Those of us who are not iPhone owners, often laugh at the giddiness and joy which many tech-savvy, self-absorbed Apple devotees experience while using their phone’s latest app.
Despite the convenience and absolute coolness embedded in these ultra-smart phones, some of our greatest privacy rights go out the window when users “opt-in” during the registration process for a wide variety of applications.
ComputerWorld magazine reported this week:
“After the recent hubbub surrounding the Palm Pre and its daily sharing of user location and other information with Palm, …the iPhone Dev team has revealed that some third-party apps for the iPhone act in a somewhat similar fashion.”
It seems that: “code from the analytics firm Pinch Media within some iPhone apps is specifically designed to track your geographic location through time, then upload that data to Pinch Media. They…note that the app will first ask permission to use your location information. Once this permission is granted, user location information is transmitted to whomever is tracking the app’s usage….Gender and birthday information may also be gathered and sent, if available.”
Although many specifics like your home address or business location may not be collected and stored, your actual latitude and longitude over time can make it easy to determine your sleeping and work coordinates.
Many question just how broadly the term “spy-ware” should be applied to analytics practices like this one. It has been observed that generally, users are never given the opportunity to “opt out”.
Like the Hotel California, you can check out anytime you like (turn off your phone), but you can NEVER leave.
