For those of you interested in the continuing “LocationGate” saga, you’ll be glad to know that Apple has released an official Q&A on their use of location data that is collected by their devices. (See also this piece from Peter Batty) . Some interesting tidbits & highlights from the report:
- Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone
- The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it’s maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location
- These calculations are performed live on the iPhone using a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data
- 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
- 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
- Our iAds advertising system can use location as a factor in targeting ads. Location is not shared with any third party
- Sometime in the next few weeks Apple will release a free iOS software update
