Apple asked to explain tracking device

APPLE has been called upon to explain why iPhones and iPads are collecting data on the location of their owners by Data Commissioner Billy Hawkes.

Mr Hawkes made the call after experts in the USA found that both products keep track and record user’s movements on the device.

These details can then be copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronised.

The Data Protection Commissioner said the firm needs to explain why users were not made aware of this feature in the devices.

According to the New York Times, Data Protection Commissioners in Italy and France have raised similar concerns.

“The main question we have is why is this information being stored on iPhones? What is the purpose of storing it there and why weren’t people told about it? Obviously what this file on the phone does is provide quite an accurate tracking of where people have been over the past year.”

“I think the key thing, the most concerning thing is that Apple did not inform people that this information was being stored and for some reason it is not responding to requests to clarify. I think the key for Apple to do at present is to clarify why exactly they are storing this information on our personal lives on our iPhones and can they explain themselves.

“When we have that information, then we can look and see what exactly are the implications of that storage,” said Mr Hawkes.

The Data Protection Commissioner said it was “not sufficient” that such a feature may have been explained in the terms and conditions.

He also said the incident served as a reminder to people that there was a trade-off regarding positioning information when using such technology, and that people needed to exercise as much control over it as they could.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal has reported that it has seen documents that show Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android smartphone transmit location data from handsets back to the companies

The newspaper claimed Apple “intermittently” collects information as to its users whereabouts and that this data is reported back every 12 hours.

It also claimed Google’s Android phones send location data to the company several times an hour.