and anything requiring a subpoena.

[1] http://www.mobiledia.com/news/87523.html

awakeasleep2• 15 years ago

Elsewhere in the threads you can see that device won't work with a password-protected iPhone

kovar6• 15 years ago

The issue is that this data used to only be available via the service provider. Now it is available from the device, and the device it syncs to.

uptown• 15 years ago

All of this from a device which prevents you from ever removing its battery.

allwein2• 15 years ago

So after doing a quick analysis of the data on my iPhone, I've come to the conclusion that this isn't a huge issue at all.

First, I'll start with the WiFi data (WifiLocation table): Among the information captured is MAC, Timestamp, and Lat/Long. I have a total of 118,640 records in my table. I did a "SELECT DISTINCT MAC FROM WifiLocation", and got... 118,640 records. This tells me that it's not "tracking my every move" via Wifi location since there's a single entry for each MAC. The question might be, is it updating the Timestamp when I'm near a specific Wifi Network? My guess is no. I did the backup and analysis this morning, April 20th. Yet the last entries in my database are from April 16th. This tells me that it's not an always on tracker and that it's not updating timestamps.

Next, I looked at the CallLocation table: The same thing held true with this table. The last entry on my phone was from April 16th. Also, I have 6300 entries in my CellLocation table. I decided to start restricting the precision of the Lat/Long to see if there were duplicates that would indicate "tracking". At 5 decimal points, there were no duplicates. At 4 decimals, there were a handful that had 2 dups. At 3 decimals, there were more dups, with the most being 6. At this point I still had 5672 uniques. At 2 decimals, the most had 89 and I had 2468 uniques. At 1 it really went down, obviously, and I was down to 253 uniques. The other thing I noticed was that there was no regular timing of entries, and that when there were entries, a large number of them had the same timestamp.

So based on my analysis, this isn't a feature that enables detailed tracking of a user. It will allow you to see if a user has been in a certain location the first time, but that's the extent of it. For instance, I could see that I made a trip to Washington DC in late October of last year. But you can't really tell my movements around my home town with any amount of precision. My assumption, like others, is that Apple is using this to enable easier use of Location based services. I assume (which I'm going to test), that whenever a user enables a Location Based app (Google Maps, FourSquare), iOS updates this database with all local cell towers/wifi locations and the Latitude/Longitude. The more comprehensive the local database is, the quicker/easier it is for Location Based Services to help pinpoint a users location. Instead of waiting for GPS to spin up and get a satellite lock, it will be able to get a more accurate lock off of cell tower/wifi triangulation.

allwein2• 15 years ago

I just ran the additional test I noted above. I went into Google Maps and had it locate my position. Then I did a new backup to look at the data again.

I had 9 additional records, all Timestamped identically, from while I was using Google Maps. However, there were 112 other records where the Timestamp was updated.

So again, it seems to only update the database when you use a Location Based Service. And it does update any existing records with a current timestamp.

phlux2• 15 years ago

This may be "good enough for legal work" if they want to associate you with the location of a crime/event.

adsr• 15 years ago

Not really, since you have physical access to the file you can edit it. That should immediately disqualify it as evidence. I think this type of data normally is gathered from the phone company when used as evidence, then the involved parties can not tamper with the file.

tewks• 15 years ago

Great analysis which is the first I've seen to come up with a reasonable explanation for the existence of this file. Caching this data is a logical method by which to speed up location lookups.

However, there's no reason why this data should not be stored by default under the OS's "Data Protection" encryption as email is by default on devices where a passcode is set:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4175

dustyreagan3• 15 years ago

The problem is this data is being recorded without the user's knowledge or permission. (Unless it's a tiny line in the EULA I'm unaware of.)

If the data is being used to help the performance of Location Based Services, there is no need to keep years worth of data, that persists, and is backed-up every time you sync. Apple could simply keep a log of the last 4 or 5 data points.

Further, the data may not be super accurate, but that's only because the technology isn't good enough. If it were (and it will be eventually) that table would have pinpoint precise data. The precedent is being set right now. Is this ok? Personally I think this sort of behavior is unethical. Location tracking logs should be opt-in. It certainly shouldn't be hidden or a secret.

sigzero2• 15 years ago

Unethical? Really? I don't think it is that at all. A mistake it isn't encrypted? Yes.

ugh11• 15 years ago

Location tracking on iOS devices without GPS (for example an iPod touch) sometimes works without any internet connection (it nearly always works with an internet connection – WLAN access points are used to determine the approximate location), especially in urban environments (with a lot of WLAN access points). I always figured that iOS devices download location info on all the surrounding WLAN access points (maybe even those not in range – it seemed like that in my tests) as soon as you use location services and are connected to the internet.

This database could have something to do with that.

thought_alarm2• 15 years ago

Yes, when you use the location services in, say, a new city then your device will download and cache the WiFi location data for a large radius around that initial lookup the next time it has an internet connection. It's pretty cool, actually.

That database isn't infinitely large, as unused location information will be removed as new location data comes in.

dedward• 15 years ago

Does the iPhone actually have real GPS, or is it just based on 3G towers?

xsmasher2• 15 years ago

I assume Apple collects this data to pass back to skyhook so they can update their database of wifi-to-geolocation data. Must be nice to have millions of sensors roaming around collecting data for you.

thought_alarm2• 15 years ago

Other way around. It's a cache for CoreLocation, and the location data comes from Skyhook.

xsmasher2• 15 years ago

Interesting - Apple's filing says they dropped skyhook in 3.2 and switched to their own database... using this data.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/07/apple-responds-to-...

Limes102• 15 years ago

When I read this I simply had to try it out for myself and quickly plot the data. It's a nice reminder of the places I have been over the past year.

I don't mind that Apple have saved the information on the device, what I mind is that they haven't given us an option to clear the logs or to actually visualise the data directly from the phone.

kovar6• 15 years ago

Apple license agreement covering the collection of location data - http://pastebin.com/EdFJr6iU

justsee• 15 years ago

The same community that would generally react very negatively to reports of a company storing passwords unencrypted in a database seems to effortlessly explain away Apple's approach to storing a significant amount of personal tracking data unencrypted, not on one pretty inaccessible server but on multiple easily-accessible devices. Fascinating.

pieter• 15 years ago

Of course, Apple would know your location most of the time anyway, whether or not this file exists. You send the ID's of cell towers and wifi points to Apple, which returns you the location of those points. Apple could always have been storing your location based on that interaction alone.

In fact, keeping a database like this could actually give Apple LESS information about your location, as you don't have to request a new location if you already have the info of all the near ID's in your database. I'm not sure if this actually happens though.

The same, of course, can be said for any Android device and Google's A-GPS database; you have no guarantees that Google isn't logging your location whenever you're using location services.

polar• 15 years ago

Not news at all to someone in the digital forensic community: https://alexlevinson.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/3-major-issues...

IPhones and 3G iPads log your location in an unencrypted file on the device

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