Apple updates iPhone to address privacy worries

May 4, 2011

Apple is updating the iPhone to reduce the amount of time the device stores information about its users' whereabouts.

The software released Wednesday follows through on Apple's recent promise to revise a feature that logged iPhone users' movements for up to a year. Apple says the location data won't be kept for more than a week after the changes to the iPhone's are installed.

Apple Inc. faced a backlash from privacy watchdogs and some indignant iPhone owners after researchers showed how the surveillance technology could be abused at conference last week.

, the world's most valuable technology company, denied it was spying on users. But it acknowledged a software bug could cause potential privacy problems, prompting the latest tweaks to the iPhone's operating system

©2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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dogbert
May 04, 2011

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That is better, but doesn't eliminate the problem. Why store the information at all? Does the phone still phone home (to Apple) periodically?

Apple does not need this information to provide service to the user (like carriers do). It should not be tracking at all.
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