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Your iPhone will no longer keep tabs on your movement, thanks to the latest software update from Apple. The latest version of the iOSsoftware ends the company’s controversial saving of data tracking your movements on your phone and computer. iOS 4.3.3 reduces the amount of data saved and deletes the cache when you opt to turn off location services.
The update has reduced the amount of information retained to a week’s worth of wanderings instead of a year, and the location data is no longer backed up on your computer after the update.
Data is still stored on the phone, which we’re not too worried about — but what does concern us is the data isn’t encrypted. That means anyone getting their mucky mitts on your phone could easily see where you’ve been in the last week. Apple has promised to encrypt the data in a future update.
Researchers recently drew attention to the location cache with iPhone Tracker, an application that plots your phone’s movements on a map — our picture shows this Craver’s comings and goings. Apple responded by saying that it isn’t actually tracking the location of the phone itself, but logging the Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers the phone passes near to. Aside from that particularly limp piece of splitting hairs, Apple hasn’t offered any resistance to the controversy, scaling back the amount of location data in this latest update with little complaint.
iOS 4.3.3 is available now. Simply plug your iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, or third- or fourth-generation iPod touch into iTunes and download the update. If plugging your iThing into your computer strikes you as an unconscionable imposition, you’ll be glad to hear 9to5Mac reports that iOS 5updates will arrive in your phone over the air, without the aid of wires. Wireless updating is a feature that Google Android updates have long enjoyed.
