Google and Microsoft Tracking Your Location Too

Of course they are. Anyone that thought this was unique to Apple (despite knowing how common it is for Android applications to collect and store data that they don't need) is an idiot.

Agreed with the guy above me. People just looking for a reason to hate Apple. They all do it. Get Real

it's too bad for me. I leave my GPS and location services off until I need them, and leave my wifi off almost all the time. So, they aren't tracking me or tracking any wifi signals through me.

if they wanted to, what sort of other things could Apple, Google, and Microsoft do with the information that is collected? Could it somehow be associated with local advertising?

Can this be turned off on Andriod or WP7? From what I heard you cannot turn this off on apple even after turning off location services.

Haha. All the Apple-haters/Andriod fanboys were bashing Apple for this, I bet now they have nothing to say.

According to the article Toms posted about Apple's activities, turning off location service does stop it.

The location services can be turned off in Android, with a simple toolbar. I leave them off on my Captivate because they chew up massive battery power. Then I just press the button on my toolbar when I actually need location or directions (like when I was visiting Irvine, California a few months ago and got myself lost.) The Wifi can also be turned off. I don't know about the reporting service that reports the info back to Google, but with wifi and location services off, it wouldn't be submitting any useful info.

According to the quote, satellite GPS uses more data than WiFi or tower positioning. To me, this seems counter-intuitive. Can someone please explain?

Read an article on just how and why it's done, and though i'm still a little confused at least i'm much less confused than before

GPS signals are intermittent and not a good reliable source for triangulating your position, especially in cities or cluttered environments where signal can drop completely. The towers (and WiFi), too, triangulate your position. Apparently they do this as a more reliable way to do it, but doing so via towers is less accurate and can give false data (sometimes off by a few miles) whereas GPS can spot you within a few feet.

So if you have your WiFi and GPS turned off they use signal towers and are less accurate. A reason for doing this could be to improve service (seeing patterns where cell phone signal is unreliable or where you have the highest cluster of people), as well as still giving you the option of using apps that require your location without being interfered by poor GPS signal or bad wifi.

Of course, they can also sell that data and now you have advertisements that target you based on your exact location via phone. Want pizza? there's a domino's 2 blocks away.

GPS information is given with what satellites you have in range, what their signal strength is, and coordinates. Through tower positioning, you get what towers are in range and an estimated set of coordinates. With GPS, you might have anywhere from 8 to 19 satellites in range, with more satellites giving a better location. With power positioning, you will get a maximum of 3 towers, giving a much broader location. GPS can nail down a location within about 10 feet. tower positioning will give a location within 250 feet, at best. My phone, when I'm at work, using tower positioning, will tell me I'm within a 2.5 mile radius of a certain tower, and that's the best I can get. With GPS, it can tell me which building I'm in.

Ha! "Should you freak out?" "A tiny bit", for iOS.

Er I guess I misspoke, the quote says it uses more data, as in data from your data plan, not gives more position data.

"Additionally, using GPS consumes more battery power and uses more data than using Wi-Fi or cell towers to determine location. The additional consumption can have an impact on mobile phone users by increasing data charges and draining the battery."

... they will find you anyway... with or without accumulated data...

The real problem here is that apple stores this information INDEFINITELY while android is only last 200 locations and WP7 only the last time. Plus at least android and WP7 actually have a popup window that says, "Hey we are going to send this info. Press yes or no." I would love to see that apple commercial.
Remember that browsers keep your searches for a few months. What if they kept your search information forever. They could eventually create a large user profile that could remove anonymity based on narrowing the user searches.
It's the NEVER erases part that scares me.

Does that go along with your tinfoil hat?

No tin foil hat, but it does help my battery life.

Apparently apple users gave them the right with the ToS: user agreement they signed. Therefore Jobs claims that they "don't track you", whereas what he really means is "you idiot, you gave us the right to do it."

The issue isn't only whether the phone itself stores it or not, but also what and where the information goes to from the phone. Perhaps servers where your location for the past 6-12 months (or longer) is shown in precise longitude and latitude format? What are they planning to do with the data? who else can get their hands on it? etc.

that is the thing, the police and other groups have far easier ways of doing locating you than this.

Hell, even the insurance companies who could profit from dropping policies or increasing premiums on people who go into fast food restaurants frequently would find it far cheaper and easier just buying your purchase history from your credit card company.

Worrying over Apple over this is focusing on a very small issue.

The creepy thing is how accurate they can track your location without GPS.

That google maps pin on my iPad is within 5-10m of my real location.

Apple stores your location in a local file in your computer (iTunes). Android does not. And I'm not sure if there's even a way to delete that file manually, since it's in a huge backup database. So iOS users ought to be worried.

Also, in Android phones, when you enable or disable location services, it gives you a prompt to let the user know. And Apple iPhone does not give any warning or prompt.

In the end, Android is not the best, but it's still far better.

I just leave it on, no harm done except for maybe 5% less battery every 7 hours (which is actually the drain rate of my Galaxy S.

Wrong. I still bash Apple for this. Google has been upfront from the beginning. Apple was discovered and they tried to distract from it by giving some lie about multitasking (they probably just picked the first buzzword they could think of).
Besides, I have issues with Apple as a corporation, and will avoid giving them money, even if there were to come a day when they sell a superior product. I'd gladly take a Win7 phone, or even go back to a blackberry, before an iPhone. It's my money, and you have no right to complain that don't want to give it to Apple.

PS. notice how Apple-bashing is fact-based and Apple fanbois are "haha!1 j00 are st00pid"-bashing. Just stating a fact.

luck, nothing more. with tower locating, it can't get closer than a 250ft radius. it other words, it puts the pin in the center of a 250ft circle that you are most likely in. At my apartment, I'm in range of 3 cell towers, and it positions me right in the middle of the street outside. (Apparently, it must be reporting to Google that I'm homeless and sleeping on the street. ) With only a single tower for locating, it gives a circle with a diameter of about 2-3 miles.

All I can say is... refrain from using mobile devices if you don't want to be tracked in some way/shape/form. Most cell phones have a gps, any smart phone using data can easily be triangulated... heck any cell phone can be, using cell towers, as long as it's powered on and has service. I personally couldn't do this, but your carrier can. I worked for ATT at one point, and while my particular position did not have access to that capability (I was an outsourced agent), the "tech support" guys did...

Big Brother's Watching...

LOL

With technology moving so fast, you really cannot refain from it. Otherwise, you'd be dated. Just do you best to stay on top.
When IPv6 becomes mainstream, every single "electronic" devices would have its own unique IP address, that means even your home appliances. You really cannot refrain from that unless you live in a cave.

Actually I don't think anyone denied that Google did it, hell on setup of your phone it tells you turn on location services for tracking BUT, you can turn it off in Android and they are up front about it from the start. Apple has been doing it quietly and without any mention about what they are doing which is what most don't like about it. If Apple had been upfront and told their users what they were doing it wouldn't be a problem, but they chose to be sneaky about it and got caught.

APPLE will always be a small market computer company.IPOD , IPAD that's all they have!All mobile devices with internet track you dah!

Except Apple still stores a permanent local record of everywhere you have been, and backs this data up to your PC so it gets transferred to your next iPhone. This is completely unnecessary. MS only stores your most recent location, and Android falls in the middle.

Also, the previous article you're referencing only reiterates Apple's claims that turning off location services stops it. It doesn't actually say that they tested and verified this claim. But even if this is true, completely disabling location services is an unacceptable fix. Some location services are good, and desirable. If it operated like WP7 everything would be fine. There should be a seperate setting that says "Don't record my location in your stupid consolidated.db! Just remember the last known location like WP7, thanks."

Everybody tracks everything... companies need analytics, and what better than knowing where the user is geographically when they receive those analytics. With computers you can use a proxy, but that choice isn't as easily an option... if at all available for a smartphone. The worst part is they can always track your location based on gps, ip address, or what tower your phonw is connected to. If you really don't want to be tracked lose the technology

Biggest pile of shit in this thread. Apple bashers are the ones without a clue and post the most useless comments. Broad generalizations that all people who buy Apple are sheep, brainwashed, technically illiterate or similar. And the oh-so-clever putting an "i" in front of a word like crap.

There are no real Apple fanboys. But there are a lot of Apple haters. And since they can't argue with an intelligent Apple consumer they have to resort to labeling them as fanboys. Typical response from someone who has no argument.

sure they do....but i'd still much rather be boned in the ass by google than by apple