A MacRumor fan supposedly emailed Steve Jobs over the “iOS location tracking”:http://www.macworld.com/article/159384/2011/04/ios_tracking.html controversy after two scientists wrote an app that pulls data from a file in your iOS backup that collates WiFi access point and cell tower locations data wherever your iPhone is connected. This led to furore all over about the lost of privacy and the security threat over the discovery of this data file and that Apple had collected this information.
In the email, the reader asked Steve Jobs about the need of collecting those information:
bq.. Steve,
Could you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone? It’s kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times. Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid. They don’t track me.
p. In which Jobs replied in his usual short and vague replies:
bq. Oh yes they do. We don’t track anyone. The info circulating around is false.
There is no official word from Apple about this as yet, but it won’t be long when they respond – either via a PR release or a iOS/iTunes update to secure the file.
We will update when we know more. Are you worried?
Technologies are such that there is little we can hide anyway. I’d be worried if I have something to hide…