Apple (AAPL) denied Wednesday that iPhones store a record of their users’ movements for up to a year and blamed privacy concerns partly on a misunderstanding.
A data file publicized by security researchers last week doesn’t store users’ locations, but a list of Wi-Fi hot spots and cell towers in their general area, the company said. It promised software fixes to address concerns over that file.
The data, downloaded from Apple, help the phone figure out its location without having to listen for faint signals from GPS satellites. So navigation apps can present the phone’s location faster and more accurately, Apple said.
Apple said the data are stored for up to a year because of a software error. It said seven days is fine, and that a software update in the next few weeks will limit the amount of data in that file.
“Users are confused, partly because creators of this new technology have not provided enough education about these issues to date,” Apple said in its statement.
Wednesday’s statement was Apple’s first comprehensive response to the issue.
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law, said he still has questions about why Apple didn’t tell users what it was doing.
“This has raised larger questions of how the locations of mobile devices are tracked and shared.
Source:http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/570334/201104271759/Apple-To-Fix-Tracking-Issue-With-Software.htm
