Why Apple's "Tracking", Android Does it Too

So Apple’s not tracking you, but reports of why they’re logging information are still being coughed up. One says that they’ve been offering location services from the startusing Cell-ID and Wifi hotspots. Early devices used Google and Skyhook databases to do that. Apple’s supposedly building their own database which is why they need to ‘collect’ this information. Data is anonymised and sent over a cryptic channel. The real problem isn’t that Apple’s ‘collecting’ data, it’s that uncrypted information exists on your iPhone and any computer you’ve synced it to. Anyone can get your whereabouts for a year just by stealing your computer.

Apple’s supposedly building a database which is why they’re ’tracking’ you

Furthermore, Apple’s not the only one that does this. Smartphones running Android collect locational information and store it in a file in a very similar manner to Apple. The Android location tracking was discovered by Swedish researcher, Magnus Eriksson. He created software called Android-locdump to search through Android based devices’ caches. The software identifies two files cache.cell and cache.wifi located in the /data/data/com.google.android.location/files directory on Android phones. These files contain information of the last 50 towers the phone has interacted with and the last 200 Wifi networks the phone has discovered. However, the this data is overwritten as the files become full. You also have to have root access (admin rights) to access these files.

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