Comms: Apple modifies iOS to limit tracker

Apple's patch has two primary effects: the data the phone stores is retained for one week instead of an unlimited time and it no longer automatically "synchronises" when the phone is connected to a computer.

But Apple is unrepentant over the collection and use of the data within those constraints: users, it says, agree. And, technically, they do: it's in those long, complicated and difficult to read terms and conditions - and there is no opt-out for any of its terms. If you want an iOS powered device, you have no choice but to be tracked.

Apple admits that it gets data from user's phones (saying it is both anonymous and encrypted) and gives a curious explanation as to what it uses it for: ""The iPhone is not logging your location, rather it's maintaining a database of wi-fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than 100 miles away from your iPhone to help your phone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested."

Oh, so it's storing the information that allows triangulation of location, but not the location itself? Or have we misunderstood that?

Android has a similar location service but it appears to store the data only until the next time it is updated, in a manner similar to many satnav devices. Also, unlike the Apple contract, Android specifically asks users if they want to reveal and share their location information when an "App" is loaded.

Apples's change does not remove the risks that concern users, it merely limits them to a week and keeps them on the phone unless specifically transferred to a PC for storage and/or analysis.

It's better. But it's not good enough as Apple has not disclosed the extent to which that information may be passed to Apple and, then, to service (e.g. location specific advertising) providers. Nor has it imposed conditions on the future storage and use of that data which is passed to the company and its App Developers.

Apple issued a statement on 27 April in response to the original complaints. Read it at http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/04/27location_qa.html. In that statement it admitted that a "bug" was responsible for several of the issues about which complaints were raised. However, the company did not say why it has dealt with these only after an outcry in the US media following a conference there in recent weeks - even though the issues were first reported by a French programmer - in French - several months earlier.