4.3.3 IOS will end the controversy over geolocalización

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Technologie - Général
Tuesday, 03 May 2011 13:02

The laggards on the issue, remember that the great controversy about privacy before the attack that unlinked Playstation Network was motivated by a simple file inherent in geotagging iOS . The file of yore, removable without much difficulty, containing information relevant to our most common locations.

It was not long until they became public the extraction method and could therefore graphed the data. The result alarmed more than one, included the institutions themselves: a map that reflected the daily comings and goings of the user.

Then wondered what would happen to such information if it fell into the wrong hands could know where we live, what bank branch usually get our money or what route we frequent during our sessions of jogging ... Paradoxically, all this information is often willingly shared through platforms, including Foursquare , clear that this criticism was given by the passivity of geolocation.

Big surprise when soon discovered that was not the only Apple and Google also implemented a similar storage system Android. The protests escalated.

Steve Jobs himself had to come to the fore to provide explanations, ensuring that at no time his company had tracked users and that the purpose of consolidated.db (name for the file) is nothing but ensure instant positioning service , requiring for this triangulation of terminals by crowdsourcing. Put another way: to articulate a large database in an encrypted and anonymous consents speed demanded by users.

While some were satisfied with the explanation, others understood that the problem was the ease with which the file was removed, something that Apple acknowledged.

Sample of this mea culpa, Boy Genius Report reports that the next update IOS (version 4.3.3) effectively ending the controversy: the file is automatically deleted when users turn off the locator service. In addition, it will reduce its size and the time that remains stored information.

Apple also promises that the file is encrypted bombproof in iOS 5.

The update also improves performance and battery in the iPhone software will solve minor problems detected in the iPod.

4.3.3 iOS end the controversy over geolocation written ALT1040 on 3 May, 2011 by José Carlos Castillo
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