Steve Jobs' Alleged iPhone Tracking Response: 'We Don't Track Anyone'

While Steve Jobs has yet to publicly explain the reason why the iPhone tracks and stores precise locational data for its users, he has reportedly refuted the claims to one user via email.

According to MacRumors, Jobs shot back a characteristically brief answer to one user's concerns about the reported location-storing:

MacRumors reports the email exchange between the user and CEO was allegedly as follows:

Q: Steve,

Could you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone? It's kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times. Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid. They don't track me.

A: Oh yes they do. We don't track anyone. The info circulating around is false.

Sent from my iPhone

Jobs is right about Android phones--but his answer seems to contradict all other evidence showing that iPhones do indeed track their users--even when the location services feature is turned off.

Read more of Steve Jobs' snappy email responses here.

Comments

[ZeFoussa]

10:35 AM on 04/27/2011

I wonder if Steve and Bill Clinton are best of friends...

[LuLou Murder]

08:52 AM on 04/27/2011

The Apple iCultists are out in full force on this one, mods take note.

[redmaple]

12:09 AM on 04/27/2011

He meant "We don't track anyone (in particular. We track everybody the same.)

[farleft1917]

06:06 PM on 04/26/2011

Apple iOS is now the Windoze of old and Jobs is acting like Gates before the EU humbled MS over the browser wars.
I use an iPhone and iPad and assume I was being tracked. I'm a longtime Apple customer and shareholder. This is typical Jobs at his most arrogant. Fact is Android does it too but you have to opt in and it's much harder to collate data than iOS.

Anyone who thinks they are able to keep their movements secret in our police state should think again. However, Apple should only collect data with a Google style "Opt In" and even then it should be shorn of specific data that could aid a divorce attorney or even government agent.

Only Oligarchs have nothing to fear from Secret Service.

This is bad for Apple. Jobs is showing his age if he thinks acting like the Pope will work. The world is rising up against arrogant leaders and this is no exception.

Saying Google does it is a lousy excuse for bad business practice.

Apple should come clean and then allow us to erase data and allow us to manage such data stored in the Cloud. The arrogance of the CEO class knows no limits at Apple.

[E4B32787]

11:47 PM on 04/26/2011

I see this as somewhat of a red herring. If we're talking cellphone, or contact with a wireless provider, the provider has a record of the location, since the particular tower that the device is contacting is (most likely) logged.

When one receives a call, the attempt to contact the cellphone doesn't emanate from every cellphone tower in the world. What happens is that the cellphone checks in periodically to the nearest cell tower to say "here's where I am" in case an incoming call needs to be connected. The tower last contacted attempts to make the connection on an incoming call. The cell phone is constantly communicating with the nearest tower, and thereby giving the location.

That is where the tracking occurs, whether its' the sharpest smart phone, or the dumbest phone on the block.

What this Apple thing is all about, we'll, I'll see how it all sorts out. But for someone to assume that tracking doesn't occur, absent this Apple log, well, I have a bridge for sale.

Right now, people can buy throwaway phones, which means the tracing is under a Jon Doe, assuming that the video recording the purchase at the point of sale doesn't give away the purchaser. But, I hear that the authorities are looking to get rid of anonymous purchases of throwaways.

[KHAAANNN]

05:29 PM on 04/26/2011

Liar.

[gtoddyt5]

04:21 PM on 04/26/2011

This shouldn't come as a surprise to people, although apparently it does. Even if you want to complain about device manufacturers including location functions in their devices, it's necessary to make it function properly. Wireless is just that, unguided media. Your location matters and you can complain all you want, but the wireless carrier or any other ISP for that matter, knows where you are anyway. I'm sure all of the carriers have longitudes/latitudes stored in their routers and switches. Do you ever wonder why you get targeted ads for your specific area? It's quite easy to determine where you are.

[DannyEVillage]

04:11 PM on 04/26/2011

Nobody said ya' did, Jobs: we're just accusing you of cooperating with creating the infrastructure of a corporatist-fascist state.

Thanks, dude.

[becky bradshaw]

06:53 PM on 04/26/2011

If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas.

[Mark Montgomery]

04:06 PM on 04/26/2011

But we could if we wanted to.

[Littlediamonds]

03:48 PM on 04/26/2011

"Google performs a similar operation regarding users' location data on phones using its Android software." from the other article about this. Why wouldnt Droid track as well?

[moozungu]

03:47 PM on 04/26/2011

His patent answer to every flaw or malicious practice in his companies devices.... " ... the other guys do it to"

[ChknLvr]

03:10 PM on 04/26/2011

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

[SirSparky]

02:46 PM on 04/26/2011

Thankfully, since Jobs sent that message from his iphone, we know exactly where he was when he sent it.

[mistercrispyusa]

01:33 PM on 04/26/2011

Just further proof Steve Jobs is a cult leader. Up is down, black is white, tracking is not tracking. Jobs has so bought into his own B.S. that he truly believes his Jedi mind tricks work. I'm sure as long as he's making money for his shareholders, nobody will say a word, but in today's world of corporate doublespeak there's a fine line between a company and a cult.

[indecisiveh]

12:56 PM on 04/26/2011

Your phone wouldn't work very well without a basic locating function. You know so you can actually find a signal and make a call. Because they are phones. The name of the game is communication from point A(which happens to be a location) to point B(which happens to be another location)

How is the phone supposed to connect a call if can't distinguish between the two location with some kind of hybrid Software/Hardware GPS and locating systems.

The truth as everything you do is tracked electronically being hundreds of companies hired bu thousands of clients to do this. So this makes Apple just another fish and large school.

The fundamental question is do we have a right to privacy of movement? I think both sides have excellent points. I think the solution is somewhere in between.

I will err on the side of not being too worried about it. Paranoia is never really to reasonable of a state of mind.

[ChknLvr]

03:13 PM on 04/26/2011

But it surely doesn't need to saye it and back it up when synching w/ iTunes. George Orwell was no idiot. Creeping totalitarianism is a constand threat and It's amazing how willingly people will give up their rights.

[indecisiveh]

03:36 PM on 04/26/2011

Orwell is no idiot that is very true. I wouldn't put my eggs in one basket so to speak.

While Orwells view is compelling, fascinating, and filled with lessons to learn, it is a view from his era and the further we get from early 20th century, the less we can really gain from his point of view, without at least the addition of contemporary writing to compliment the themes discussed in "1984".

Which brings me to my point, more contemporary authors that compliment the big brother narrative, usually fall into two categories. Science Fiction and Right Wing Propaganda narratives. I dig the former, can't stand that latter.

It's fun too discuss the mathematical possibilities of sociology through the use of science fiction story telling. 1984 was a sci-fi book. A very well written, and mathematically accurate representation of ultimate totalitarianism.

The issue is Ultimate Totalitarianism is similar two Beaming Me Up Scotty. There is a lot of space between where we are now technologically and where we theories we can possibly be in some point in the next hundred thousand year.

Try reading some adult non-fiction. It is at least relevant to the current environment.

[Comeplayinmyreality]

12:37 PM on 04/26/2011

i iwll just stick to my Blackberry, I just cant ever bring myself to own/buy an Apple product.

[eehopkins]

07:47 PM on 04/26/2011

And if you use any location services on your berry you are just as susceptible as I am on my iPhone.