Et tu, Android.
We reported previously that iPhones are secretly tracking your location, second by second, sending the data to Apple and then saving the data on your computer's hard drive when you synch the phone to your computer. That data then sits on your computer, seemingly forever, just waiting for someone to grab it and see exactly what you've been doing every second of your life.
Well, all you Android owners who laughed yesterday, you're not laughing now. WSJ:
Apple Inc.'s iPhones and Google Inc.'s Android smartphones regularly transmit their locations back to Apple and Google, respectively, according to data and documents analyzed by The Wall Street Journal—intensifying concerns over privacy and the widening trade in personal data.
Google previously has said that the Wi-Fi data it collects is anonymous and that it deletes the start and end points of every trip that it uses in its traffic maps. However, the data, provided to the Journal exclusively by Mr. Kamkar, contained a unique identifier tied to an individual's phone.Google says the location information helps it determine traffic patterns, which is then can show on your phone. And that's very cool. But if the company's were using the data for something this innocuous, why are we finding out about it from a hacker? And what safeguards are there to protect the info from prying eyes, governmental or otherwise?
