Apple iPhone and iPad Track Where You Are

This morning the New York Times is reporting that Apple tracks and logs onto both your iPhone and iPad your physical location.  Two computer programmers reported the findings of their research at a San Francisco technology conference.

Clearly this is further evidence of Apple’s growing hubris as a dominant technology firm.  Most galling to me is that the tracking software was added to these devices with Apple’s recent round of new software upgrades.  The way these upgrades are presented is as if they are of benefit to the customer.  I am guessing that there was no “opt-in” disclosure to the customer that their movements were going to be tracked by wireless telephone network triangulation and wifi network log in data.  Disgusting.

Why do you think Apple finds this data important to your customer experience?  What do you suppose Apple intends to do with this data?  I think it is clear that Apple has commercial designs for your location data.  It can only be a short amount of time before ads are served up to you based on where you are standing.

I don’t consider myself to be a privacy alarmist.  But I can say that my own personal boundaries have been crossed with Apple’s recent corporate choices; finding them to be unethical and further evidence of sheer capitalist greed.

Lastly, I want to point out that it is increasingly difficult to buy an Apple product that does not have a connection to the Internet.  For example, the iPod Classic is being phased out in favor of the iTouch.  The reason has to be because of the connection to the Internet.  But what if I don’t want such a connection and I just want to have my music next to me.

In the meantime, shame on Apple…again.

Jason