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iPhone Tracking Gets Apple Sued
A lawsuit initiated in Florida against Apple is seeking class action status in connection with the recently-unveiled feature of iOS (the iPhone operating system) which keeps a hidden log of users’ geographical locations. The plaintiffs are claiming breaches of their privacy rights as well as of the United States’ Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. One of the remedies being sought in the action is an injunction requiring Apple to disable this feature in the next release of its iOS.
Apple has responded to the location tracking issue on its website with a Q&A about the issue. Apple’s explanation is that the iPhone is not tracking users’ locations, but keeping a local cache of WiFi and cellular towers to enable quicker location tracking for users, rather than using GPS alone. Apple promises to address users’ complaints by releasing a software patch. The patch will reduce the length of time the cache records location data to seven days (certain users have up to a year of such stored data). Apple will also cease backing up this information onto users’ computers and will also allow users to opt out of the cache by turning off the iPhone’s location based services.
For additional information, visit:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20057245-248.html#ixzz1KdXLci7L
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/04/27location_qa.html