Apple Inc. is now collecting the "precise," "real-time geographic location" of its users' iPhones, iPads and computers.
In an updated version of its privacy policy, the company added a paragraph noting that once users agree, Apple and unspecified "partners and licensees" may collect and store user location data.
When users attempt to download apps or media from the iTunes store, they are prompted to agree to the new terms and conditions. Until they agree, they cannot download anything through the store.
The company says the data is anonymous and does not personally identify users. Analysts have shown, however, that large, specific data sets can be used to identify people based on behavior patterns...
"The average motorist has the details of 200 of their journeys stored on the Government’s controversial vehicle surveillance database, new figures have shown. The records, which include photographs of private cars, can be secretly handed by ministers to the governments of other European countries or the United States. Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act disclosed that 7.6 billion entries are currently stored on the police automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) database..."
The breach, which comes just weeks after an Apple employee lost an iPhone prototype in a bar, exposed the most exclusive email list on the planet, a collection of early-adopter iPad 3G subscribers that includes thousands of A-listers in finance, politics and media, from New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson to Diane Sawyer of ABC News to film mogul Harvey Weinstein to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It even appears that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's information was compromised...