While there are many features that iPhone delivers and boasts about, there is one particular feature that is usually kept in the dark and not talked about. Here we have brought you information pertaining to a feature that allows the iPhone to track every move of its user. This includes stuff such as the time when the user left for work or the place where the user bought coffee from.
This feature is known as the Frequent Locations Feature and it was introduced by Apple about a year ago, however, since it sits under 5 layers of settings there are very few people who know about it. The acquired data never leaves the device except for when the user allows it and this feature was incorporated only to enhance the services pertaining to mapping.
Professor Noel Sharkey – British leading computing expert – said, “This is shocking. Every place you go, where you shop, where you have a drink – it is all recorded. This is a divorce lawyer’s dream. But what horrifies me is that it is so secret. Why did we not know about this?”
Looking into the history, smartphones had the capability of tracking down the user’s movements ever since the GPS chips and mapping add-ons were integrated into them. The feature comes installed automatically with iPhones running iOS7 or iOS8 and displays the movements of a user clearly on map. In other words, this map shows records of every journey you ever made along with where you halted on the way, including date and time. It can also tell how many times you have visited a specific address. Apple says that this data leaves the phone only when the user agrees to the ‘Improve Maps’ option.
Some concerned users claim that a snooping boss, police, authoritarian government or a jealous wife, can access this data. Tim Cook, Apple CEO, stated in an open letter issued this month, “Our business model is very straightforward. We don’t “monetize” the information on your iPhone or in iCloud.”
Professor Sharkey, on the other hand, expresses, “Apple might promise not to use our location information for advertising. And many of our authorities might be quite benevolent at the moment. But if you put that information in someone else’s hands, then it becomes powerful, and in some cases, dangerous.”
