iPhone Location Tracking Draws Fire, Shrugs

21.04.2011
When word got out that your , privacy advocates and conspiracy theorists began wringing their hands. Others simply shrugged.

The thinking goes: Suspicious spouses, private investigators, and other nefarious third parties can commandeer your iPhone or iTunes-synced computer and discover your time-stamped whereabouts.

(It should be noted that wireless carriers have the exact same data but won't give it up without a court order.)

[ Got an iPhone? Here are and for iPhone 4 newbies, reports CIO.com. ]

Tech analyst Rob Enderle sees this latest Apple controversy as a serious privacy breach. "The issue isn't that the phone is tracking users," he says. "It's that the user wasn't told about this function, can't opt out of it, and, worse, the file isn't very secure."

Now that Apple is a major player in the smartphone market, having surpassed Nokia as the world's largest handset vendor after posting $11.9 billion in iPhone revenue for the quarter, Apple should be playing by more strict rules, Enderle says.