[crazy4laptops]

This may explain why battery life is not so great in iOS 4.3.1
http://arstechnica.c...-it-matters.ars

It seems that the iPhone is pinging towers constantly to determine it's location, or it's doing it alot more than normal...
The security risk of this pretty serious!

What do you think about it?

This post has been edited by crazy4laptops: 20 April 2011 - 01:59 PM

[LincolnSpector]

Hmmm. My 15-year-old daughter has an iPhone. Maybe I should log onto her PC and see where she's been.
I don't think the iPhone pings towers any more than any other smartphone. My Droid X does the same sort of triangulation, although I don't think it keeps a log like that. Cellphones, by definition, have to know what cell tower you're near in order to work.

The amount of privacy we've all given up is frightening. I've got a device velcro'd to my car's windshield that automatically pays bridge tolls (I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where there are a lot of bridges). I can go online and see what bridges I crossed when--and what bridges my wife crossed. I carry another device in my wallet for paying bus and train fares. I can therefore go to another web site and see where I've gone using public transportation.

And I gave up this privacy for what? A little convenience!

Lincoln

[crazy4laptops]

I will have to re-sync my test verizon iPhone and see if I can download any location data from it after I updated it to iOS 4.2.7

Maybe ping isn't the right word, maybe the iPhone GSM radio is pinging the towers like normal for signal (which isn't all that accurate anyways) but that's besides the point. When the iPhone decides to update it's location or whatever triggers it, it seems to do it alot on a given day, especially when stationary for hours at a time. I have the 3GS provided by work, and I'm lucky if I can clock out with 50% battery and I don't get a single call on it either. I just check email when I'm away from my desk using wifi.

So maybe the location updates may be different from a tower ping...

As for privacy, I don't mind the location tracking, just as long as that data stays with at&t or only stays on the iPhone, I wish the location history didn't go so far back, it's been tracking me ever since I had iOS 4.2.1
I am so glad that we aren't in the book 1984

[LiveBrianD]

LincolnSpector, on 21 April 2011 - 08:31 AM, said:

The amount of privacy we've all given up is frightening. I've got a device velcro'd to my car's windshield that automatically pays bridge tolls (I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where there are a lot of bridges). I can go online and see what bridges I crossed when--and what bridges my wife crossed. I carry another device in my wallet for paying bus and train fares. I can therefore go to another web site and see where I've gone using public transportation.

Yeah my parents use the FasTrak system too - of course it doesn't show exactly where the person has been though. I'm OK with that. It's also a lot convenient. However, I'm NOT ok with tracking cookies on websites. I always use Keep My Opt-Outs on google chrome to block them. That doesn't have ANY good side. At least the FasTrak devices allow you to just drive through the tool booths without waiting.