“Noted jailbreak developer Ryan Petrich has released a new jailbreak-only utility tonight named untrackerd, which promises to block iOS and Apple’s ability to log your device’s location information,” Mark Gurman reports for 9 to 5 Mac.
“Petrich’s application comes in light of a new discovery that Apple’s mobile operating system tracks iOS device’s longitude and latitude,” Gurman reports. “That location information is then stored on your [iOS device’s] hard drive.”
More info in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn W.” for the heads up.]
Related article:
Apple’s iPhone tracks everywhere you go; stores the info in secret file on the device – April 20, 2011
So, when a piece of malware get’s into your jailbroken iPhone, it will no longer know where the he’ll it is when it becomes aware.
I worked with a paranoid guy who said he always kept his cell phone off so that “They” couldn’t track him. He didn’t wear a foil hat, and this was years before the iPhone had even been announced. (And portable GPS units were still a very expensive and exotic toy.)
Now that this has become a tech issue, how long before some politician somewhere mandates the feature?
Mandates that tracking data be kept, or mandates that it not be kept?
Of course there supporters of both positions.
it is true that the CIA/FBI can turn the mic on your phone at anytime… regardless if it’s off. and you’ll never know.
remove the battery, only way to stop it.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/12/can_you_hear_me.html
I personally dont have a problem with it really, not like it would be used against just anyone.. does still have to be approved by a judge like any other wire tap.
It would seem there would be a market for custom cell phones without the remote activation “feature”…. Perhaps cell phones sold before a certain date do not have it.
Apple had better address the tracking issue sooner rather than later. The “Today Show” covered the topic this morning and went to CNET, of all places, for technical coverage.
Agreed.. I’m awaiting Apple to explain themselves on this one.
That’s nice, but I still won’t jailbreak my iphone again (just updated to ios4.3)
I like being able to /USE/ my phone, and jailbreaking makes crashes and hanging an everyday occurrence.
what were you installing to have that happen?
when i did it locked up and crashed once..
maybe you shouldnt install every cydia app out there, and read that certain apps cause trouble with others.
Jailbreak if you want, but you STILL have to take some responsibility.
I still miss Lockinfo and SBSettings. they just work, 100000% better than a plain iOS.
you could use my iPhone, and NEVER knew it was jailbroken, unless i showed you the differences. I kept Cydia hid, and you could turn the lockinfo off on the lock screen easily.
Just a side note.. there is a weather app now on the app store that puts the CURRENT temp in a badge on the app…. thats been on Cydia for 3 years…. Apple finally allowed someone to do it on the app store.
Hmmm. Potentially disturbing, however, if there is a way to clear the data, if the user so desires, that should nip it in the bud. If not, besides the jailbreak option, apple should update iOS to allow this ‘feature’ to be turned off. Unless the location services setting in general settings does that.
I need this so I can avoid the authorities and continue my ‘business’ and also steal software without easily being caught.
Interesting. Poking around the disk the other day, I found all those files, and assumed that they were just backups from synching my phone. I deleted a bunch of them, leaving only the last 10 or so. When I ran that utility to show where I’d been, it couldn’t show the data, so I guess one could just delete those files regularly if they are a worry. Don’t know if that will screw up restoring from a backup if it is needed.
It’s only triangulating using celltowers. That’s not exactly lat and longitude.