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DaffyDuck
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It's neither of those - it's a historical log of cell phone tower locations, and wifi hot spots, maintained for purposes of more precise location based positioning -- these are NOT GPS coordinates.
Apple maintains an internal GPS database, and uses the celldatabase to correlate the information - then, its location manager is able to associate the two, and provide a GPS database for faster lookups internal to the device - as the cellular data is always present, and such a cross-location lookup is less intense on the battery, and still provides accurate lookups.
The data is also only available to the internals of the iPhone, and the backup files on your iTunes backup - any data that is sent back and forth between Apple is anonymized.
All of this was already explained and provided in great detail 9 months ago, when Congress asked Apple to explain how they maintain location data - Apple explained, including in great detail, how they maintain these databases.
It appears that Congress (and the media) have notoriously short memories, or they never bothered actually reading the explanation they demanded so vehemently.
I think the gravity (or, lack thereof) of this issue is far better summarized by this explanation:
The file with all this location data is stored locally on your own phone or computer. Let’s say, hypothetically, your phone was stolen. They have your email, contacts, photos, text messages and documents. Plus access to any accounts that log in automatically.
Are you really worried about the fact that they also can get a general idea of where you were six months ago?
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 6:53 pm on April 23, 2011
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DaffyDuck
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FYI
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/04/27location_qa.html
April 27, 2011
Apple Q&A on Location Data
Apple would like to respond to the questions we have recently received about the gathering and use of location information by our devices.
1. Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone?
Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.
2. Then why is everyone so concerned about this?
Providing mobile users with fast and accurate location information while preserving their security and privacy has raised some very complex technical issues which are hard to communicate in a soundbite. Users are confused, partly because the creators of this new technology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues to date.
3. 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, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested. Calculating a phone’s location using just GPS satellite data can take up to several minutes. iPhone can reduce this time to just a few seconds by using Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data to quickly find GPS satellites, and even triangulate its location using just Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data when GPS is not available (such as indoors or in basements). These calculations are performed live on the iPhone using a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data that is generated by tens of millions of iPhones sending the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple.
4. Is this crowd-sourced database stored on the iPhone?
The entire crowd-sourced database is too big to store on an iPhone, so we download an appropriate subset (cache) onto each iPhone. This cache is protected but not encrypted, and is backed up in iTunes whenever you back up your iPhone. The backup is encrypted or not, depending on the user settings in iTunes. The location data that researchers are seeing on the iPhone is not the past or present location of the iPhone, but rather the locations of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers surrounding the iPhone’s location, which can be more than one hundred miles away from the iPhone. We plan to cease backing up this cache in a software update coming soon (see Software Update section below).
5. Can Apple locate me based on my geo-tagged Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data?
No. This data is sent to Apple in an anonymous and encrypted form. Apple cannot identify the source of this data.
6. People have identified up to a year’s worth of location data being stored on the iPhone. Why does my iPhone need so much data in order to assist it in finding my location today?
This data is not the iPhone’s location data—it is a subset (cache) of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database which is downloaded from Apple into the iPhone to assist the iPhone in rapidly and accurately calculating location. The reason the iPhone stores so much data is a bug we uncovered and plan to fix shortly (see Software Update section below). We don’t think the iPhone needs to store more than seven days of this data.
7. When I turn off Location Services, why does my iPhone sometimes continue updating its Wi-Fi and cell tower data from Apple’s crowd-sourced database?
It shouldn’t. This is a bug, which we plan to fix shortly (see Software Update section below).
8. What other location data is Apple collecting from the iPhone besides crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data?
Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years.
9. Does Apple currently provide any data collected from iPhones to third parties?
We provide anonymous crash logs from users that have opted in to third-party developers to help them debug their apps. Our iAds advertising system can use location as a factor in targeting ads. Location is not shared with any third party or ad unless the user explicitly approves giving the current location to the current ad (for example, to request the ad locate the Target store nearest them).
10. Does Apple believe that personal information security and privacy are important?
Yes, we strongly do. For example, iPhone was the first to ask users to give their permission for each and every app that wanted to use location. Apple will continue to be one of the leaders in strengthening personal information security and privacy.
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.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 3:18 pm on April 27, 2011
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DaffyDuck
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Whoops!
http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/04/28/skyhook.believes.android.harvesting.worse.than.ios/
Skyhook chief say Android data privacy much worse than iOS
Skyhook believes Android harvesting worse than iOS
Skyhook chief Ted Morgan in a discussionWednesday accused Google of having much worse privacy in Android than Apple does in iOS. He argued that Android was quietly collecting data much more frequently, "1,000 times a day," and was sending background pings to Google on its own instead of just explicit location requests. Google's claims that location tracking was strictly opt-in and anonymized didn't hold up, Morgan explained toSAI, since it was not only a much more complete and traceable record than what an iPhone obtained but was being passed on to Google's servers.
"You might not use [your phone] for a month, but every single place you've been for a month is being recorded by them," he said. "So that, one is an over aggressive use of your phone, and two, there is also an identifier associated with your location history. They say it’s anonymized, but that doesn’t matter. It has every place you’ve been, there’s just no name on it."
While Google is using the information mostly for its core ad business, the accessibility made it more of a real risk. Theft of an iPhone could expose the location file at the heart of recent controversy, but Google's data could equally be compromised by a skilled hack or a government-ordered search.
Skyhook, which provides geolocation for a variety of devices, has a motivation to criticize Google given its ongoing lawsuit for Google allegedly forcing Motorola and others to use the official Google system. The method used by Morgan's company, however, is deliberately harder to track and treats each position check individually instead of creating a history. No device probing went out and prevented Skyhook from identifying a given phone in any way.
The CEO added that his company was still doing business with Apple even after it dropped direct use of the Skyhook system for getting a position lock. He couldn't disclose what the relationship was for, however.
Sent from my iPad
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 10:58 pm on April 28, 2011
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FIB
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And Apple releases the fix.
Quite fast as per their usual standard.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 4:29 am on May 5, 2011
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DaffyDuck
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yep - they said "a couple of weeks", it took them seven days.
It'll be interesting to see Google lie their way out of this at the hearing.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 12:02 am on May 6, 2011
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bkkz
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Apple is world's most valuable brand
(FT) -- Apple has overtaken Google to become the world's most valuable brand with an estimated brand value of more than $153bn, according to new rankings published on Monday.
For the last four years, Google has dominated the BrandZ Top100 ranking of the most valuable global brands, compiled by Millward Brown, a subsidiary of advertising company WPP. The ranking covers everything from cars to clothing and banks to telecoms providers.
Thanks to the success of the iPad tablet and iPhone mobile -- among both consumers and corporations -- Apple's brand value has surged in the last year to overtake that of the search engine company.... Read more
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 7:01 am on May 9, 2011
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DaffyDuck
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Quote: from bkkz on 7:01 pm on May 9, 2011
Apple is world's most valuable brand
Yeah - Apple's progression just keeps reminding me of the "advice" from our local economic experts about how much smarter it would have been to dump AAPL at $65 and $85, instead of buying more back then.
Gee, I wonder how that guy's investments are doing 
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 10:39 pm on May 9, 2011
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NicFrenchy
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Quote: from DaffyDuck on 10:39 am on May 10, 2011
Yeah - Apple's progression just keeps reminding me of the "advice" from our local economic experts about how much smarter it would have been to dump AAPL at $65 and $85, instead of buying more back then.
Gee, I wonder how that guy's investments are doing
Wow, they gave such shit advice and you call them experts??
What surprised me was that Google lost 2% and are now at 111.5 bn
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:22 am on May 10, 2011
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