The discovery that your iPhone, and your 3G iPad, is regularly recording
the position of your device into a hidden file. Ever since iOS 4 arrived,
your device has been storing a long list of locations and time stamps.
We're not sure why Apple is gathering this data, but it's clearly
intentional, as the database is being restored across backups, and even
device migrations. The presence of this data on your iPhone, your iPad, and your backups
has security and privacy implications. We've contacted Apple's Product
Security team, but we haven't heard back. What makes this issue worse is that the file is unencrypted and
unprotected, and it's on any machine you've synched with your iOS
device. It can also be easily accessed on the device itself if it falls
into the wrong hands. Anybody with access to this file knows where
you've been over the last year, since iOS 4 was released. What information is being recorded?
All iPhones appear to log your location to a file called "consolidated.db."
This contains latitude-longitude coordinates along with a timestamp.
The coordinates aren't always exact, but they are pretty detailed. There
can be tens of thousands of data points in this file, and it appears
the collection started with iOS 4, so there's typically around a year's
worth of information at this point. Our best guess is that the location
is determined by cell-tower triangulation, and the timing of the
recording is erratic, with a widely varying frequency of updates that
may be triggered by traveling between cells or activity on the phone
itself. | |
Skype via facebook? video and group chat? Will Facebook ever be able to keep up with Google+
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Google+ Improves on Facebook Published: July 13, 2011
Google, the most popular Web site on earth, is worried about the second-most popular site. That, of course, would be Facebook.
Why else would Google keep trying, over and over again, to create a
social network of the same type? Orkut, Jaiku, Wave, Buzz — Google has
lobbed forth one fizzled flop after another. And now there’s Google+. It’s the latest Google “we wanna be Facebook” project. The difference is, this one’s got a real shot. Instead of throwing open its doors with a big splash, as it did with the
hopelessly confusing Wave and the privacy-challenged Buzz, Google is
letting Google+ seep into the world virally. You can’t yet just go sign
up; you have to be invited by someone who’s already a member. Even so, Google+ already has millions of members. That’s not quite 750
million (Facebook’s current tally), but watch out for the network
effect. At first, Google+ looks like a shameless Facebook duplicate. There’s a
place for you to make Posts (your thoughts and news, like Facebook’s
Wall); there’s a Stream (an endless scrolling page of your friends’
posts, like Facebook’s News Feed); and even a little +1 button (a clone
of Facebook’s Like button), which may be where Google+ gets its peculiar
name.
But there’s one towering, brilliant difference: Circles.
On Google+, you put the people of your life’s different social circles
into — well, into Circles. That is, groups. Categories. Google starts
you off with empty circles called Friends, Acquaintances, Family and
Following (people you don’t know, but want to follow, as you would on
Twitter). It’s a piece of cake to add new ones. They can be tiny circles
(“Granny and Gramps”) or big ones (“Family Tree”), organization-based
(“Fantasy League Buddies”) or arbitrary (“Annoying People”). Creating them is a blast: an array of tiles represents your online
acquaintances, which it assembles from your Gmail and other accounts.
You drag each one into an actual on-screen circle, where they tumble
into place. You can drag a person into more than one circle, of course.
The lucky encircled friend will know that you’ve added him or her to a
circle, but not which one, thank heaven. From now on, every time you share something — a news item, a thought, a
photo, a chat invitation — you can specify exactly which Circles receive
it. In one fell swoop, Google has solved the layers-of-privacy problem
that has dogged Facebook for years. Senators embarrassed by their children’s drunken party photos. Potential
employers reading about your crazy nightlife. Girlfriends learning
accidentally about their beaus’ proposal plans. All of it goes away with
Circles. You share each item with only the people who deserve to know.
And simultaneously, you spare the masses from seeing news of no interest
to them; why should the whole world be in on your discussion of this
Friday’s bowling outing? You’re spared, too. You can click a Circle’s name to filter the
scrolling blurbs. You can view only the work-related posts, only your
college buddies’ posts, or only your grandparents’ posts, with one click
apiece. Facebook has something similar, called Lists. But compared with Circles,
it’s buried and a lot more effort to use. In Google+, you have to
specify who gets each post or each photo (although it remembers your
last selections). That’s actually a little annoying — you can’t just
type an update and hit Enter — but over all, the benefits outweigh the
hassle. Google+ has a few more attractions, though, besides this clever privacy
control feature. There’s Sparks, which is like a personal press-clipping
service (and akin to Google Alerts). You browse for, or type in, a
topic you’re interested in, like “Electric Cars,” “Cleveland Cavaliers”
or “Bundt Cakes.” Google+ fills the screen with matching articles, news
and videos from all over the Web. It may be the easiest, least
threatening news reader in history.  |
