iPhones Secretly Track Your Every Move, Researchers Say (VIDEO) [UPDATED]

[UPDATE:] Separate research has found that Android devices are caching location data in much the same way as Apple devices.

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According to security researchers Pete Warden and Alasdair Allan, your iPhone or iPad is keeping a record of every step you take, storing this data and sharing it with the devices that sync with the iPhone or iPad. What's troubling is that this information is unencrypted and can be accessed and viewed by anyone.

According to The Guardian, Warden and Allan discovered that devices running iOS 4 keep a record of time-stamped coordinates in a file called "consolidated.db."

When the iPhone or iPad is connected to a laptop, this sensitive file is copied from the portable device to the laptop. Anyone who opens the file can scroll through and see a history of where you've been.

The pair have set up a site explaining their discovery. From their description:

Cell-phone providers collect similar data almost inevitably as part of their operations, but it's kept behind their firewall. It normally requires a court order to gain access to it, whereas this is available to anyone who can get their hands on your phone or computer. [...] By passively logging your location without your permission, Apple have made it possible for anyone from a jealous spouse to a private investigator to get a detailed picture of your movements.

Why are these Apple devices storing users' geolocation data? The answers are not immediately apparent.

"One guess might be that they have new features in mind that require a history of your location, but that's pure speculation. The fact that it's transferred across devices when you restore or migrate is evidence the data-gathering isn't accidental," Warden and Allen say on their site.

They also believe that Apple may be the only company whose devices are storing customers' geolocation data.

"Alasdair has looked for similar tracking code in [Google's] Android phones and couldn't find any," Warden told The Guardian. "We haven't come across any instances of other phone manufacturers doing this."

Warden and Allen have developed an iPhone Tracker app that maps the location data stored in the iDevice. You can watch a video (below) to see a visualization of an iPhone owner's trip from Washington D.C. to New York City and back.

For more about how this data is collected, how accurate it is and what you can do to protect it, click here.

WATCH:

Washington DC to New York from Alasdair Allan on Vimeo.

Comments

[Channa]

10:04 AM on 04/22/2011

There is an option to encrypt your backup. Does anyone know if this will encrypt the data file or not?

[oscarfeliciano]

12:24 AM on 04/23/2011

Yes, it will. The iPhone Tracker app won't work with the saved data file if encrypted backup is enabled. This won't, however, prevent the data from being transmitted back to Apple.
F-Secure thinks that Apple is using their iOS-installed base to collect data for their own, personally-generated location database. Previously, Apple had been using SkyHook Wireless for this location data. Google doesn't need to collect this data from Android devices since they've already created their own, more extensive database using Google Street View cars (which recorded both street-view images and WiFi-router locations).

[Channa]

03:00 PM on 04/23/2011

Thanks. This answers a primary concern.

[Eyeful]

01:10 AM on 04/22/2011

Don't accept gadgets that you can't turn off in case you need to.
Like Fukushima nuclear reactors.

[Channa]

11:48 PM on 04/21/2011

I have changed my opinion about this. For myself, I still feel that the legitimate purposes of location services outweigh the loss of privacy. But then I thought about minors who have iPhones. If there is even a small chance of location patterns for minors being lifted from a computer, end of story. There has to be a way to have both privacy and utility (encryption?).

So, in my "improved opinion", the chance of one child being the victim of a predator should make this a no brainer to fix.

[Librick]

06:30 PM on 04/21/2011

Actually, all current generation smart phones have the capability to track you. As someone else pointed out, many automobiles have the same capability.You're tracked on any credit or debit card swipe. Internet usage and email is logged and can be tracked.

Unfortunately, our privacy laws have not kept pace with technology and never will. Our only safety is in sheer numbers of data. but with Moore's law, that's not for long.

[Dosadi]

06:23 PM on 04/21/2011

Uh, a lot of our automobiles do the same thing and worse.

A rental car company can read the records and charge you extra for speeding in their car.

On-Star tracks you and no one seems to care.

[Librick]

06:19 PM on 04/21/2011

Aggregation of information. That's what's collected and that's what's sold. Its a mega-billion business sector.

The problem is in the selling. It might be convenient for you to get tailored choices for your current lifestyle. That's what the aggregators count on. Perhaps, not so good when employers buy the info to profile your suitability for a job or health insurance companies buy the information for insurance qualification.

[tnlcallen]

05:29 PM on 04/21/2011

I've had an Iphone for years, which I sync to my laptop frequently. I just checked my laptop, and couldn't find the file they listed. My Iphone must think I'm incredibly boring, it won't even track my movements.

[mlambush]

01:53 AM on 04/22/2011

I think the article said it was only tracking devices with iOS 4

[Peace Walker]

05:13 PM on 04/21/2011

If where Apple products are made, and how they are made is not enough to dissuade people from buying them, and you don't mind software and application monopolies .... too many worms

[kevin major]

03:38 PM on 04/21/2011

hoax? no such file on my mac...

[kevin major]

03:45 PM on 04/21/2011

no kidding: only item called 'consolidated' on my mac is a folder containing a song by the band of that name: 'you suck' (for the... ehrm... record (watch out, explicit lyrics): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoyUUu1rPhE )

[Ergon]

05:13 PM on 04/21/2011

It works if you have OS 4 on your IPhone, and after you synchronize with your computer or transfer data to another phone.

[kevin major]

05:49 PM on 04/21/2011

ok, still didn't find the file, but am convinced it's true now - read some more stuff. anyway, am not that fussed, although it should be addressed. you?

[Momklok]

02:44 PM on 04/21/2011

So, we don't need that chip imbedded in our forehead, just a smart phone.

[wheelman66]

02:43 PM on 04/21/2011

If you think that NSA doesn't already know all about this and is using it, all for national security reasons, of course.

[owiseone]

01:22 PM on 04/21/2011

http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/

This is the link mentioned in the story above...worth visiting for sure.

[FronzelNeekburm]

12:45 PM on 04/21/2011

Let me see if I can break down exactly what has been happening with this story.

"All other phones track your moves! in fact, it will be in the plots of many TV shows."

Blogosphere - "ZZZZZZ...."

December - "Hey, look! the iPhone can track your every movement!" (in fact published in a book... a real. live book.)

Blogosphere - "hmmm... maybe?"

Now - "hey, we're two people doing a study. Let's take all of the research that's done, put it in a pretty graph, and entitle that the iPhone is the one doing it?"

Blogosphere - "WHAT!?! KILL APPLE! KILL ALL APPLE PRODUCTS! ONLY FANBOYS DEFEND APPLE NOW!! GRRR!!! ME LOVE ANDROID!"

The food you buy, your ATM card, the GPS you use to get places, the tickets you buy, logging onto the internet, making a phone call from a pay phone can ALL be used to track you. This is nothing new. The only real difference between this and anything else is that somoeone put "iPhone" in the title to get the people who are too "hip" to buy an iphone all riled up.

[Skotyman]

02:11 PM on 04/21/2011

Wheres the "thumbs up" button when you need one.

[Fletch55]

03:45 PM on 04/21/2011

Guess your a fanboy and didnt read and dont understand. The Apple products ie iphone and ipad are the only unsecured devices that track and openly store your everymove easily seen by a basic hacker or kid with a computer. No fire wall no protection. Other devices that are logged ar logged by the isp carrier on personal computers encrypted behind secure firewalled servers not open for the public to get the info like apple so lets look at it again..Hmmm android and blackberry phone stolen hmmm no tracking data to triangulate....Iphone stolen persons aily routes found hmm picture of teens on it easy kid nap victims grabbed.....Pay attention before commenting.

[ksjprod]

12:14 PM on 04/21/2011

I am neither shocked nor upset. Yes, I own an iphone. ALL smart phones do similar things. Android phones transmit location data all the time regardless. A website called androidtracking.org has an article headlined -- How to Use an Android Tracking App to Catch a Cheating Spouse. If you can get a hold of the other person's Android phone for a few minutes, and install this app, you can then go to any computer and download a Google map pinpointing every place that person goes! And you can see every text message, every email, and every photo on the phone. And unless the person you're tracking knows how to monitor data use or battery drain, they'll have no idea.

The perceived right to privacy is interesting. A result of the belief in American entitlement? No one is making you get a smart phone let alone sign a contract with a wireless carrier that makes the fine print in a Credit Card contract look like a pop-up book. I'm not saying I think it's okay, I'm just not surprised.

[nerdkill]

12:35 PM on 04/21/2011

Are you really such an apple fanboy that you would defend apple over this? You don't see the difference between loading an app on a phone and having it baked into the os?

[ksjprod]

11:46 AM on 04/24/2011

Is your comprehension that bad that you didn't understand the last sentence of my post?

[Dinkster]

12:36 PM on 04/21/2011

How do you resolve an iOS "feature" with a 3rd party hacking your phone? Apple builds this in at the OEM level. Your argument is devoid of a point. The researcher involved claimed to have also looked for the same type of file built into the Android OS and could find none. So no, it is not apples to apples. If Microsoft installed key loggers into Windows base installs, the fallout would be over the top. Yet, hackers write key logger trojans everyday.

[GeorgieMark]

11:59 AM on 04/21/2011

One of my main issues with this is the ease by which one can access your data.

From what I've read, the data are not beamed to apple but stored on the phone and can be extracted easily by a 3rd party.

[Pierre Normand]

12:13 PM on 04/21/2011

This function is ADVERTISED by APPLE on the last program update...It allows you to LOCATE your phone if lost;and locate the phone and owner if this service is turned on.
Except if you are a criminal,I do not see any problem:credit cards store also all your purchases,spendings and so on...

[B from B]

12:19 PM on 04/21/2011

I don't believe it is reasonable to extrapolate from the disclosed feature of being able to locate your phone an otherwise undisclosed feature that causes the phone to operate in what amounts to a perpetual gps device that cannot be disabled by the user.

[GeorgieMark]

12:34 PM on 04/21/2011

That does nothing to assuage fears of illicit extraction of this information for who knows what purposes.

As for phone theft there is always IMEI it's a nifty little number that uniquely identifies your phone across the globe.