ID: IRCNE2011051106
Date: 2011-05-09
“IT PRO” reports that Apple has fixed the issue that enabled iPhones to collect and store customers' location data. Apple chief executive (CEO) Steve Jobs had promised to adjust the company's mobile software to store less location data.
The update, which is available through its iTunes stores and automatically pops up when an iPhone or iPad is synced, said it "contains changes to the iOS crowd-sourced location database cache." The company said in the update that the software fix reduces the size of the location storage, ensures that the device no longer backs the location information in iTunes, and enables the iPhone or iPad to stop collecting data when Location Services is turned off.
Concerns about tracking came to a head earlier this month when two computer programmers presented research showing the iPhone was logging locations.
Apple has denied that it was tracking the movements of its iPhone customers but has acknowledged that it does keep a database of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers.
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