Pressure mounting
Last week some researchers revealed the Apple mobile devices running iOS 4 constantly track, record and time-stamp their location. This revelation prompted a frenzy of speculation about whether Apple itself has access to that data and what, if that's the case, it does with it. Perhaps inevitably, this discovery quickly led to legal action.
The lawsuit, which was initially reported by Bloomberg, was filed in federal court in Tampa, Florida by Vikram Ajjampur, an iPhone user in Florida, and William Devito, a New York iPad customer. It said "Apple collects the location information covertly, surreptitiously and in violations of law."
Citing research from Alasdair Allen and Pete Warden about the tracking files found within iOS, the suit claims that "Users of Apple's iPhones and iPads, including Plaintiffs, were unaware of Apple's tracking their locations and did not consent to such tracking."
When a MacRumours reader wrote to Apple CEO Steve Jobs asking for clarification on the issue, he reportedly responded in his usual vague style, leaving room for open interpretations.
"Q: 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.
A: Oh yes they do. We don't track anyone. The info circulating around is false."
However, the suit intends to make Apple disable the feature in the "next-released" version of the iOS. The suit will claim that Apple is in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, state laws comparable to the Federal Trade Commission Act, until it realizes those aims.
Apart from the recent lawsuits from Apple consumers, both Apple and Google are targeted over location tracking by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, according to Cnet. Minnesota Senator Al Franken and the attorney general of Illinois have reportedly pressed Apple and Google seeking for more information.
While Apple has not commented yet, Google says it doesn't collect any such information without seeking permission from its users.
"All location sharing on Android is opt-in by the user," the company said in a statement. "We provide users with notice and control over the collection, sharing and use of location in order to provide a better mobile experience on Android devices. Any location data that is sent back to Google location servers is anonymized and is not tied or traceable to a specific user."
Last July, Apple did respond to questions about location tracking and privacy, and also noted that users have the ability to turn off location services entirely. However, WSJ found that the iPhone collects and stores location information even when such services are turned off.
Image courtesy of O'Reilly Radar.
