The move isn't in response to the recent location-tracking scandal and ; it's a Verizon initiative that has been planned for some time. It was revealed in a written response from Verizon to the House Bipartisan Privacy Caucus (), which had last month after learning that a German mobile operator tracked users' locations.

Verizon also revealed that it holds personally identifying data, including location details, for up to seven years. This in itself is astonishing. Do you know where you were on, say, Nov. 21, 2008? Verizon does, if you were using one of its handsets equipped with GPS, such as the popular Samsung Omnia or BlackBerry Storm phones, released around that time.

Of the other mobile carriers, AT&T says it'll hold location data for anywhere from a few days to five years, while Sprint says it'll hold it for five years. T-Mobile would only say it "retains personal information for only as long as we have a business need, or as applicable laws, regulations or government orders require."

The discovery that the iPhone tracks user locations in a system file has brought forth a storm of protest from users as well as politicians, who have suddenly peeked behind the magic curtain and realized that cellphones are essentially tracking devices that we willingly carry with us wherever we go.

Users have three bogeymen to fear: mobile carriers that track users via cellphone towers and/or GPS information; cellphone manufacturers that use GPS functions built in to the operating system to track users; and third-party app makers that use location information as part of their service but who might also retain the information for other purposes.