New iPhone Update Addresses Location Tracking Issues

Apple's latest iPhone update (iOS 4.3.3) addresses the concerns raised by
security experts regarding the automatically generated databases of user
locations being saved to Apple devices and backed up via iTunes.

The new update now reduces the size of the location database—early reports
had indicated that it may have held a year or more of location data—and will
now prevent the database file from being backed up to your computer when you
synchronize your phone with iTunes.

The issue was that anyone who had access to your computer (your spouse, your
boss, your sitcom-style neighbor who pops over unannounced) could
theoretically grab the file and use it to create a map of all the places
you'd been over the past several months.

And perhaps most importantly, if you turn the Location Services feature off
in your phone's settings menu now, the location database will no longer
collect any location data. It had been collecting data even if you had opted
out of Location Services (GPS, mapping apps, etc.) in the past.

You can fire up iTunes to get the latest update, which is available for the
following Apple products: iPhone 4 (AT&T version), iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad,
and 3rd- and 4th-generation iPod Touch devices.