Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Steve Jobs: "We do not track anyone"

South Korea has requested an explanation from Apple on the collection of geographical data owners iPad iPhones and tablets, which are stored in a hidden file as last week unveiled two researchers at the Where 2.0 conference, held in Santa Clara (California, USA). The telecommunications regulator wants to find out why South Korean stored data and how often is done to determine if it is a violation of user privacy.


In addition, he also wants to know why data are not protected nor encrypted and if the owner of the phone or tablet can be deleted. Apple, which had remained silent until now, has denied any tracking of users, as has assured the head of the company, Steve Jobs. "We do not track anyone. The information that is circulating is false," according to an e-mail sent by Jobs himself to a Macrumorsreader.com, which includes Bussiness Insider. The reader asked Jobs explanations and he was told that Apple does not, but Android, yes. In South Korea, one of the countries with the highest penetration of mobile Internet in the world, Apple has sold about two million iPhones since 2009 and in the world, the company which runs Steve Jobs has sold another 15 million tablets iPad since its launch last year.

Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden revealed that Apple included in the latest version of the operating system for their mobile devices, iOS4, a feature that stores in a hidden file geographical movements of the owners of these sections. Android also stores data does not just Apple. Phones that work with the operating system Android, Google also store data and send the internet giant, according to the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, citing security expert Samy Kamar.

The newspaper says that both companies store information on the location with the goal of creating databases that will later sell customized advertising services, a market that will reach 8,300 million dollars in 2014, according to Gartner. Kamar, who in 2005 created a computer worm that blocked the MySpace social network, argues that the HTC Android phone collects the user's location every few seconds and sends several times an hour.

It also transmits the name of the wireless networks wifi area as well as a unique caller ID. According to research by Kamar, the HTC Android analyzed personal data were transmitted to Google. Neither Apple nor Google has provided an answer to the American newspaper. Last year, the company Steve Jobs said in a letter to two U.S.

MPs location data compiled in a "flash", including GPS coordinates of the iPhone and wireless networks nearby, and transmitting the data every 12 hours. Until last year, Google took away all data, including some sensitive emails and passwords, open wifi network. The facts, acknowledged by the company, came as the Internet giant captured images for street photography Street View, which allows virtually visit the streets of hundreds of cities worldwide.

In any case we can turn this option on the terminal and activate it only when really needed. However, a test of the Wall Street Journal revealed that the iPhone also collect and store location data but have been turned off by the base stations of mobile and wireless access points near the phone, but says the newspaper that "no seems that this information is transmitted to Apple.

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