Apple Inc. is now collecting the “precise,” “real-time geographic location” of its users’ iPhones, iPads and computers.
In an updated version of its privacy policy, the company added a paragraph noting that once users agree, Apple and unspecified “partners and licensees” may collect and store user location data.
When users attempt to download apps or media from the iTunes store, they are prompted to agree to the new terms and conditions. Until they agree, they cannot download anything through the store.
The company says the data is anonymous and does not personally identify users. Analysts have shown, however, that large, specific data sets can be used to identify people based on behavior patterns.
I have to snicker everytime I think of Apple’s 1984 “Big Brother” ad campaign.
I had been looking and drooling over the iPads
This is a very good reason NOT to buy one
This use of modern technology, and others like it, is enough to make Hitler, Stalin, et. al. smile, even while enduring the torments of Hell. I guess they are looking forward to building a new wing to accommodate all the new arrivals that technology use like this will bring to them.
#2 What would you buy instead? Many devices are locatable within about 20 meters, all devices within about 500 meters. The phone companies know who you call and when. If there is a terrorist event, all the cell phone activity within 30 minutes of the event within several miles can be used to identify possible terrorists.
Privacy is truly an illusion.
Have you seen [url=http://https://familymap.wireless.att.com/finder-att-family/howWorks.htm]this service[/url]?
So what concern should people have if everyone knows where they are and what they are doing all the time? Only those with something to hide, need be concerned.
If people will simply read the Constitution they will see there is no right to privacy. That right was made up by liberal activist judges in an attempt to prevent law enforcement agencies from keeping track of radicals, communists, and other unsavory characters.
The primary job of the state is to keep us safe, and nothing is more efficient at doing that than watching everyone, all the time. 9-11 would not have happened if the Secret Service or FBI had cameras in every airplane, and been able to listen in on cell phone converstations without fear of being prosecuted by some other agency.
There is noting in the Constitution that says the state cannot read your emails, put a camera inside your house or yard, put a tracker on your car or cell phone, electronically review your bank accounts without telling you, listen in on your phone converstations, etc.
The founding fathers understood a need for national security; otherwise they would have put in protections to prevent these types of things.
Mitchell wins the internets. That’s brilliant.