UPDATE: Early report of Apple spying on iPhone users looks off-base
By Vindu Goel
Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 6:39 pm in Apple, Business, Technology, Telecom.
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Apple is tracking iPhone users through the device’s stock and weather tools, according to a technical analysis getting a lot of attention on the UneasySilence blog. (UneasySilence appears to have lifted it from the Hackintosh message board).
When iPhone users request stock quotes or a weather forecast through the iPhone’s built-in applications, the phone supposedly sends Apple the user’s IMEI, a unique identification number associated with the phone.
(UPDATE: As Fanboy noted in the comments to this post, Gizmodo now reports that Heise Security ran a test and says the iPhone is sending some number back to Apple, but not the IMEI identifier. Says Heise: ”It remains unclear whether the ID transmitted really contains personal data. In general, speculation about whether Apple is using this information to monitor the stock interests of their customers is somewhat far-fetched. More likely, Apple collates general usage statistics and underestimated the importance of privacy issues involved when a request that documents interest in certain stock prices could possibly be traced back to individuals.”)
It’s unclear what Apple does with the information or whether it’s tracking other applications on the iPhone. But presumably the company could use the data to help build a database on how each customer uses the iPhone.
Frankly, it’s not a big deal to me if Apple knows that I’m interested in San Jose weather or want to check what insane price Google has reached today.
But given the uproar over data collection by Google and others, this revelation certainly puts Apple in the “privacy schmivacy” camp.
Given Apple’s poor treatment of early adopters, its deliberate crippling of modified iPhones and third-party software and the device’s underlying technical shortcomings, it’s yet another reason everyone except die-hard Apple fanboys should think hard before joining the iPhone cult.
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November 19th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Get a life - I’m an Apple Fanboy but am actually productive with real work instead of publishing rumors and thinking that I have a life! Journalist since fourth grade indeed - not much has changed in your reporting.
From Gizmodo:
“OK, you can take your tinfoil hats off now. German site Heise Online has tested Hackint0sh user XianLi’s claims about the iPhone sending its IMEI to Apple while accessing the web. According to Heise and other sources, this is not true:
While the code says “IMEI,” which stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity, it seems that the actual IMEI is not transmitted. Using a sniffer, Heise says they were able to get the information that the applications are actually sending. The strings aren’t the same as the test iPhone’s IMEI and, in fact, each application sends its own unique code.
According to further testing by Rene at blog docpool, these IDs are identical in all iPhones he has tried. The most plausible explanation: the codes could be just application identifiers. Rumor smashed. Mystery solved. Time to get a bourbon at Big Joe’s. [Docpool and Heise Online– Thanks Wayne]”
http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/vindu/2007/11/19/another-reason-to-avoid-the-iphone-apple-spies-on-users/
November 19th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
As an iPhone user, I will disagree with some of the points raised at the end of the article:
1) Poor treatment of early adopters
What poor treatment? I paid $600 for my phone because I felt it was worth $600 at the time I bought it. Do you have a flatscreen TV? If so, it’s likely worth much less than you origionally paid for it (true of most electronics these days).
Do I wish I had only paid $400? Sure. But it still was worth $600 to me. The $100 store credit will be a nice bonus when I buy my new Mac in January.
2) Deliberate crippling of modified iPhones and third-party software
Apple has always been upfront about this possibility not to mention that they have a history of being averse to allowing others to “muck” with their devices. If this was an issue for you, don’t buy the phone. Plus they now will have a developers kit available in February.
3) The device’s underlying technical shortcomings
Some of these I’ll agree should be considered, although in the three years I had a Treo, I never had to switch the battery, and as for the “v1.0 syndrome”, I’ve had no problems to date.
-Scott
November 20th, 2007 at 2:35 am
This story is at best extremely lazy at at worst intentionally misleading.
Maybe before running with “Apple is spying on users” you should do your homework.
I had held the SJ Merc to a higher standard than all the drivel that is published to other random blogs.
Why is the UPDATE, that essentially invalidates the entire story, saved for the 3rd paragraph?
…last time I’ll read Vindu.
Rob
November 20th, 2007 at 6:23 am
Vindu Goel, former editorial writer and business editor of the San Jose Mercury News, a Silicon Valley Newspaper controlled by Microsoft/Bill Gates.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:05 am
It has always been said that Apple users are very cultish in their following of the company that caters to the less computer literate users on the market. The responses to this article seem to enforce this stereotype.