Blog: iPhone Secretly Tracks User Location, Say Researchers

iPhone Secretly Tracks User Location, Say Researchers
Computerworld (04/20/11) Gregg Keizer

Apple iPhones and iPads track users' locations and store the data in an unencrypted file on the devices and on owners' computers, according to two researchers. The data is in a SQLite file on devices with 3G capability. The file, named consolidated.db, includes locations' longitude and latitude, a timestamp, and nearby Wi-Fi networks. "There can be tens of thousands of data points in this file," the researchers say. To view the location file on an iPhone remotely, an attacker would have to exploit a pair of vulnerabilities, one to hack Safari and another to gain access to the root directory, says researcher Charlie Miller. The biggest threat to users would be if the device is lost, making the data available to whoever finds it. The researchers created an application that extracts the data from a Mac and displays the location history on a map. "Why this data is stored and how Apple intends to use it--or not--are important questions that need to be explored," according to the researchers.

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