Class action lawsuit filed against Apple in US over location tracking issue

Bloomberg was first to report today that two iPad/iPhone users have filed a class action lawsuit accusing Apple of invasion of privacy and computer fraud, and of "secretly recording movements of iPhone and iPad users."

Vikram Ajjampur, an iPhone user in Florida, and William Devito, a New York iPad customer, sued April 22 in federal court in Tampa, Florida, seeking a judge's order barring the alleged data collection.
The complaint cited a report last week by two computer programmers claiming that Apple's iOS4 operating system is logging latitude-longitude coordinates along with the time a spot is visited. The programmers said Apple devices are collecting about a year's worth of location data. Apple hasn't commented on the matter since the April 20 report was released.

The case is Ajjampur v. Apple Inc., 11-cv-00895, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida (Tampa).

Screen-shot-2011-04-25-at-6.04.jpg

Here's a copy of the lawsuit (PDF), via this post by Brian Chen at Wired's Gadget Lab.

CNET has a roundup of posts on the iOS location tracking freakout.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Lobster

You know, guys – and please, let me know if I’m totally out of line here – you could simply not use an iPhone.
Anonymous

The shrill defense by the Apple fanboys is raising my hackles.

Apple has patents on spying on you.

Apple’s phone keeps tabs on you, recording your movements.

Apple wants to move to the cloud to better help you.

Apple backs this data up via iTunes.

Just because AT&T can track you, don’t mean Apple should be able to track you as well. This logic is fallacious. Cell tower triangulation is relatively well understood, it is technically feasible and has been used in popular culture TV shows for a while. This is well known. But where in your license agreement did you sign away the rights to your location to Apple?

It’s not nice to spy on people, it’s not nice to plan to spy on people. That’s what many of you are not getting. We didn’t agree to be spied upon by Apple. At most we agreed to AT&T and the law enforcement agencies who would leverage a WARRANT.
- Anonymous
  
  I remember not so long back when ATT was spying without a warrant, than congress passed a bill that retroactively gave them immunity for illegally spying. Government was also illegally spying but they just give them selves a free pass. So please just stick to Apple spying, don’t use examples aren’t even remotely true.
wrybread

Slightly off topic, does anyone know how to access this data in one’s own iPhone? And ideally how to convert that to a map as in the screenshot above? I’d love to see a map of where I’ve been in the last year.

Also, odd that the map shows points instead of lines. Is this data sampled infrequently? Otherwise it would be more of a track, no?
peterbruells

Apple *is* storing data. They admitted that last year and described what they save.

It’s just not the data the data the current hullaballoo is about, which, by the way, is most certainly not generated *on* the device but pulled from servers and stored on the device to allow for faster GPS services w/ unnecessary calls.
Anonymous

Yeah, I want a map of my movements off of my Droid, that one above looks beautiful! My understanding is that this data can only be retrieved by synching my phone directly to a computer via USB cable.

Everytime I take the subway, my location is reported at whatever above-ground transmitter that is servicing Metro. One of which seems to be located near a runway at National Airport. I swear I’m not actually standing out there, ever.
quori

I find this whole outrage ironic. People are upset that their phone is tracking their movements and that it records where it is through gps and locations services and feel their privacy is being invaded. I get that. BUT….BUT!!!

These same people are the ones that if the phone did NOT do that, they would complain and whine that when they lost the damn thing, Apple couldn’t do thing one to help them find it.

People….you want smart phones with GPS mapping and location services to turn it off in case its lost or stolen…then you are going to get this “tracking” to go along with it. You can not live in the grid, but be off the grid at the same time. Want the smart phone and tech and all the bells and whistles, well, there ya go. Don’t like the big brother feel, then don’t have this type of tech.

Simple as that folks.
Anonymous

haha, you people are silly. of course other cell phone companies have this data, and yes, they would turn it to police under certain ciscomstances. but an i-phone enables anyone (anyone who can sync your phone and your computer) to access and view your whereabouts. so yes, next time you tell your girlfriend you’re working late while doing something else… well you get the point.
hinten

And now watch everyone argue the exact opposite of what they have been saying about Apple and Google when MIcrosoft does it:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20057329-281.html?tag=topStories2
RyanH

This whole story has bugged me from the beginning. No one is seriously suggesting that this data is being collected. No one is suggesting it is being analyzed. This is location data that the device itself stores.

People are freaking out that their GPS knows where its been. Think about that.

Next they will be complaining that their phone keeps a record of who has called them.
- delt664
  
  “This is location data that the device itself stores”….and seems to pass off copies to computers it syncs to.
  
  Nothing seems to be collecting or parsing this data currently, but I can understand why some people might want to prevent that from changing in the future.
  - RyanH
    
    “This is location data that the device itself stores”….and seems to pass off copies to computers it syncs to.
    
    Shockingly, it turns out that the built in back-up function backs up the phone. And if you are worried about someone going through that back-up the location data is the least of your problems. This is not only working as intended but more or less working as advertised.
    
    If this concerns you use the thoughtfully included encryption option that has also been included. It’s a single button.
- Anonymous
  
  Yes, true, the device itself stores the data — but wait, what’s this — it also transfers that data to iTunes?! Whence does it travel then? Oh…it just sits there. Okay, I feel better. It’s just…sitting there. No need to worry. It’s just gathering for the sake of gathering. Waiting until it’s someday needed…like a sleeper cell.
- The Prophet Guy
  
  WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING??? GOT YOUR HEAD STUCK IN THE SAND???
  THIS IS ALL PREDICTED IN THE BIBLE, THE WORD OF GOD, THAT THESE THINGS WILL HAPPEN…KNOW YE NOT THAT EVERY RADION, T.V., STEREO, COMPUTER, etc., THAT HAS A COMPUTER CHIP IS CAPABLE OF HEARING EVERYTHING GOING ON IN YOUR HOME OR CAR BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT??? DON’T THINK SO??? HOW DO YOU THINK THERE IS GOING TO BE A NEW WORLD ORDER IN WHICH ONE GUY IS GOING TO RULE THE WORLD—THE ANTI-CHRIST—AND HOW IS HE GOING TO KNOW WHO IS FOLLOWING HIM OR IS AGAINST HIM??? THIS IS HOW !!! GET WITH THE PROGRAM…I WAS USING MY MOTOROLA I-PHONE AND AS I WAS SURFING THE NET WITH IT DAY BEFORE LAST, ALL OF A SUDDEN A WINDOW POPPED UP AND ASKED ONLY ONE (1) QUESTION—-”WHAT IS YOUR LOCATION???”
  I FREAKED OUT!!! AND THEN, I HEAR ABOUT THIS LAWSUIT A DAY LATER??? NOT A COINCIDENCE….IT AIN’T JUST APPLE AND AT&T…IT’S ALL I-PHONES….PERIOD…I’M JOINING THE CLASS-ACTION SUIT…IF THIS IS HAPPENING TO YOU JOIN THE FIGHT…I’M SURE YOU’LL GET PAID!!!
- Cory Foy
  
  I think one of the big things is that even if you turn off Network Location Services, the phone is still keeping the data.
  
  Sadly, the debate is a subtle one with lots of room for FUD. I saw an article yesterday quoting Apple from last year saying they “Needed the data to provide the services our customers want”. The article writer was using that like some smoking gun, but, seriously, if you want apps which provide location services then of /course/ you need access to the data.
  
  The bigger question is why does Apple keep it, what do they do with it, and why does it stay around for so long? Imagine if Apple had come out the same or next day saying that they were aware of it, and used it as a key part of some network or phone optimization, or whatever, that it would have quickly faded away. But because they choose to remain tight-lipped about things, then wild speculation occurs.
  
  Heck, we have the Track My iDevice app installed on our iPhones and my iPad. I know that actually links the location directly to Apple. And I’m Ok with it, because the benefit outweighs concerns I have about people knowing where I am. I made the conscious choice to have that on. It seems reasonable to ask that if I haven’t requested my phone to track me, that it be explained why, in fact, it is.
- Mister44
  
  Re: “No one is seriously suggesting that this data is being collected. No one is suggesting it is being analyzed. ”
  
  Really – then why does it store it? IIRC, they have phones with a whole years worth of locations on them.
  
  If this was some of a government thing we would all be screaming Big Brother and NWO and cursing Bush or Obama or whomever was in power.
  
  Apple may have a happy, cherry, ‘I’m your buddy’ feel, but they want your money just like any other corporation.
  - Anonymous
    
    Re: “No one is seriously suggesting that this data is being collected. No one is suggesting it is being analyzed. ”
    
    Really – then why does it store it? IIRC, they have phones with a whole years worth of locations on them.
    
    Apple is not collecting this information. The government is not collecting this information. Only your phone is collecting it (and backing it up to your PC with everything else), and it’s doing it because it can use that information to provide a more accurate position (without GPS). It doesn’t really need to keep years worth of data, but I suspect it’s doing so only because nobody bothered to code cleanup logic.
    
    Seriously guys- it *could* be a conspiracy, and it would certainly be more interesting if it was. But it’s probably not.
    - Mister44
      
      There is conflicting information on what is and is not being collected. If it isn’t being collected, then why have it at all? I haven’t seen a tech company yet that has said, “Eh, we could acquire and save data. Nah, why bother?”
      
      Google is so voracious in its data mining that they have to use the motto “Don’t Be Evil” to try to make themselves feel not so… evil. Apple has long had an attitude of doing what they want and telling the customer this is what they want.
      
      I am sure this is not for nefarious reasons like tracking people going to nudie bars while on the clock and extorting them. But it still isn’t cool.
      
      This is why I keep my phone as ‘dumb’ as possible. I still use the Motorola ‘brick’, with a custom lead lining to keep the brain cancer at bay.
      - peterbruells
        
        Jesus – frigging – Christ. The cached data can be clearly used to determine a rough position very quickly, without the need for detailed calls to cell station of skykook servers. It’s quite like assisted GPS, only that the data – the almanac, if you will – comes directly from the device.
        
        If implemented correctly, it will actually lead to *better* privacy, since none of the dozens location calls need outside information and will solely reside on the the machine, with neither Apple nor Google nor Skyhook being any wiser.
        
        Yes, I know i’m getting snarky, but after days of reading bullshit on the level of birthers and creationists, I’m getting a little frustrated.
      - von Bobo
        
        relax peter. iphone users have a right to ask questions if they are concerned about this information. just because you are an apple fundamentalist, doesn’t mean that you get to speak for everyone elses concerns.
Anonymous

So… your location is private information?
So when you’re out in public, you’re guaranteed total anonymity at all times?
I think not.
Wherever you go, there you are, freely observable, hence entirely un-private, not-top-secret.
If this were the case, surveillance cameras of all types would be illegal because they capture our location at any given time.
Seriously folks, on your own private property, sure, but when you’re in public, you’re in public. Get used to it already.
- Cowicide
  
  You like to be gimped, don’t you?
slamorte

We’ve known for over a decade that a cell phone can be used to trace your location.

We’ve known for years that the cell phone companies keep this data on us, and that the police can get it with a warrant.

There reasonable evidence that the cell companies and piping this data about us directly to Homeland Security *without* a warrant.

And now you find that *you* have a copy of this data, owned by only you, on a computer you *own and control,* and you are calling it a privacy violation?

And now you want Apple to delete this data for you so only the corporations and the government have it? And this will make you feel safer?

How?
- Marcus
  
  brilliant!
Anonymous

totally agree – class action lawsuit seems like a bit of a stretch, though i guess i’m not surprised it caught the eye of the sort of people that complain to make / save a buck or two.

i’d totally opt-in if it improved my overall experience with locative apps.
bcsizemo

So if cell companies are piping location data to DHS what’s a poor civilian to do?

And I’m implying that the information is working both ways, because it is. A “smartphone” keeping track of cell towers doesn’t really seem far fetched. Actually ANY phone in the last decade doing this doesn’t seem far fetched. At the same time your phone does this, the phone company can do the same.

To me this is a non-issue. I’m not doing something wrong. If my Garmin GPS decided to phone the cops because I was speeding then I’d be pissed off and chuck it out the window (where it’s probably tell them I’m littering as well). My phone keeping track of cell towers in order to work better doesn’t seem to be a flaw, it’s the design.
Anonymous

Besides, who’s to say this info wouldn’t be good to have?
Say your wife accuses you of being somewhere you weren’t, you can say “No, look, I was at work!”
Anonymous

A. it shares the data with the syncing computer.

B. The Apple lawyer said they needed to exploit this data to produce good products. This means they reserve the right to use it.

C. What’s different here is that we knew AT&T et al. had access to our roaming data. Not Apple. This is an instance where Apple reserves the right to use this data.

This is different than AT&T knowing where you are, this is different than Apple not using because the lawyer already said they reserve the right to leverage this information, as well this information is synced to your itunes. So no we’re not over-reacting, this is a legitimate concern.
chazlarson

I think maybe people might want to actually examine the data before freaking out. Based on what’s in my iPhone, either my phone is sneaking out at night or this is not actually tracking me or my phone in any meaningful way.

Here’s my tracking data, plotted in Google Earth:

http://imgur.com/a/Emon7

As I’d expect, there are location points in Minnesota and in the Houston area.

I live near the bottom left corner of the blob around Minneapolis. I work over near the lower right corner of the blob. There are large swaths of my daily drive that have no location points. Similarly, there are points in locations I have not visited in dozens of years. There are points in locations where I have never been in my 49 years. Certainly, in the last year, I have not physically been in every corner of the Twin Cities, as this plot would seem to indicate.

Zoomed in, there are three blobs around the town I live in. None anywhere near my house.

That blob up at the top surrounds the Brainerd area. I’ve been there once this year, over a weekend for a hockey tournament. I drove up there, through that empty area with no location points, and once there my range was limited to trips of a few miles to and from ice rinks via the same two routes. The upper left of that blob is 24 miles away from anywhere I went that weekend. A true track would be a narrow line from mid-left to lower-right.

Late last year, I took a trip to Houston. I took a shuttle from the airport to the hotel, walked around about a four-block area in downtown Houston for three days, then took the shuttle back to the airport. This location data certainly doesn’t reflect my actual locations during that trip.

So, leaving aside any privacy concerns, this data obviously does not represent any sort of log of where I’ve been.
von Bobo

I would assume people still have the right to know what is being logged about them on their own personal device, and how that data is being used. If they want a specific feature or service that depends on the log, then they should have the right to choose to use the feature or not. Fair enough?

I don’t know why companies are having to data mine like this. Instead, if the consumer wants the product bad enough, they will accept anything to get it. Like… maybe if google maps had a filter for daily specials near your location? Many people would happily let that tracker run 24/7, just to save a buck, and the marketers putting together their pie charts will have every piece of data they want.
gobo

I guess some people prefer to ignorantly file lawsuits rather than actually, y’know, research the facts behind their case. Anything for a chance at a cash-grab!
Anonymous

There is a security issue as well since when iPhones are refurbished they don’t erase the data.

http://elemming.blogspot.com/2011/04/oh-places-you-will-go-as-iphone.html
franko

i really don’t understand the brouhaha over this, either. every phone collects this kind of data. people are just using it as yet another excuse to bash apple. it’s really not that big of a deal to me.
Donald Petersen

It makes perfect sense to me that a wireless phone would keep track of its travels and network access points. As has been said more than enough times before, that’s how the overall network gets optimized.

But that data does not need to be kept locally and indefinitely. And Apple has no legitimate need for that data. As TFA points out, this practice goes beyond optimizing your phone’s network coverage. It turns your phone into a long-term tracking device akin to ones “for which a court-ordered warrant would ordinarily be required.” If this info were anonymized and squirted to Apple (or, more legitimately, AT&T) a couple times a day and wiped from the phone, this wouldn’t be an issue. As it is, whenever someone gets hold of your phone, be it Johnny Law or Jealous Spouse, they’ve got a ridiculously accurate map of your movements going back months. And Apple told its customers nothing of this when it rolled out iOS4.

Sure, this could be a useful little feature for many customers, which is why it should have been fully disclosed and 100% opt-in from the beginning.

Apple’s not admitting it, but they wouldn’t have done this without a motive, and I’m betting my last donut that that motive is not in your best interest, General Public.

Jesus, I’ve gotta get off my rantbox today…
CountZero

â€œBut where in your license agreement did you sign away the rights to your location to Apple?â€
When you signed up to iTunes, and everytime you use an app that asks you for permission to use your current location. Or didn’t you read the End User Agreement when you signed it?
Assisted GPS uses satellite locating along with cell tower triangulation to assist accuracy when satellites are not clearly seen by the phone. The point being is that NONE of this date uses satellite acquired locating, hence it’s far too inaccurate to be of any conceivable use to anyone with ill intent; Wife: â€˜you’ve been having an affair with that floozy from Detriot haven’t you!â€™
Husband: â€˜what floozy from Detroit?â€™
W: â€˜I know you’re having an affair, and I checked your iPhone, and the map shows you spend lots of time in Detroitâ€™
H: â€˜But, but, I WORK in Detroit…â€™
That’s the thing, the data can only show locations in the most vague sense, my old 3G iPhone could only use cell tower triangulation indoors, and always showed my location around Â¾ of a mile away. Yeah, I can see how THAT would be an invasion of my privacy. My 4G will show exactly the same thing, even though the GPS shows precisely where I live, even indoors. This is such a non-issue, I find it difficult to comprehend how any of the people who use boingboing regularly could find a problem. I figured users here would be too smart to fall into the trap of believing all the hysterical media bullshit.
Coal

Again (I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve said this now), if privacy is important enough to you that this would be a concern, then you’d already have your phone passcode protected and be encrypting your backups. Smartphones by their very nature contain a lot of personal information that could be used against you, such as phone records, address book, emails, sites you’re visited, and are still logged into etc.

This will be laughed out of court on this basis:
Q. Did you take basic precautions to protect your regular phone content (i.e. passcode protection and encryption)?

A1. Yes. Then this log cannot get into the wrong hands and you’ve just wasted the court’s time. Please pay Apple’s legal fees.

A2. No. Then how can you legitimately say your privacy has been invaded when you’re willing to let anyone access your emails etc.? Please pay Apple’s legal fees.
jmnugent

I also think this topic is wildly overblown. As others have said, it’s “assisted-GPS” which basically means celltower-triangulation, which is another way of saying: It’s not accurate at all. (The past years worth of data on my phone indicates locations I KNOW I’ve never been, some upwards of 160miles away). People are acting like this is tracking your every move w/ inch x inch accuracy. Hardly.
- wrybread
  
  > it’s “assisted-GPS”
  
  I think you need to do some research on how iPhones use GPS. Its most definitely real GPS. It falls back to assisted GPS when it can’t get a GPS signal.
  - jmnugent
    
    Well, regardless of which GPS technology it’s using.. it still appears to be wildly inaccurate. Seems like the most anyone would be able to say is: “Person X is within 5 to 10 miles of Tower Z”, which I guess, if you’re some kind of globetrotting cybercriminal, that would be a problem. But for any average person who hits the mall and stops for gas/lunch..I’m still failing to see how this matters. People seem to be treating this as some “slippery slope” towards laser-precision government tracking database or something. It’s like quori commented: People are mad that their phones collect this data.. but they’d be equally mad if they turned it off and Location Services weren’t reliable/available.
    - wrybread
      
      No, iPhone 4 GPS is as accurate as any dedicated GPS. If it can’t get a GPS signal then it uses cell triangulation, and even then its pretty accurate. But it can get a GPS signal in any circumstance that a Garmin can.
- peterbruells
  
  The stored data are not position where you might have been, but known positions call towers and WLAN Routers. That’s why you have rows with the same timestamp., but pointing to places up to 100 km apart.
  
  I’m reasonably sure the police know where the local celltowers are.
  - jmnugent
    
    Ok.. so then why the big drama?.. Anyone who knows me (even marginally) knows where I live (with much more accuracy than this data). This data doesn’t show travel paths or length of stay any any location (atleast not with any usable accuracy). Do people not realize that cell phones NEED to receive this data just to work? And on the topic of the file being included in an iTunes backup – so what?.. if someone steals my computer, I’ve got much bigger problems to worry about than them knowing my location 4 months ago. The whole thing seems like a non-issue to me. (course, I also “have nothing to hide”.. so maybe I’m not a good test-case)
legotech

Woo hoo….a class action lawsuit…users will get a $5 itunes card and lawyers will buy a small island in the tropics and Apple will keep doing whatever they want
Anonymous

If I’m paying Apple or some other phone maker for the right to use their phone they should be made to pay me for my information that they use to improve their business. Whys should I give away my information for free while they charge me for using thier phone? The playing field between the consumer and content providers needs to level. I pay you for your valuables and you should pay me for mine.
Anonymous

I find it funny apple does this it is ok. if google or microsoft did it in the same way it would all be going a different way.

funny how people’s loyalty to apple is.

do google and microsoft track peole? yes. but do they say we don’t track you and then track you and keep a database of way more then just cell towers locations?
lecti

Christ, I bet most people in this country doesn’t even know half of what is actually stored in any given file in his or her hard drive right now.

I’m all for having control over what information is stored, but having GPS coordinate stored on YOUR devices is far cry from breach of privacy.
Anonymous

While Apple claims they don’t want to use this data now, they’ve got patents for using the data in the future:

http://gawker.com/5795442/apple-patent-reveals-extensive-stalking-plans

Also, while many other cell phones store this information, those that do (a) store it only briefly, (b) secure it and/or (c) anonymize it but Apple does none of this.
Penguin Pizza

What I’m really hoping is that what Apple is and isn’t doing will be revealed in the lawsuit which I just read here.

I’ve always loved Apple and their stuff.

But keeping tabs on me? That’s taking ‘think different’ to a twisted extreme.