iPhone secretly tracks movements [solutions and tips]

Surely you have heard about it in recent days but for those who do not know, I offer a brief summary.

All iPhone e iPad They keep track of each our movement, saving the information in a file on the device that is shared and synchronized with all computers and other shared devices.

Let's see how we can read the information stored and how to prevent that our device saves our movements.

The offending file, which stores the coordinates of our positions with a timestamp (indicating the date and time) is "consolidated.db“. Normally this file can be used by iOS applications Because of caching (exploits positions already stored and of which the device is aware) or for a kind of Historical of our trips.

There is no evidence that this was sent. log files ad Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), y real problem lies in the fact that it is free access on our computer with which we have synchronized iPhone o iPad. Each backup of our device saves a copy of consolidated.db in an easily readable format and without any security measures to protect our privacy.

Le coordinate, are stored by triangulating the cell phone signal and No. through GPS, which would require too much power and excessive battery consumption.

Sections:

1. Delete backup files
2. Restrict access to the consolidated.db file
3. Prevent location tracking directly from your device
4. How to read confidential information
5. more information

Delete backup files

Considering that it is the backup file on the computer that contains consolidated.db, a possible solution is remove completely the backup file. Obviously No. do this if you are used to using and restoring theiPhone/iPad because you will also lose everything else (address book, settings, text messages, etc).

Connect the device via USB cable, start iTunes and select Pref Renze. Choose the Devices tab and select the backup you want to delete. Click "Delete Backup..." to delete the backup file.

Restrict access to the consolidated.db file

If we want limited access to the backup that also contains the log files with our sensitive information, without but nevertheless delete completely the Backup of the device, we can crypts the content with iTunes and make access difficult.

Connect the device to the computer and select it fromdevice list on the left

From Options At the bottom right, choose "Encrypt iPhone backup“, set one the password (which will be requested when restoring a backup) ed avoid to select “Save password to keychain”, otherwise everything will be useless.

Prevent location tracking directly from your device

A more powerful and faster solution is to directly prevent the device from saving information about our movements.

This solution is only available for those who have a iPhone o iPad jailbreak.

comienzo Cydia and install the program No tracking. It is available in the normal repositories and has no application icon. From this moment on, the device will stop memorizing time stamps and relative positions.

The program is a daemon that runs continuously in the background, deleting the file. consolidated.db

How to read confidential information

We can easily read the sensitive information which are available in plain text (if we do not have removed o encoded la Backup).

The researchers who brought the problem to light log files Available to everyone, they have launched a tool that allows us to visualize all our movements on a map.

The program is only available for Mac. Download iPhone tracker

more information

Apparently, it's not just iOS 4 that threatens our privacy; Also Android, present in a large number of phones, has a very similar behavior and secretly follows each of our movements.

In reality, they only exploit the triangulation of the GSM signal, the position is often not as accurate as it could be if using the GPS. See for yourself with the program suggested above (iPhone tracker).

Today Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), for iOS e Google for Android, have not officially commented on what they discovered. A new update is expected that adds a level of fullfilment of security requirements more to this type of log files.

iPhone secretly tracks movements [solutions and tips]