Apple users have been plagued with security issues following the celebrity nude hack. It appears that another security issue may be brewing through the frequent locations tracker feature.
News reports reveal that Apple has included a feature in iOS 8 that tracks and analyzes users' location. According to The Daily Mail, the Frequent Locations tracker is a feature that helps Apple improve map service by determining a user's home, work, and frequently visited locations. Business Insider adds that Apple's location service also sends location information to advertisers, and they use it to serve targeted ads to possible customers.
Not a New Feature
The Daily Mail reports that the Frequent Locations feature was actually introduced a year ago as an automatically installed feature on the iOS 7. Business Insider adds that prior to that, the iOS 6 also had its own tracking system.
According to Apple, none of the data collected by the tracker is transmitted to third parties without the user's permission. This is given when a user boots iOS 8 on their device for the first time. The Daily Mail and UK Daily both report Apple saying that their tracker only looks to improve mapping services and not to solicit data from consumers.
"Terrifying" Feature, Says Expert
So far, the feature is looking to be a harmless - even helpful - one. However, the Daily Mail quoted computing expert Professor Noel Sharkey expressing his concern over Apple's location tracking feature.
"This is shocking. Every place you go, where you shop, where you have a drink - it is all recorded," Sharkey was quoted saying in the Daily Mail report. "This is a divorce lawyer's dream. But what horrifies me is that it is so secret. Why do we not know about this?"
The thought that the feature is so "secret" may be influenced by two things: first, that Apple did not make any announcements when they added the tracking feature to the iOS, whether it be for iOS 6, 7, or the most current 8; and second, that turning off location services completely requires users to dig through five different layers of settings.
Another terrifying thing about the tracking feature is the level of information they record. The tracker does not only log a person's location, but their time of arrival and departure, as well as how often each user visits that address.
Opting Out of Location Tracking
Users who have given permission to track location upon their first boot of the iOS 8 on their device may change these permissions under the Settings menu. Just go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services to turn off all location tracking services or select individual permissions for each app.
IOS 8 device owners may also turn off ad location tracking under the Privacy menu. Simply go to Settings > Privacy > Advertising, turn on the "Limit Ad Tracking" option to stop apps from transmitting location information to advertisers, and click on Reset Advertising Identifier to erase previous records and start a new app thread without the locatin data being transmitted.
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