Apple is Back Pedaling

Over the last week I have been tracking and blogging about Apple’s breach of privacy decency, as well as Google’s privacy violations, too.  This morning Apple announced that it is going to be providing a software “fix” so that location data is not stored on your Apple wireless device even after you have disable the locating functions.

What I love is the language…”a fix.”  As if there was some sort of software oversight involved.  That is truly outrageous given that Apple very consciously has set it up for the consumer’s privacy to be violated all along.  After all, the tracking software was first introduced as a part of a free software “upgrade” without any disclosure that your every movement would be tracked, stored and forwarded to Apple.

This afternoon Steve Jobs – executive in absentia – stated to the Wall Street Journal that Apple has never transmitted the precise locations of an iPhone to the company.  So what?  The fact is that through triangulation of cell phone towers, Apple can locate you within a very, very narrow location.  For a marketer – the intended buyer of Apple’s location info – knowing where you are within a few blocks is enough.  With that information a marketer can serve up a hyper-targeted advertisement to you.

Make no mistake, every once in awhile you are likely to receive a coupon or something of benefit.  But how often do you actually open up your spam e-mails?  How often do you appreciate them?  Exactly.  Consumers win once out of every 100 or so spams, businesses and Apple win the other 99 times.

Lastly, I wanted to highlight some additional hubris.  Namely, the Wall Street Journal is now claiming responsibility for having broken the story of Apple’s tracking software.  Meanwhile, it was first reported in the New York Times who were reporting the content of an academic paper delivered by two technology researchers at a California conference.

Specifically the journal has written: “Apple and Google have faced increased scrutiny after The Wall Street Journal reported that iPhones and smart phones operating on Google’s Android platform regularly transmit their locations back to the respective companies.”

This quote clearly implies that the reason for Apple’s back pedaling is the Wall Street Journal article.  I consider this to be grandstanding and poor journalism.

Jason