4 ms·

>they are keeping a time-stamped list of nearby access points on my device, which effectively is a huge breadcrumb trail of everywhere Read again. They are not

by yaix 16y ago

>they are keeping a time-stamped list of nearby access points on my device, which effectively is a huge breadcrumb trail of everywhere Read again. They are not. Its not timestamped when "you" where there, but when some anonynous iPhone picked up that particular hotspot. It got then uploaded to Apple and subsequently downloaded onto your iPhone, so that your iPhone can find its location easier. Wasn't that kinda the obvious reason in the first place?

bigiain 16y ago
I'm pretty sure that's true. I'm going to try find some time this evening to animate the points out of the database from my phone to prove it to myself. I'm guessing the animation will show random segments of trails that anonymous iPhone users have travelled around my neighborhoods, but nothing I'll recognize as a trip I've made. (I'll blog about it at bigiain.com if I find anything interesting)
- somebear 16y ago
  Then you will write a very interesting, but somewhat misleading blog post, just like everyone else has written in the past few weeks. The point is that the database on your phone is a subset of the greater (global) database mapping wifi and cell access points to location. The local database contains timestamps of when your phone downloaded the information. The global database only contains a list of access points and approximate locations of those access points. That way, when your phone sees an access point it can look up in the database (locally or globally) and see if this access point has been pinpointed, if it has it will be another tool for your device to provide you with a proper location. In other words: animating the points in your database will show the first time your phone downloaded information about a specific access point, which will give you a trail of your movements (to a certain extent limited by the factors mentioned above).

by yaix 16y ago

bigiain 16y ago

I'm pretty sure that's true. I'm going to try find some time this evening to animate the points out of the database from my phone to prove it to myself. I'm guessing the animation will show random segments of trails that anonymous iPhone users have travelled around my neighborhoods, but nothing I'll recognize as a trip I've made. (I'll blog about it at bigiain.com if I find anything interesting)

somebear 16y ago
Then you will write a very interesting, but somewhat misleading blog post, just like everyone else has written in the past few weeks. The point is that the database on your phone is a subset of the greater (global) database mapping wifi and cell access points to location. The local database contains timestamps of when your phone downloaded the information. The global database only contains a list of access points and approximate locations of those access points. That way, when your phone sees an access point it can look up in the database (locally or globally) and see if this access point has been pinpointed, if it has it will be another tool for your device to provide you with a proper location. In other words: animating the points in your database will show the first time your phone downloaded information about a specific access point, which will give you a trail of your movements (to a certain extent limited by the factors mentioned above).