"The Difference Engine: The Spy in Your Pocket" Extra credit week two

Cell phones, used constantly throughout the day may be doing more than just sending a text to your friend. According to “The Difference Engine: The Spy in Your Pocket” Apple and Google phones like the iPhone and the Droid are tracking the locations of every cell phone around the country. Two British researchers stumbled across Apple’s location database in which Apple had been storing the location data from all the cell phones around the country; the iPhones recorded the data when synced to computers and every time the phones were used. However, when confronted with this issue Steve Jobs Apple’s CEO denied that the Apple had been tracking locations and stated that the location data was coming from their service towers instead. Even though Apple said that they were not collecting data and that no problem existed, they stated the privacy issues were going to be fixed so that no one could obtain the information. However, a large quantity of the information found in the data bases were locations that were used to help gpses on both the Google phones and Apple phones, but the over use of the cell phone location data became the main problem. Mainly the reasons that people became upset over the fact that the data was collected were because Apple had been secretly reporting the information back to its headquarters and collecting data even when people turned off their location services. Therefore, people became concerned with the fact that their phones were tracking their location multiple times a day. However, this is both a blessing and a curse because sometime in the future the cell phone companies could use the locations to suggest certain restaurants or stores that a person is near or send them coupons to save money; the part of the equation that is debatable is that cell phone companies are selling the locations and information in order to gain money from telemarketers that own stores or restaurants in the recorded location. Though the collection of data may seem like an invasion of privacy in some cases it could be convenient for the cell phone users; However, for the time being the data needs to be more thoroughly protected and cell phone users should be informed that their locations are being recorded.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/04/mobile_tracking