Apple owes me an apology

OMG! You heard. Right?

I know! Tell me!

Your iPhone knows everywhere you go! It knows everywhere you've been! Every location!

What, are you fucking stupid. Of course it does. I take it with me everywhere. I have it on all the time. I must cross between 10-100 cell towers every day. What? You thought it was magic? How else is this thing gonna work? I just can't be your friend anymore.

And....scene...

If you're here, then you already know: your iPhone knows where you are and where you have been. The big story that "broke" this week, of course, is that your iPhone doesn't simply know this, it stores the data. For a long time. A long, long time.

Which is just fucking awesome!

For a guy like me, at least. Thing is, I think this is great. Seriously. In fact, only a few days before this story hit the ether, I was writing about how little our smartphones know. Or rather, how little of what they do know is so poorely utilized.

We take our smartphones with us everywhere. We use them all the time. Inside, they contain more information, more specific data about us than possibly any person, even our closest loved ones, know about us. When connected to the cloud, the amount of information -- and knowledge -- grows exponentially. Yet, the smartphone remains stupid. Limited.  A revolution is needed.

I believe that revolution is the recommendation engine. To wit: Smartly, wisely proactive, rapidly reactive, based on real-time awareness of where we are, who we are with, what we are doing, and combined with the massive amounts of data contained within the smartphone and linked to us and the device, via the cloud, the recommendation engine, one that actually works and thinks, will alter, fundamentally, how we conduct our business, connect with our surroundings, interact with friends, integrate with information, databases, social media, search queries, and the near-infinite number and kind of computing resources and applications available. (deep breath)

That would be a revolution. That would tear up the very notions of an ecosystem. In fact, distill it down to its basic elements: functionality and access. The hardware, the local data, the cloud data, and the real-time *wisdom* from the recommendation engine, combined, would be its own (new) ecosystem. No notifications, as they are now meaningless. Search is likewise irrlevant, with a device that knows what you seek before asking. Similarly, the app itself, which provides functionality + access vanishes. These are barriers, limitations, the equivalent of digital buttons. And Jobs hates buttons.

Knowing where we are and where we have been -- in a [secret] file -- may be a necessary precursor to the very vision I hope to see brought to life.

And that's not even the best part. At least, not for blogger Brian. The best part is that stories like these are touchstones, acid tests. They reveal what people really think, their actual views.

• Are they silly, reflexive Apple haters
• Apple fanboys and apologists
• Do they really believe in privacy or not?

And this story helps reveal all. Instantly we were met with:

APPLE IS EVIL! THIS IS STILL MORE PROOF! AND THEY ARE WORKING ON A, A, A SEARCH ENGINE! THAT TRACKS YOUR LOCATION! AND AN AD PLATFORM!

Only to be fired upon by those proclaiming: APPLE IS GOOD. ALL IS WELL. NOTHING TO SEE HERE. MOVE ALONG. BESIDES, GOOGLE IS JUST AS BAD.

As for privacy, is this an issue anymore? Really? It was hard for me to find this issue well addressed. 

Perhaps I should not be surprised. I mean, consider what about ourselves we *volunteer* to giant, nameless, faceless conglomerates every single day. In return for 10% off Shit A or a good search engine. Or one of a dozen free email clients. How many times have you entered your name, address and credit card information onto a giant company's website? Checked-in on your smartphone? Updated your social status? Accessed porn? Clicked on an ad? Searched?

Ever hear of Chrome? The free browser Google made? You know why, right? Because most browsers suck and aren't fast enough and not based on standards, like Chrome. (Oh, and so they can track your every fucking micromove in cyberspace.)

Except, this, for once, is not about Google's deceptions, duplicitousness and profiteering off our private information. It's about Apple. And a semi-secret file that stores our location, everywhere we take our iPhone, which is everywhere, for God knows how long, for Jobs knows what end?

Or maybe it's just a bug. And the apologists are correct.

After all, smartphones need to connect with the cellular network. This information is vital. Plus, it can be used to determine optimum usage, antenna range, a host of hardware and service related functions. And Apple forgot to shut the thing off. No big deal.

Oh, wait. Incoming!

JOBS IS A WITCH. EVIL! APPLE KEEPS EVERYTHING SECRET. NOW THE TRUTH HAS BEEN REVEALED!

Or, this is a fuck-up? Or somewhere in between.

My guess is, it's more the former. Maybe Apple didn't mean to keep data stored for so long. Or to allow it to be readily transferred to our other devices (e.g. MacBooks). Or so easy to be accessed and stolen. But, given the direction of Apple; the desire to have their own search engine, recommendation engine, viable advertising platform, streaming content and even social services, which are becoming optimized by location, my assumption is this was no accident. Not a bit of it.

Which absolutely pisses me off. I have been violated. My privacy betrayed. And I want Apple to apologize. Because they owe me and every user an apology.

I don't care if I want my smartphone to utilize the history of my locations. Or if I want a contextual recommendation engine. Nor even if Google bites the big donkey. Apple has placed my private information in jeapordy. By storing it, archiving it, making it easy to be transferred to other devices, they have placed the interests of services that do not exist yet, above me, the user.

Which I consider a betrayal.

I should have been told, in advance, what Apple was doing. I should have been provided, upfront, an opt-in setting for this. I should be offered the option, at anytime, to opt-in or opt-out. Even if every shred of intent of this location-tracking-storage feature was with my best interests in mind -- to provide better service, for example -- it is my decision, or should be, to *volunteer* this data to Apple.

Google may suck donkey for a host of reasons. But I volunteer to use their search engine. Facebook may be founded by a nerdy prick who wants my personal data to sell to advertisers, but I volunteer to participate on Facebook. And can leave anytime.

This is a betrayal by Apple. Plain and simple. I want an apology. I want an apology posted on Apple.com. Soon. 

It should take them no more than a week to figure out exactly what has happened, and why, and no more than a day to have a statement vetted. And then posted. With an explanation. And a date for the next iOS update that will end this.

And if you disagree, then, frankly, you are a mindless fanboy, in my opinion. Of which, regrettably, there are many.

David Pogue of the New York Times:

Have you heard the news? Two researchers have discovered that the iPhone keeps a minute-by-minute, time-stamped log of everywhere you go. That’s right: Your phone is tracking you. So is the cellular version of the iPad. This news, inevitably, has triggered quite a bit of breathless alarm online. Ooh! Apple is spying! Ooh! The government is tracking! Ooh! Big Brother is watching!

The news has also triggered quite a bit of misinformation. First of all, from what we can determine, this information isn’t transmitted anywhere — to Apple or anyone else. Instead, it’s stored only on your own computer, in a buried and layman-incomprehensible form, in the backup that iTunes creates each time you sync your phone or tablet. So no, Apple is not tracking you, and neither is the government.

The one legitimate concern, therefore, is that someone else with access to your computer could retrieve the information about your travels and see where you’ve been. Your spouse, for example. The researchers also mention “a private investigator,” but that’s a little silly. A PI is going to break into your house to inspect your iTunes backup? If your computer is that accessible, you’ve got much bigger problems.

It goes on like that. Mindless fanboyism. A disservice to readers. 

This should not be too hard to understand: Apple's iPhone *stores* long-term location data about me, and actively transfers this onto my (required) computer iTunes account. And they knew about it. And they hid this from me.

Fuck that. And can I really trust Pogue, now, with anything? He does his level best to deliberately minimize this. What else -- about Apple -- is he deliberately minimizing?

Contrast this with Pete Warden on Github, some anti-Pogue sanity:

The most immediate problem is that this data is stored in an easily-readable form on your machine. Any other program you run or user with access to your machine can look through it.

The more fundamental problem is that Apple are collecting this information at all. Cell-phone providers collect similar data almost inevitably as part of their operations, but it’s kept behind their firewall. It normally requires a court order to gain access to it, whereas this is available to anyone who can get their hands on your phone or computer.

By passively logging your location without your permission, Apple have made it possible for anyone from a jealous spouse to a private investigator to get a detailed picture of your movements.

Given this, and despite what fanboys suggest, it's hard to fault even grandstanding politicians for looking into this. These include, by the way, formal requests by Senators Al Franken, Mark Kirk, and Rep. Jay Inslee. If Apple is smart, and they are, they will *quickly* explain this, apologize, and make amends.

So far, however,  it's been equal parts middle finger pointed out, and thumb up their ass from Apple. With increasingly public inside-the-Beltway inquiries, I expect a change in posture early next week. And, unless, everyone is under Apple's sway, suggestions that this is nothing that carriers don't already do -- given that carriers are highly regulated by the government -- will not work. Nor will a dismissive suggestion that our iPhones are not tracking us, but tracking cell towers. What next? Tracking not me, but my car, and everywhere that has been? Don't make this worse, Apple. Don't listen to the fanboys. But to your customers. America is on the cusp of transitioning quickly from landline to mobile, and from mobile to (over 50%) smartphone usage. And we don't appreciate shit like this. And we have options:

Android, for example.

Which is opt-in. And when a Google product does a radically superior job of protecting our privacy -- and proactively informing us of potential concerns -- then you know you are on the wrong side of this issue.

When I began this post, I intended to review a number of sites, tech bloggers, privacy advocates. However, it very quickly became apparent that for most, this was not much of a big deal. Which I think speaks more to our presently blithe attitude towards our personal privacy data as it is collected, stored, distributed, analyzed and harvested by myriad businesses, than to shameless, reflexive Apple fanboyism. Although the fanboy thing must be addressed. 

Just as quickly as this story broke, as I've said, were the blogger retorts: SO TOO DOES GOOGLE! As if that is where our concern should lie. And, if it does, which it should not, for you who refuse to think rationally on this, let me point out the following. The official statement by Android on this matter:

“All location sharing on Android is opt-in by the user. We provide users with notice and control over the collection, sharing and use of location in order to provide a better mobile experience on Android devices. Any location data that is sent back to Google location servers is anonymized and is not tied or traceable to a specific user.”

Why would Apple not offer the same? From day 1?

Why? So they can build a better ad network? Improve service delivery? Offer additional information and services to developers to make more and better apps which make us iPhone users happier still? Fair enough.

Only, not good enough. This is our personal information. A history of where we have been. And whether you have something to hide or not, all of us should have the right to opt-in or out of this and anything like it.

To appreciate the scope of this tracking, note the following, from NextWeb, on the volume of (optional) location info on the Android vs secret, hidden, no opt-in information on the iPhone:

After a period of time, 12 hours for cellular data and 48 hours for WiFi data, has passed, the location data is renewed by a new request from Google. It is also limited to a maximum number of entries so that the database doesn’t grow too large.

The location file pulled from his phone contained roughly 13,000 entries related to cellular network tracking. By contrast the Android file is limited to only 50 entries in the cellular location database.

The size of the database on the iPhone is what Eriksson attributes the accuracy of the location maps created by the iPhone location data file to. Normally the data would be much more crude, but with a lot more data sampling to work with, the map grows more detailed and more accurate.

13,000 entries. Are you fucking kidding me? That I knew nothing about. That Apple *never* made me aware of. That's now also on my laptop? And I'm supposed to dismiss this? Assume it's a bug? Engineering fuck-up. Bad QA? The start of something magical and revolutionary that will make me even happier to be inside World of Apple. Something cool to take down Google?

I don't give a fuck. Apple betrayed my trust and invaded my privacy. I expect an apology. Every iPhone user should. And Apple should answer every single one of the questions below. Damn soon.

The following are what Senator Al Franken, one of the good guys, even if periodically misguided, has requested of Apple. 

1. Why does Apple collect and compile this location data?
2. Does Apple collect and compile this location data for laptops?
3. How is this data generated?
4. How frequently is a user's location recorded? And what triggers the creation of someone's location record?
5. How precise is this location data?
6. Why is this data not encrypted?
7. Why were Apple customers never affirmatively informed of the colleciton and retention of their location data?
8. Does Apple believe that their conduct is permissible under the terms of its privacy policy?
9. To whom, if anyone, including Apple, has this data been disclosed?

What say you, Apple?