NEW YORK – Apple Inc. denied Wednesday that iPhones store a record of their users’ movements for up to a year and blamed privacy concerns partly on a misunderstanding.
A data file publicized by security researchers last week doesn’t store users’ locations, but a list of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in their general area, the company said. It promised software fixes to address concerns over that file.
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The data, downloaded from Apple, help the phone figure out its location without having to listen for faint signals from GPS satellites. That means navigation applications can present the phone’s location faster and more accurately.
Apple said the data are stored for up to a year because of a software error. The company said there’s no need to store data for more than seven days, and a software update in the next few weeks will limit the amount of data in that file.
The iPhone will also stop backing up the file to the user’s computer, a practice that raised some concerns. Computers are much more vulnerable to remote hacking attempts than are phones.
A third planned fix is to stop downloading the data to phones that have all “Location Services” turned off.
“Users are confused, partly because creators of this new technology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues to date,” Apple said in its statement.
However, the lists of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers generated by iPhones can be used to construct a general record of users’ movements. But to do so, a snoop needs access to the victim’s phone or PC, both of which usually store lots of other personal information.
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law, said he still has questions about why Apple didn’t tell users what it was doing.
“This has raised larger questions of how the locations of mobile devices are tracked and shared by companies like Apple and Google, and whether federal laws provide adequate protection as technology has advanced,” Franken said Wednesday.
He plans a hearing on cellphones and privacy next month.
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