iphone tracking settings

[badgolferman]

Your phone can track your whereabouts. It can provide helpful tips on the
best route to take to get to work (without you even asking it). And the
simple truth of the matter is: if you own a smart phone, you are agreeing
to lose a certain level of privacy in your life. You may be okay with this
trade-off because your phone can provide a number of other important and
practical functions. But if this leaves a bad taste in your mouth, your
best course of action is to get to know certain tracking settings that can
be changed to better protect you. This is the one iPhone tracking setting
that privacy experts say you should turn off immediately.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/one-iphone-tracking-setting-privacy-163150758.html

[Andy Burnelli]

badgolferman wrote:

> Your phone can track your whereabouts.

The one "good" thing about people not realizing how well computers,
particularly mobile computers, track your whereabouts, is crime.

> It can provide helpful tips on the
> best route to take to get to work (without you even asking it).

While it's well known you can get those tips WITHOUT using the Internet
(e.g., while using the OSMAnd+ offline navigation program) it's far less
well known that if you want real-time TRAFFIC, you have to be a bit
intelligent about how you do things (e.g., use a SEPARATE (usually web) app
for traffic alone).

If you're intelligent about it, they can't track your navigation efforts
but they ALWAYS can track your location with respect to tower pings unless
you also turn off your cellular radios.

> And the
> simple truth of the matter is: if you own a smart phone, you are agreeing
> to lose a certain level of privacy in your life.

This is basically a fundamentally correct statement, but mainly because of
the cellular tower pings, and not because of the Internet traffic per se.

> You may be okay with this
> trade-off because your phone can provide a number of other important and
> practical functions.

Outside of the realm of cellular tower pings, interestingly, the cellphone
does most of those important functions without the Internet but many of
those useful functions do require the Internet and therein lies the fly in
the ointment.

> But if this leaves a bad taste in your mouth, your
> best course of action is to get to know certain tracking settings that can
> be changed to better protect you.

Before I read the article, offhand, here's (some of) what I do...
1. I turn off the location until/unless I need it
2. I turn off the "precise location" (which is a big privacy hole)
3. I turn off, by default, all unused radios (bluetooth, nfc, etc.)
4. I turn on a system-wide firewall to not allow unauthorized connections
5. I replace mothership tracking apps with privacy aware FOSS replacements
6. I don't sign into any mothership on the device
7. I don't allow any app permissions it doesn't need
8. I don't allow an app to store anything it doesn't need (e.g., cookies)
9. I don't install any app requiring an account it doesn't need
10. I used to reset the advertising id but now I delete it entirely
11. I set my Wi-Fi AP to not broadcast (not for security but for privacy)
12. I set the AP to "_nomap" (again, only for additional Internet privacy)
13. I set AP SSIDs/passwds as unique as possible (butterfly hash tables)
14. I set the phone to randomize the MAC address per SSID
15. I set the phone to randomize the MAC address per CONNECTION
16. I set the phone Wi-Fi to NOT auto-reconnect when the signal is dropped

> This is the one iPhone tracking setting
> that privacy experts say you should turn off immediately.
>
> https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/one-iphone-tracking-setting-privacy-163150758.html

Reading that purposefully helpful article from badgolferman, I knew about
ad tracking (who doesn't) but I didn't think about "Significant Locations".

Thanks for edifying us, badgolferman.
--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information
which edifies those who are open minded enough to learn about privacy.

[Jolly Roger]

From the article you posted:
---
While you are taking steps to make your phone more secure, don’t forget
about Significant Locations, a setting that tells your iPhone where you
are and what your regular habits are.

“This is why you get recommendations for businesses or attractions of
interest wherever you happen to be,” said Colin Toh, the CEO of
Headphonesty.
---

The fact that these "experts" are seriously entertaining a statement
from the CEO of a headphone review blog claiming advertisers supposedly
have access to the iPhone's Significant Location data and use it to
display advertisements based on them puts their credibility in question.

There is no evidence that Apple supposedly allows advertisers (or anyone
but you) to access this data. Even well-known forensic tools are not
able to obtain this data in a usable form:

<https://www.forensicfocus.com/articles/apple-iphone-forensics-significant-locations/>
---
An Advanced Logical (option 1) encrypted extraction was conducted in
Cellebrite UFED Physical Analyzer v. 7.5 to see if this data would be
available through mobile forensic data extraction. When the names of the
locations were searched globally in the case, no results were presented.
When the term “Significant” was searched globally in the case, the
following artifacts were located at var/root/library/caches/locationd:

The highlighted .plist files were exported and opened in XCode on a Mac
system. Each of these artifacts did not present any data that was
readily identifiable as useful. Is it possible that these artifacts are
encoded within the extraction data and could therefore be located? Sure,
but for the purposes of this article, those measures were not
undertaken. As these artifacts are behind a double security wall (main
passcode, then re-entry of the passcode to access Significant Locations
on the device), it is logical to conclude that they are not accessible
through mobile forensic data extraction (i.e., encrypted).

How Does This Help Your Case?

To recap, we located the Significant Locations on the device and
performed a data extraction and it appears that these locations are not
part of any readable portion of that data. So how can we best
incorporate this data into our investigations to add value?
Unfortunately, the best answer is the “old fashioned way”. Access the
device, navigate to “Significant Locations” and document each entry
through photographs (NOT screen shots). Depending on the level of usage
of the device, this can be tedious and time-consuming, but the value of
the data cannot be overlooked.
---

According to actual forensic experts, the only way to get to this data
is to unlock the device with Touch ID, Face ID, or its passcode,
navigate to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services >
Significant Locations, authenticate with Touch ID / Face ID, and take
screenshots or photos of what is displayed on the screen.

--
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

[Andy Burnelli]

Jolly Roger wrote:

> There is no evidence that Apple supposedly allows advertisers (or anyone
> but you) to access this data. Even well-known forensic tools are not
> able to obtain this data in a usable form:
>
> <https://www.forensicfocus.com/articles/apple-iphone-forensics-significant-locations/>

As is often the case with these uneducated uninformed unintelligent iKooks,
Jolly Roger hasn't read the news since, oh, half a decade ago, based on his
one cite above, which is so old as to be laughably arcane in its content.

Just two years after the ancient artifact unearthed by Jolly Roger is this:
*Apple's iOS Devices Are Vulnerable to Location-Based Snooping*
<https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/a-new-security-flaw-affects-15-billion-apple-ios-devices-puts-your-personal-information-at-risk.html>
"A pair of security researchers pointed out the vulnerability
on January 2, 2020, submitting it to Apple"

I didn't check the status of that vulnerability but I found other cites
from later that year which argued it's a vulnerability waiting to happen in
terms of the functionality privacy convenience tradeoff being a bad bet.

*Why You Should Stop This 'Hidden' Location Tracking On Your iPhone*
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/10/04/apple-iphone-12-location-tracking-in-ios-14-upgrade/>
"Many iOS users are surprised when some of Apple's own location tracking
is explained. Yes, maybe what happens on an iPhone stays on an iPhone,
but some data should not be captured in the first place. Nothing more
so than the significant invasiveness of Apple's significant locations
concept-a perfect illustration of just because you can, doesn't mean
you should. This is a continually building data repository of the
locations you visit, along with times and dates, detailed maps,
even the mode of transport to get you there and how long it took.

As ESET cyber guru Jake Moore warns, "significant locations is one
of those features ... I cannot think of a positive or useful reason
why Apple would include this feature on any of their devices."

Hmmm... cyber gurus and security experts are saying the little
functionality that it provides isn't worth the loss in privacy that can be
expected to occur now, and in the future (since you will never know).

Certainly, if we fast forward two more years, we acutely become aware there
is no other mobile platform more vulnerable to zero-day holes than iOS is.

Worse, the iPhone is vulnerable even when the thing is (supposedly) off!

*Your iPhone Is Vulnerable to a Malware Attack Even When It's Off*
<https://www.wired.com/story/iphone-find-my-malware-attack-vulnerability/>
"Researchers found a way to exploit the tech which could allow attackers
to track location even when an iOS device is (supposedly) powered down.

It turns out that the iPhone's Bluetooth chip has no mechanism for
digitally signing or even encrypting the firmware it runs.

Academics at Germany's Technical University of Darmstadt figured
out how to exploit this lack of hardening to run malicious firmware
that allows the attacker to track the phone's location or run
new features when the device is turned off."

In summary, and in keeping with my adult logical discussion with
badgolferman (quite unlike any discussion with Jolly Roger), is that
decisions have to be made keeping in check the various tradeoffs between
FUNCTIONALITY <===> PRIVACY

In this thread, badgolferman kindly exposed a specific setting in the
iPhone that I personally was unaware of, and when I read badgolferman's
article, I learned from his efforts - which I appreciated as the whole goal
of being on Usenet is to learn from others who know more than we do.

Then Jolly Roger, whose entire ego is intertwined with Apple propaganda,
digs up a fantastically ancient article that opines what the state of
affairs was thought to be an entire half a decade ago (which is very old!).

For my part, and knowing Jolly Roger to be almost always wrong in so much
as he believes all propaganda fed to him at the same time he holds views
that are based on data that is more than a half decade old... I dug up some
references which I helpfully provided above, to further the adult
conversation with badgolferman (and with anyone owning adult conversational
skills).

--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information

which in this case was to point out the age of Jolly Roger's references.

[badgolferman]

I’m happy to say those settings were already disabled on my phone. Either
it’s by default or perhaps I had changed it in a previous phone and it
migrated over as a switched phones.

[Jolly Roger]

On 2022-11-06, Andy Burnelli <sp...@nospam.com> wrote:
> Jolly Roger wrote:
>
>> There is no evidence that Apple supposedly allows advertisers (or anyone
>> but you) to access this data. Even well-known forensic tools are not
>> able to obtain this data in a usable form:
>>
>> <https://www.forensicfocus.com/articles/apple-iphone-forensics-significant-locations/>
>
> As is often the case with these uneducated uninformed unintelligent iKooks,
> Jolly Roger hasn't read the news since, oh, half a decade ago, based on his
> one cite above, which is so old as to be laughably arcane in its content.
>
> Just two years after the ancient artifact unearthed by Jolly Roger is this:
> *Apple's iOS Devices Are Vulnerable to Location-Based Snooping*
> <https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/a-new-security-flaw-affects-15-billion-apple-ios-devices-puts-your-personal-information-at-risk.html>

LOL... As is often the case with uneducated unintelligent trolls like
Arlen, he skims over articles without having an actual understanding of
what they are actually about, as in this case, where the "flaw" being
discussed is simply the ability for apps to see what is on the
general-purpose clipboard. As anyone with a brain knows, this is
actually necessary functionality for the commonly-used copy and paste
feature to work, since if apps were unable to access the clipboard, you
wouldn't be able to paste. So, this "flaw" is that an app you installed
on your device might be able to see the clipboard, and if you have a
photo copied to the clipboard that happens to have EXIF data including
the location the photo was taken, that app might see it - OH MY!! More
importantly, this has absolutely *nothing* to do with the *Significant
Locations* feature discussed in the initial post in this thread and my
reply to it. Arlen is so stupid he actually thinks this proves the
forensic experts I quoted above wrong. Arlen is a fucking clown.

> *Why You Should Stop This 'Hidden' Location Tracking On Your iPhone*
> <https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/10/04/apple-iphone-12-location-tracking-in-ios-14-upgrade/>
> "Many iOS users are surprised when some of Apple's own location tracking
> is explained. Yes, maybe what happens on an iPhone stays on an iPhone,
> but some data should not be captured in the first place. Nothing more
> so than the significant invasiveness of Apple's significant locations
> concept-a perfect illustration of just because you can, doesn't mean
> you should. This is a continually building data repository of the
> locations you visit, along with times and dates, detailed maps,
> even the mode of transport to get you there and how long it took.
>
> As ESET cyber guru Jake Moore warns, "significant locations is one
> of those features ... I cannot think of a positive or useful reason
> why Apple would include this feature on any of their devices."

Then Jake has no imagination and/or is clueless about the iPhone. The
primary example is where significant locations allow your iPhone to
provide things like predictive traffic routing based on your normal
routine of when and where you go different places. While not a critical
feature, it is arguably a useful feature for at least some of Apple's
customers.

> Hmmm... cyber gurus and security experts are saying the little
> functionality that it provides isn't worth the loss in privacy that can be
> expected to occur now, and in the future (since you will never know).

Nonsense. The data is end-to-end encrypted and cannot be accessed by
third parties including Apple. You're fear mongering as usual, and its
lame. You're also a dumb ass troll.

[Jolly Roger]

On 2022-11-06, badgolferman <REMOVETHISb...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

> I’m happy to say those settings were already disabled on my phone.
> Either it’s by default or perhaps I had changed it in a previous phone
> and it migrated over as a switched phones.

You do you. Just don't try to suggest there's anything inherently
dangerous about the Significant Locations feature without verified
evidence of that claim, then turn around and get upset when someone
calls you out on it. ; )

[badgolferman]

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
> On 2022-11-06, badgolferman <REMOVETHISb...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I’m happy to say those settings were already disabled on my phone.
>> Either it’s by default or perhaps I had changed it in a previous phone
>> and it migrated over as a switched phones.
>
> You do you. Just don't try to suggest there's anything inherently
> dangerous about the Significant Locations feature without verified
> evidence of that claim, then turn around and get upset when someone
> calls you out on it. ; )
>

Why must you do this? Did I actually say anyone should do anything? I
merely provided a news story and shared my own experience. You absolutely
must find a way to denigrate people no matter what.

[Andy Burnelli]

badgolferman wrote:

>>> I¢m happy to say those settings were already disabled on my phone.
>>> Either it¢s by default or perhaps I had changed it in a previous phone
>>> and it migrated over as a switched phones.
>>
>> You do you. Just don't try to suggest there's anything inherently
>> dangerous about the Significant Locations feature without verified
>> evidence of that claim, then turn around and get upset when someone
>> calls you out on it. ; )
>>
>
> Why must you do this? Did I actually say anyone should do anything? I
> merely provided a news story and shared my own experience. You absolutely
> must find a way to denigrate people no matter what.

I've studied these iKooks... they are not anywhere near like normal people.
Here's what happened (and which is what always happens on iOS newsgroups).

1. The OP (badgolferman) posted a link to an interesting on-topic datum
2. Everyone read the article and digested what the article taught us
3. Andy Burnelli read the article, learned, and thanked badgolferman
4. Andy Burnelli also added additional value that was not in the article
5. The OP added additional on-topic value stating his related settings
... then the ikooks got involved... infesting the thread...
... why? ... because iKooks hate any fact about Apple products...
... why? ... because iKooks have invested their ego in Apple propaganda...
... why? ... hehhehheh... because iKooks are iKooks...

6. *An iKook (Jolly Roger) responds with ancient data where his _only_*
*purpose is to defend all Apple decisions (good or bad) to the death!*

7. The thread goes on a death spiral due to the iKook infestation,
which is the modus operandi for all iKooks on the Apple newsgroups.

The goal of the iKooks is to deflect, detract, and otherwise deteriorate
any conversation that has anything to do with Apple not being a deity.

A. The iKook (Jolly Roger) accused the OP of being ill meaning
B. The iKook (Jolly Roger) accused posters of value of being stupid

Notice how these iKooks all operate:
a. They infest any thread that doesn't bow to the Apple deity
b. They accuse all posters of ill will if they don't bow to the deity
c. All because they hate themselves... they hate that their whole
life people have been telling them they're stupid... except Apple.

Apple loves the iKooks.
You can't make those ungodly profits off of intelligent people.

Apple loves that the iKooks defend everything Apple, to the death.
The iKooks literally claim Apple profits off of them is proof of the deity.

Literally, iKooks defend Apple like they defend a deity.

[Andy Burnelli]

Jolly Roger wrote:

>> *Apple's iOS Devices Are Vulnerable to Location-Based Snooping*
>> <https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/a-new-security-flaw-affects-15-billion-apple-ios-devices-puts-your-personal-information-at-risk.html>

>> "A pair of security researchers pointed out the vulnerability
>> on January 2, 2020, submitting it to Apple"
>>

> LOL... As is often the case with uneducated unintelligent trolls like
> Arlen, he skims over articles without having an actual understanding of
> what they are actually about

Hi Jolly Roger,
I understand you. I've studied you for many years, as you well know I have.

Your whole life people have been calling you stupid.
That's why you hate yourself.

I get it.
I really do.

In a strange pitiful way, I'm sorry for you.
In self defense, you call everyone else stupid.

Just like you did above by calling me stupid.
However, I'm ok that you called me stupid.

My ego doesn't depend on you.
More to the point, my ego doesn't depend on anything Apple does.

Unfortunately for you, your ego is almost completely dependent on Apple.
Apple is the only entity on this planet that doesn't call you stupid.

Apple loves you.
They really do.

Tour ego is indelibly intertwined into the deity you respect more than all
others: Apple, so that's why you lashed out at badgolferman and me.

You are merely defending the only entity that does not call you stupid.
Apple.

>> *Why You Should Stop This 'Hidden' Location Tracking On Your iPhone*
>> <https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/10/04/apple-iphone-12-location-tracking-in-ios-14-upgrade/>

>> As ESET cyber guru Jake Moore warns, "significant locations is one
>> of those features ... I cannot think of a positive or useful reason
>> why Apple would include this feature on any of their devices."
>
> Then Jake has no imagination and/or is clueless about the iPhone.

Hmmm... could it possibly be _you_ who is clueless?
Naaaah... can't be you.
Must be all the experts.

>> Hmmm... cyber gurus and security experts are saying the little
>> functionality that it provides isn't worth the loss in privacy that can be
>> expected to occur now, and in the future (since you will never know).
>
> Nonsense. The data is end-to-end encrypted and cannot be accessed by
> third parties including Apple. You're fear mongering as usual, and its
> lame. You're also a dumb ass troll.

Again, I understand why you can't respond to any facts about your deity
without calling every fact a lie, a troll, fear mongering, etc.

Your whole life people have been calling you stupid, Jolly Roger.
Except Apple.

Apple loves you.
Therefore you defend Apple to the death, no matter what.

Otherwise, what would you be after all?

[Jolly Roger]

On the contrary, by making the false claim that correcting blatant disinformation is supposedly "denigrating" anyone, you are siding with those spreading the disinformation and denigrating yourself. You and your best buddy Arlen aren't fooling any of the adults here. ; )

[Chris]

badgolferman <REMOVETHISb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Your phone can track your whereabouts. It can provide helpful tips on the
> best route to take to get to work (without you even asking it). And the
> simple truth of the matter is: if you own a smart phone, you are agreeing
> to lose a certain level of privacy in your life. You may be okay with this
> trade-off because your phone can provide a number of other important and
> practical functions. But if this leaves a bad taste in your mouth, your
> best course of action is to get to know certain tracking settings that can
> be changed to better protect you. This is the one iPhone tracking setting
> that privacy experts say you should turn off immediately.

Then goes on to mention three...

[Joerg Lorenz]

Am 07.11.22 um 02:35 schrieb Andy Burnelli:

> 1. The OP (badgolferman) posted a link to an interesting on-topic datum

That were you, Arlen. That is why you think it is interesting. You are a
soliloquist. All these threads are fabricated by an acute aschizophrenic
personality.


--
Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

[Joerg Lorenz]

Am 06.11.22 um 17:07 schrieb Andy Burnelli:

> badgolferman wrote:
>
>> Your phone can track your whereabouts.
>
> The one "good" thing about people not realizing how well computers,

You are a soliloquist. All these threads are fabricated by an acute

[Andy Burnelli]

Chris wrote:

> This is the one iPhone tracking setting
>> that privacy experts say you should turn off immediately.
>
> Then goes on to mention three...

Hi Chris,
You are on the higher level of the iKooks, along with Alan Browne and
nospam, where you have the capacity to notice details the others don't.

The article mentioned only two _settings_ as far as I could tell...
1. Ad Tracking
2. Significant Locations

Maybe you only read the first paragraph (which mentioned three results)?
A. Your phone can track your whereabouts
B. Your phone can provide helpful tips
C. And you agree to lose a certain level of privacy if you allow that

If you look closely, even that can be distilled down to only two items:
a. Significant Locations (i.e., track your whereabouts)
b. Ad Tracking (helpful tips)

Having opined that observation, I would definitely easily agree with you
that it's not "the one" iPhone tracking setting experts warn you about.
*The One iPhone Tracking Setting*
*Privacy Experts Say You Should Turn Off Immediately*
<https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/one-iphone-tracking-setting-privacy-163150758.html>

It's two (but not three).

However, it's easy to see that the most _important_ tracking setting they
are warning us about is "Significant Locations" (which has been exposed).

Hence, you are correct the article is badly misnamed, likely for clickbait
purposes (which, let's keep in mind, is why I don't quote Yahoo news).

--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information

which, in this case, is to reasonably discuss Chris' observations.

[Andy Burnelli]

Jolly Roger wrote:

>> Why must you do this? Did I actually say anyone should do anything? I
>> merely provided a news story and shared my own experience. You absolutely
>> must find a way to denigrate people no matter what.
>
> On the contrary, by making the false claim that correcting blatant
> disinformation is supposedly "denigrating" anyone, you are siding
> with those spreading the disinformation and denigrating yourself.

I've studied Jolly Roger for years, and I think I understand him.
He's a truly dangerous person; however, he's also incredibly stupid.

People like Jolly Roger are the most dangerous when they have power.
Luckily, Jolly Roger isn't Ali Khamenei or Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

I love studying iKooks like Jolly Roger because they don't have any
capacity to hide their feelings that any comment whatsoever that their
deity (Apple) maybe perhaps isn't of god like infallible character.

In this case, Jolly Roger calls "disinformation" an article (accurately so,
by the way), which pointed out two settings one might wish to look at.

Just _that_ suggestion scared the bejeezus out of Jolly Roger, much as a
simple protest scares the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps into action.

That fear Jolly Roger intensely feels against anyone who says anything
about his deity is what would make him dangerous if he had any power.

> added a setting that one should consider turning off

> You and your best buddy Arlen aren't fooling any of the adults here.

One can't help but notice how Jolly Roger associates _everyone_ who has a
different religious opinion about his deity (Apple), as a threat to him!

If people like Jolly Roger have any power, that's when they are dangerous.

He's absolutely no different from Ali Khamenei or Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini except Jolly Roger doesn't have the power that they wield.

--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information

which, in this case, is to explain how people like Jolly Roger act & think.

[Joerg Lorenz]

Am 07.11.22 um 15:53 schrieb Andy Burnelli:

> Jolly Roger wrote:
>
>>> Why must you do this? Did I actually say anyone should do anything? I
>>> merely provided a news story and shared my own experience. You absolutely
>>> must find a way to denigrate people no matter what.
>>
>> On the contrary, by making the false claim that correcting blatant
>> disinformation is supposedly "denigrating" anyone, you are siding
>> with those spreading the disinformation and denigrating yourself.
>
> I've studied Jolly Roger for years,

Learn to quote correctly, Arlen.
Take your frog pills°°° and shut up.