QUESTION: Re: Apple OS storing of location data on iPhone, iPad -- is there a regulatory role?
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Bill Densmore
Apr 21, 2011, 10:59:18 AM4/21/11
to info...@googlegroups.com
Cross posted to the RJI Fellows, InfoValet and JTM Google groups lists.
On the morning of April 20, 2011, two writers on the O’Reilly Radar weblog reported they had documented that the then-latest version of the operating system installed by Apple on its iPhone4 smart phones was creating a file on the phone – “consolidated.db” -- storing a chronological list of location coordinates for the phone’s user. The O’Reilly report by Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, and other stories, speculated that this could give authorities the ability to subpoena location histories of the phone’s user or could be used for marketing purposes. Allan and Warden noted there they had no evidence the file was being accessed or was accessible, but they also made available a program they had written to check the file. Initially, Apple had not commented on the stories. By the evening of April 20, U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said he had sent a letter to Apple asking a series of questions about the disclosure, including: What might happen to the unencryped file if a phone were lost or stolen? Franken chairs a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law.
Is there any role for regulation here? What would be the effective on technology innovation if tech companies like Apple had to disclosure, or ask permission, before adding features to devices or software that are judged by some to have privacy implications? On the other hand, what are the social consequences of allowing technologies that affect personal privacy to advance, sometimes unnoticed?
I am adding a reference about this to the whitepaper, "From Paper to Persona," that I'm presenting next week at RJI. Please feel free to download and peruse the paper, and email me any comments -- dens...@rjionline.org
-- bill densmore
On the morning of April 20, 2011, two writers on the O’Reilly Radar weblog reported they had documented that the then-latest version of the operating system installed by Apple on its iPhone4 smart phones was creating a file on the phone – “consolidated.db” -- storing a chronological list of location coordinates for the phone’s user. The O’Reilly report by Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, and other stories, speculated that this could give authorities the ability to subpoena location histories of the phone’s user or could be used for marketing purposes. Allan and Warden noted there they had no evidence the file was being accessed or was accessible, but they also made available a program they had written to check the file. Initially, Apple had not commented on the stories. By the evening of April 20, U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said he had sent a letter to Apple asking a series of questions about the disclosure, including: What might happen to the unencryped file if a phone were lost or stolen? Franken chairs a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law.
Is there any role for regulation here? What would be the effective on technology innovation if tech companies like Apple had to disclosure, or ask permission, before adding features to devices or software that are judged by some to have privacy implications? On the other hand, what are the social consequences of allowing technologies that affect personal privacy to advance, sometimes unnoticed?
I am adding a reference about this to the whitepaper, "From Paper to Persona," that I'm presenting next week at RJI. Please feel free to download and peruse the paper, and email me any comments -- dens...@rjionline.org
-- bill densmore
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