Self-stalking are we?

Canadian program takes Apple's eye off your phone
Shara Schmidt Postmedia News
April 25, 2011
Julie Bennink of Coral Gables, Florida makes a phone call on her new iPhone. A Canadian software developer has created a program that allows iPhone and iPad users to wipe clear the location history of their devices. Security researchers unleashed a privacy uproar last week by revealing Apple Inc. records the location details in a hidden file. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

OTTAWA - A Canadian software developer has created a program that allows iPhone and iPad users to wipe clean the location history of their devices - a day after security researchers unleashed a privacy uproar by revealing that Apple Inc. records the location details in a hidden file and copies the unencrypted data to the user's home computer.

Ryan Petrich of Edmonton said last week he's being bombarded with emails and online messages about his new tool called "Untrackerd." When installed, the program deletes the location tracking information, held in a hidden file called consolidated.db, every 30 minutes.

The iPhone developer launched the free program late last Wednesday after news broke that Apple - ever since the company updated the devices last year - has been keeping track of where a user goes in a secret file, using information gleaned from nearby cellphone towers and Wi-Fi networks. Locations and time stamps are then copied to the owner's computer if the two are synchronized.

British data researchers Pete Warden and Alasdair Allan revealed their findings about the iPhone 4 and iPad G3 at a conference in San Francisco last Wednesday.

"The presence of this data on your iPhone, your iPad, and your backups has security and privacy implications," the programmers explained on the O'Reilly Radar website.

"What makes this issue worse is that the file is unencrypted and unprotected, and it's on any machine you've synced with your iOS device. It can also easily be accessed on the device itself if it falls into the wrong hands. Anybody with access to this file knows where you've been over the last year, since iOS 4 was released," Warden and Allan wrote.

After reading about their findings, Petrich got to work. He developed a prototype, then polished it up after receiving feedback from other "jailbreak" developers, who specialize in unlocking smartphones.

Petrich said he knew Apple kept a cache of cellphone towers and Wi-Fi networks so the company can do faster geopositioning.

"What I wasn't aware of was how much data they were actually keeping. It's basically every cell tower and Wi-Fi location that you have come into contact with since you've upgraded to iOS 4," said Petrich.

That's why he's not surprised by the interest in his program, which clears out the tracking information every 30 minutes.

"If they had put it into their privacy policy and make it blatantly obvious and say, 'Hey, we're tracking the data and recoding it so we can provide a better user experience for you.' But I don't think they've done their due diligence in making that known. If people had known, and given the opportunity to say, 'OK, here's what we're tracking and you do have the option to opt out,' I think people would be more OK with it," said Petrich.

Vancouver-based Gary Ng, who writes a Canadian blog about the iPhone, also said he was "quite shocked" by the British report.

"The issue here is that normally with location-based tracking on the iPhone, with any application, you were prompted and asked for permission to track your location. In this case, it appears that the device and the software has been tracking the phone's location without users' knowing it and also it's stored on the phone unencrypted," said Ng.

University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist, who advises the Canadian privacy commission as a member of its expert advisory panel, says Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart should launch an investigation into Apple. Her office told Postmedia News that while the office is following the issue "with interest," it would be premature to say if a probe initiated by the commissioner would be considered in this case.

Alistair Morton, an avid Apple user from Hamilton, holds a different view.

"We live in a world where apps and websites like Facebook, Gowalla, Foursquare and even your photos and Flickr or Instagram track and store the data all over the web. I find it surprising that people who proudly broadcast this information all throughout the day are so stunned that the app they use to broadcast it, tracks it."

Apple Canada and Apple Inc. have not returned calls for comment.