The iPhone tracking issue that’s causing a big privacy stink isn’t new and isn’t really tracking users, says an iOS forensics researcher.
It’s actually a data file that is used internally by the iPhone to do things like geo-tag photos, and it’s been in iOS for a long time (in a different form).
What’s new is a nifty extraction tool called iPhoneTracker that pulls the data off your hard drive and makes a striking map out of it. iPhoneTracker was released this week at O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference, causing a huge outcry about privacy and prompting U.S. Senator Al Franken to write to Steve Jobs.
In addition, the file has become more accessible than it used to be because it’s now used by third-party apps that require location data.
“It is not secret, malicious, or hidden,” writes Alex Levinson, an iOS forensics researcher.
Levinson is a senior engineer for Katana Forensics, which publishes Lantern, an iOS forensic application.
According to Levinson, the offending file, consolidated.db, is a database of radio logs that includes geolocational data.
The file used to be known as h-cells.plist, and was hidden away from users and applications inside the inaccessible Library folder (Levinson said he used to access this file forensically for police looking for location evidence).
But when Apple added multitasking to iOS 4 last year, this file was made accessible to third-party apps to operate in the background. It moved out of the hard-to-access Library folder and became part of iOS’s Multitasking and Background Location Services.
“Because of these new APIs and the sandbox design of 3rd party applications, Apple had to move access to this data,” Levinson writes.
He notes that on the iPhone or 3G iPad, users still have full control of their location data. They are able to turn location on and off for individual apps using the Settings menu on their device. “That does not stop the generation of these logs, however, it simply prevents applications from utilizing the APIs to access the data.”
Levinson, notes that Apple isn’t collecting the data. It sits on the user’s machine in a file that is still pretty inaccessible. He’s checked with networking sniffing tools — the data goes nowhere.
It is still unclear, however, why the iPhone stores so much data and never expires it. In many cases, users are able to access almost a year’s worth of data stretching all the way back to the date when iOS 4 was installed on their device.
Via Scobelizer and Parth Dhebar.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
