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To: rnsmth who wrote (4112)	4/25/2011 10:50:20 PM
From: zax	Respond to of 32692

Apple sued over location tracking in iOS Source: news.cnet.com April 25, 2011 5:12 PM PDT by Josh Lowensohn A lawsuit filed against Apple in Florida last week accuses the company of violating privacy laws, as well as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, by keeping a log of user locations without offering a way to disable the feature. The suit, which was first reported by Bloomberg, was filed by Vikram Ajjampur and William Devito, both of whom own Apple products. In the suit, the pair, who seek punitive damages and injunctive relief, cite research from Alasdair Allen and Pete Warden about the tracking files found within iOS as the source for Apple's collection techniques. "Users of Apple's iPhones and iPads, including Plaintiffs, were unaware of Apple's tracking their locations and did not consent to such tracking," the suit claims. "Apple collects the location information covertly, surreptitiously and in violations of law." The suit faults Apple specifically for not disclosing that the iOS software records "comprehensive" location data in its iTunes Terms of Service, nor offering end users informed consent of the practice. "If Apple wanted to track the whereabouts of each of its products' users, it should have obtained specific, particularized informed consent such that Apple consumers across America would not have been shocked and alarmed to learn of Apple's practices in recent days," the suit says. The suit, which is seeking class action status, aims to have Apple completely disable the feature in the "next-released" version of the operating system. Until that happens, the suit claims Apple is in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, state laws comparable to the Federal Trade Commission Act, and "common law rights in uniform ways" of the plaintiffs and class members. Apple, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit, has not officially commented on the location tracking file since it came to light last week. An alleged e-mail exchange between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and a reader of MacRumors surfaced this morning. In it, Jobs purportedly says, "we don't track anyone," and "the info circulating around is false." Apple has not confirmed or commented on the legitimacy of that correspondence. In addition, Apple and Google were targeted today by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan over location tracking. Madigan seeks a meeting with executives from both companies, as well as answers to her questions about disclosure and purpose of the tracking, and a way to turn the feature off. Madigan's efforts join those of other politicians and government groups who seek to know more about what the companies are doing with the information. .

To: rnsmth who wrote (4112)	4/25/2011 10:52:29 PM
From: zax	Respond to of 32692

Florida, N.Y. consumers sue Apple over location tracking Source: computerworld.com Call Apple's practice 'unconscionable,' demand company disable tracking feature Gregg Keizer April 25, 2011 (Computerworld) Two men have sued Apple over the iPhone and iPad location tracking practice researchers made public last week, according to court documents. The lawsuit follows a prediction made last week by Jim Harvey, a partner with the law firm of Alston & Bird and an expert in privacy law, that Apple would likely face legal challenges. "I wouldn't be surprised if someone decided to sue Apple over this," Harvey said on Thursday in an interview. Vikram Ajjampur of Florida and William Devito of New York filed their lawsuit last Friday in a Florida federal court, accusing Apple of fraud, deceptive business practices and several additional violations of federal and state laws. Ajjampur and Devito have asked a federal judge to grant the case class-action status. Their lawsuit came just two days after British researchers reported that iPhones and 3G iPads running iOS 4 logged up to 100 location entries daily. Those locations are stored in an unencrypted file on the mobile devices, as well as on owners' personal computers. "Plaintiffs and proposed Class members were harmed by Apple's accrual of personal location, movement and travel histories because their personal computers were used in ways they did not approve, and because they were personally tracked just as if by a tracking device for which a court-ordered warrant would ordinarily be required," the lawsuit claimed. According to the Wall Street Journal, an iPhone monitors and records the device's location even when location tracking services are turned off, a point that Ajjampur and Devito noted in their complaint. The two asked a federal judge to issue an injunction that would stop the location tracking practice and require Apple to disable the feature in the next version of iOS, the mobile operating system that powers the iPhone and iPad. They also sought unspecified damages. "It is unconscionable to allow Apple to continue unlawfully and without proper consent tracking Plaintiffs and proposed Class members," the lawsuit stated. "If Apple wanted to track the whereabouts of each of its products' users, it should have obtained specific, particularized informed consent such that Apple consumers across America would not have been shocked and alarmed to learn of Apple's practices in recent days." Apple also faces Congressional scrutiny in the U.S., and possible regulatory investigations in several other countries. Last week, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) sent letters to Apple asking the company to answer questions about the location tracking. Today, Markey called on Congress to investigate Apple's practice. "Congress should immediately commence an investigation into this critical issue to help improve companies' disclosure policies so consumers and families can understand who is seeing their information," Markey said. Markey is co-chairman of the House Bipartisan Privacy Caucus; Franken chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. Apple did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the lawsuit, and has not responded to earlier questions about its location tracking. Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.

To: rnsmth who wrote (4112)	4/25/2011 10:54:34 PM
From: zax	Respond to of 32692

Illinois attorney general joins chorus of officials asking Apple about iPhone location tracking Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com A growing group of state, federal and foreign government officials is asking Apple Inc. to explain why its iPhone and iPad mobile devices track users’ whereabouts. Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan on Monday requested meetings with both Apple and Google Inc, which also records users’ location data through its Android smartphones. Last week, two researchers drew attention to a data file embedded on Apple devices that apparently keeps tabs on years' worth of user location data. “I want to know whether consumers have been informed of what is being tracked and stored by Apple and Google and whether those tracking and storage features can be disabled,” Madigan said in a statement. Madigan’s letter followed requests to Apple last week by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.). Privacy regulators in France, Italy and South Korea are also looking into the matter, according to news reports. Apple has not responded to requests for comment on the tracking, which received wide attention last week. Apple told lawmakers last year that its mobile devices send batches of user location data back to the company twice a day. The data do “not reveal personal information about any customer,” Apple said at the time. Google too has acknowledged it collects location data from users’ mobile devices in order to be able to provide and improve applications like Google Maps, which helps users navigate city streets. The company said in a statement that users are notified before their location data are collected and are offered the chance to turn off the function. Like Apple, Google has said that the location data it collects are stored anonymously. Apple has also said that users can stop tracking features by turning off all location-based services on their phones, but a report in the Wall Street Journal last weekend contended that the data were collected even after those services were disabled.

To: rnsmth who wrote (4112)	4/25/2011 10:56:27 PM
From: zax	Respond to of 32692

Watchdog Probes iPhone's Secret Location Tracker Source: english.chosun.com The Korea Communications Commission is investigating whether Apple violated the privacy of iPhone users with a secret program that tracks and stores their location. The program was discovered by chance by a pair of technical experts and made worldwide headlines. The KCC asked Apple Korea for a formal explanation of the reports, a spokesman said Monday. It aims to "verify facts and determine if Apple has protected user privacy or violated privacy regulations, including location data rules," he said. The KCC wants to know how often and how long data are collected and stored; if users can choose whether to save or delete them; and if the firm has obtained users' consent. Apple could be subject to sanctions if it is proven that it has not treated the data as anonymous but has stored and used them for market research contrary to terms and conditions it submitted to the KCC.

To: rnsmth who wrote (4112)	4/25/2011 10:59:57 PM
From: zax	Respond to of 32692

House Republicans question Google, Apple on consumer privacy thehill.com

To: rnsmth who wrote (4112)	4/25/2011 11:02:15 PM
From: zax	Respond to of 32692

Reports: There's No Way To Keep iPhone From Collecting Location Data Source: npr.org by Eyder Peralta There was one big open question after researchers revealed that the iPhone keeps an unencrypted log of location data: Is there a way to turn it off? As we reported last week, back in 2009, Apple told Congress in a letter that turning off location services would keep the iPhone from collecting data. A preliminary test done by NPR's Senior Director of Technology Zach Brand, found that his iPhone seemed to stop collecting data after he turned off location services. But a new test conducted by the Wall Street Journal found that the iPhone continued to collect data even after their testers had turned off location services: The Journal disabled location services (which are on by default) and immediately recorded the data that had initially been gathered by the phone. The Journal then carried the phone to new locations and observed the data. Over the span of several hours as the phone was moved, it continued to collect location data from new places. These data included coordinates and time stamps; however, the coordinates were not from the exact locations that the phone traveled, and some of them were several miles away. The phone also didn't indicate how much time was spent in a given location. Other technology watchers on blogs and message boards online have recorded similar findings. Wired reports that independent users have experienced the same thing. While Apple hasn't commented on the most recent reports, the results of theses tests seem in direct contradiction to what Apple said in its letter to Congress: "If customers toggle the switch to 'Off,' they may not use location-based services, and no location-based information will be collected." As the Wall Street Journal puts it, the new revelations will likely spur more questions about how well Apple's customers are informed about what data their devices are collecting. Last week, we also reported that Google's Android phones were collecting similar data, but in the least, Google clearly warns its users about what it is collecting. Alexis Madrigal over at The Atlantic has piece today that's made to make you think. Madrigal puts his iPhone through a forensics program called Lantern. He found so much information about himself (14,000 text messages, 1,350 words in his personal dictionary, 1,450 Facebook contacts, tens of thousands of location pings, every website he'd visited) that he was able to piece together an hour-by-hour timeline of what he did April 13. Cell phones keep so much information about you, he found, that one forensics specialist said, "mobile device forensics is the future. With the wealth of data even a casual user has stored in his or her cellphone, smartphone, or PDA, it is quickly becoming THE one piece of evidence that is interrogated immediately."