Believe Apple? Firm Claims It Only Maintains Database of Wi-Fi Hotspots, Cell Towers

Addressing claims that its iPhones are gathering location data, Apple said in a statement April 27 that the extent of Global Positioning System information being gathered is the result of a recently uncovered bug. After the fix, the company said it will not need to store more than 7 days’ worth of information to maintain a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around a user’s current location. This information helps the iPhone calculate locations quickly. The location data that researchers are seeing on the iPhone is not the past or present location of the iPhone, but rather the locations of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers surrounding the iPhone’s location, which can be more than 100 miles away from the iPhone, the statement said. This cache is protected but not encrypted, and is backed up in iTunes whenever you back up your phone, Apple said in the statement, adding the iPhone cache will be encrypted in the next major iOS software release. An MIT blogging site at http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/26713/ has up-to-date third party opinion.