iPhone Tracking

By: Lissette Morales

While walking around the U.C. Berkeley campus, one cannot help but notice that an immensely large proportion of both the student and staff population own a remarkably ingenious device: the iPhone. Yet, despite the usefulness of such a device, indulging in the iPhone’s technologically advanced features comes at a cost.

     

In the article “Report: iPhones secretly track their users' locations”, the public is informed of the iPhone’s ability to secretly track and store every single location the iPhone’s owner has visited. When synched to a computer, every location visited by the owner as well as the time the owner was there, is stored on his/her computer and can be easily accessed by anybody who comes into contact with the computer. Even though there is no evidence that the information being collected through the iPhone is being transmitted to Apple, there remains the possibility that Apple will in fact use this stored information to create an app in the future that requires a history of previously visited locations. In response to this discovery, the researchers who discovered this storing of information decided to create a program called the iPhone tracker that allows iPhone owners to view a map of all of the movement that has been tracked by their iPhone. The iPhone tracker enables the public to grasp the magnitude of the iPhone’s location collecting capabilities.

    

Gilliom and Monahan attempt to demonstrate that we are all in one way or another being surveilled, because we live in an information society built around a social architecture that instills in us a social need to give out information about ourselves. Yet, in this case, we are NOT willingly granting permission for our information to be stored and made so easily accessible. As the author of the article points out, even though we are aware that all cellphones can track our location, this information is kept behind a firewall and is only made accessible with a court order. On the other hand, the location information tracked by an Iphone is available to anybody. Sadly, the tracking of location information could potentially be used to generate profits for Apple.

     

Professor Musheno makes a valid point when he states that market values are becoming more and more valuable. The potential profits made through apps seem to be more important than our right to not have our information compromised. As more possibilities for an expansion of technologies and profit are being created, the less our rights are taken into account. Fortunately, there are forms of counter-surveillance, such as the iPhone tracker that use surveillance to open the public’s eyes about the invasiveness of the surveillance tactics being used. Yet, I question whether the program will be successful at dissuading individuals from purchasing an iPhone. Some may just not care if their information is being stored and others may simply value the iPhone’s many other features too much to stop using it. I for one recently bought one and can’t imagine my constant “on-the-go” lifestyle without it, regardless if my information is being stored or not.