“Apple Vice President of Software Technology Guy L. ‘Bud’ Tribble spoke to members of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, and reiterated his company’s position that it makes user privacy one of its highest priorities. He also revealed methods the company uses to ensure developers follow the rules, including random audits of App Store software,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“‘Apple is strongly committed to giving our customers clear and transparent notice, choice and control over their information, and we believe our products do so in a simple and elegant way,’ Tribble said Tuesday in his remarks before the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law,” Hughes reports. “The hearing, held Tuesday morning, was entitled ‘Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy.’ Its existence was sponsored in part by concern over a location database file that was stored on users’ iPhones and 3G connected iPads.”
‘Apple was never tracking an individual’s location from the information residing in that cache,’ the Apple executive said. He added that Apple did not have access to the cache, and the information was also protected from other applications on a user’s phone,” Hughes reports. “Tribble noted that Apple has a comprehensive privacy policy that is available from a link on every page of Apple’s website. He also said that Apple devices, like the iPhone, do not transmit to Apple any data that can be uniquely associated with the device or that customer.”
Hughes reports, “He explained that Apple has a crowd-sourced collection of cell phone towers and Wi-Fi hotspots that aid in allowing users’ iPhones to assess their location quickly, before a GPS signal can be obtained.”
Much more in the full article here.