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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LarsA who wrote (111881)	4/20/2011 10:14:05 AM
From: Lahcim Leinad	4 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213182

iPhone keeps record of everywhere you go Not just the iPhone. At least 3000 different phone models: 4/19/2011 Michigan: Police Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops ACLU seeks information on Michigan program that allows cops to download information from smart phones belonging to stopped motorists. The Michigan State Police have a high-tech mobile forensics device that can be used to extract information from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan last Wednesday demanded that state officials stop stonewalling freedom of information requests for information on the program. ACLU learned that the police had acquired the cell phone scanning devices and in August 2008 filed an official request for records on the program, including logs of how the devices were used. The state police responded by saying they would provide the information only in return for a payment of $544,680. The ACLU found the charge outrageous. "Law enforcement officers are known, on occasion, to encourage citizens to cooperate if they have nothing to hide," ACLU staff attorney Mark P. Fancher wrote. "No less should be expected of law enforcement, and the Michigan State Police should be willing to assuage concerns that these powerful extraction devices are being used illegally by honoring our requests for cooperation and disclosure." A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections. "Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags," a CelleBrite brochure explains regarding the device's capabilities. "The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps." The ACLU is concerned that these powerful capabilities are being quietly used to bypass Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches. "With certain exceptions that do not apply here, a search cannot occur without a warrant in which a judicial officer determines that there is probable cause to believe that the search will yield evidence of criminal activity," Fancher wrote. "A device that allows immediate, surreptitious intrusion into private data creates enormous risks that troopers will ignore these requirements to the detriment of the constitutional rights of persons whose cell phones are searched." The national ACLU is currently suing the Department of Homeland Security for its policy of warrantless electronic searches of laptops and cell phones belonging to people entering the country who are not suspected of committing any crime. From: thenewspaper.com CelleBrite: cellebrite.com

To: LarsA who wrote (111881)	4/20/2011 10:18:05 AM
From: OrionX	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213182

If true, really dumb of Apple to do this without giving users a way of clearing the data or stopping the tracking.

To: LarsA who wrote (111881)	4/20/2011 10:38:29 AM
From: FJB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213182

Apple Tracks and Logs iPhone and iPad Location Data in iOS 4 gigaom.com By Darrell Etherington Apr. 20, 2011, 7:22am PT No Comments At the Where 2.0 location services conference Wednesday, Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden will be announcing the discovery that your iPhone or 3G-capable iPad has been regularly recording your device’s location since the introduction of iOS 4. The iOS devices store a list of the device’s location and time stamps for when the location information was gathered, and does it all using a file that can be easily read by just about anyone. The file that does the tracking is called “consolidated.db,” which contains latitude and longitude coordinates attached to a timestamp. It’s not clear exactly what triggers your device to record a location, since the recording appears to vary considerably in terms of frequency. Allan and Warden suspect that the logging may be triggered by travelling between cell towers, which aid in location determination, or by activity on the phone, like using apps. It isn’t clear why Apple began storing this info in iOS 4, but Allan and Warden are convinced the effort is intentional. Back in March, a German politician working with German newspaper Die Zeit sued Deutsche Telekom to get access to his own location data from his mobile phone, and put together a visualization of where he’d been for six months. Carriers do have this data, but it requires a court order to get it from them. Using the iOS 4 location tracking file (which is stored on any computer where you’ve synced your device) and a free, open source application developed by Allan and Warden, anyone can now do the same in about two minutes with virtually no technical expertise. Allen and Warden warn that the info can be easily accessed on the device itself, in addition to it being in backups on computers you’ve synced with. Users who want to protect themselves can encrypt their backups through iTunes, but that doesn’t stop information on the device itself from being accessible. We’ve reached out to Apple about the issue and will let you know if they provide any additional info about how to ensure your data remains private. As you can tell from the screenshot of my location data included in this article, I’m not particularly concerned about this data being out there, but I tend to lean towards the open and trusting end of the scale when it comes to information sharing. Then again, that probably makes me a prime candidate for things like Please Rob Me, and many others will likely not be so comfortable knowing their iPhone or iPad has a relatively accurate record of their whereabouts over the past year or so. Is this disturbing to you, or just a neat visualization trick you can show your friends?