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iPhone Location Tracking Conspiracy

You may have read on Gizmodo or other sites about the fact that your iPhone knows where you've been. It stores that data in a file on your iPhone that is backed up to your computer when you sync via iTunes.

There is a tool available (Mac only,) that will allow you to see this location data on a map. I ran this app against my iPhone location data, and it did, in fact, show me everywhere I've been since first turning on my iPhone 4 back in November. 

Here's the thing, though. It appears to only use cell phone towers to pinpoint your location, so it isn't very accurate. The data looks more like a heat map than an actual GPS track (like you'll see if you enable background updating in the Google Latitude app.) So I'm not sure I see the crisis. 

Location data has been a big deal lately. Apps for Foursquare, GoWalla, Facebook, Twitter, and others use your location. But they do it with your permission. It does seem a little skeezy that Apple is doing it without consent or notification. I'm more concerned with uploading geotagged photos to Flickr than I am about my iPhone keeping track of where I've been. Those geotagged photos use GPS to determine location. Fine if I'm traveling, but I have to remember to turn off the geotagging if I'm at a location I don't necessarily want broadcasted to the world, (like my house, or the homes of friends or family.)

What's your take on it? Does it bother you? Does it even surprise you? I imagine that Apple can't be the only company whose phones keep track of this type of data. What are your thoughts?

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