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See, but that would be crazy. If what they're saying is true (and there's no reason to doubt it at this point), they're using this in order to provide you with

See, but that would be crazy. If what they're saying is true (and there's no reason to doubt it at this point), they're using this in order to provide you with a service: the ability for your phone to know where you are in your city. Calling it "tracking data" is wrong, even. Given their description of how the cell tower/hotspot data is used, it seems like deleting "this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off" is the opt-out you are looking for.

lukeschlather 16y ago
>Calling it "tracking data" is wrong, even. I wish people would stop saying this. Of course it's tracking data. There's nothing wrong with that. One of the phone's features is tracking your location so you don't get lost. Personally I think Apple has overreacted. They just need to provide a configuration setting for the size of the cache, and more importantly not include it in backups. A cache is not important enough to back up. But as far as the size of the cache, the defaults sound sane enough.
- jmreid 16y ago
  You could also call the IP address that you're sending email from 'tracking data' if you wanted. Hell, I get a text message from Rogers the second I land in the US to let me know that roaming rates apply. The fact that I have a device that has to talk to another end point means that I can be tracked.
  - lukeschlather 16y ago
    Yes, I would call that tracking data. But unlike IP address headers, this cache contains information that is by design displayed to the user to help track their location.
ajdecon 16y ago
I'll admit to typing "tracking data" after misreading the following bit of the release: Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years. "Tracking" vs "traffic". [shrug] But I'd still strongly prefer to be able to opt out. GPS still works to find location without this data, it's just slower. I should be allowed to take that hit, for the trade-off of not sending in data. As biafra says below: Tracking data is only anonymous if it cannot be de-anonymized. Since I cannot check that this is not the case (with Apple, Google and Skyhook) I have doubts about the so called anonymity.

lukeschlather 16y ago

>Calling it "tracking data" is wrong, even. I wish people would stop saying this. Of course it's tracking data. There's nothing wrong with that. One of the phone's features is tracking your location so you don't get lost. Personally I think Apple has overreacted. They just need to provide a configuration setting for the size of the cache, and more importantly not include it in backups. A cache is not important enough to back up. But as far as the size of the cache, the defaults sound sane enough.

jmreid 16y ago
You could also call the IP address that you're sending email from 'tracking data' if you wanted. Hell, I get a text message from Rogers the second I land in the US to let me know that roaming rates apply. The fact that I have a device that has to talk to another end point means that I can be tracked.
- lukeschlather 16y ago
  Yes, I would call that tracking data. But unlike IP address headers, this cache contains information that is by design displayed to the user to help track their location.

ajdecon 16y ago

I'll admit to typing "tracking data" after misreading the following bit of the release: Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years. "Tracking" vs "traffic". [shrug] But I'd still strongly prefer to be able to opt out. GPS still works to find location without this data, it's just slower. I should be allowed to take that hit, for the trade-off of not sending in data. As biafra says below: Tracking data is only anonymous if it cannot be de-anonymized. Since I cannot check that this is not the case (with Apple, Google and Skyhook) I have doubts about the so called anonymity.