In this weeks installment of “What I Found In The Hidden Depths Of My iPhone”, I stumbled upon the database of my Location Services.
This database held a wealth of information about all the places I had been to since the start of 2017. It had recorded all the addresses (down to the house number) of places I’ve visited, including the frequency that I’ve been there, as well as the exact times and dates.
It’s good to know that my phone is keeping a close, VERY detailed eye on me.
To some people this discovery might not be a surprise at all. Location Services can easily be turned off, and the app isn’t exactly secretive or subtle. The app often prompts you when another app or site is using your location, and it even asks your permission every now and then. How kind!
However, what Location Services fails to tell you is that it’s storing all that data on your phone in order to “…provide you with location-related information in Maps, Calendar and MORE“. What exactly does that ‘More’ mean? I’m not certain. But I can bet that it benefits Apple in some way.
Now this doesn’t mean that Apple is definitely selling this information to other businesses or using it unethically, but it is interesting to know that they have the ability to monitor and record all the personal travelling information of their users without them necessarily knowing.
It is a huge deal for any business anywhere to know exactly where their customers are, where and when they visit a place and how often they go there, so I for one are hoping that this sensitive information stays on my phone exclusively. (Not that I have anything to hide, of course)
So what are your thoughts on this Location Services feature? Did you know about it previously, and do you care that its happening?
A Mega Bite 
I like to comfort myself in thinking that in knowing more about what I’m doing, they’re able to learn more about my needs and start to show me more things relevant to me. Perhaps they are learning more than they strictly need to, but I like to ignore the paranoia most of the time in favour of the benefits I gain from it…
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I feel pretty much the same way. I like to think that businesses like Apple having my personal information is beneficial to me, and no just another way they can personalise all the ads and spam I get.
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This actually freaks me out! I travel to wantirna south for youth group every Friday night and started noticing that my phone would automatically prompt the address to go there as I’m about to drive there, every Friday! Kind of scary that my phone knows when and where I’m going to go.
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Despite this, I don’t do anything about it though because as scary as it is… it is very convenient
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This exact thing happened to me, every time I put a work shift in my calendar as a reminder, on the day of my shift my phone would prompt me with directions to my work address without me actually telling it what the address was. That’s what promoted me to go looking for where they had this data stored in my phone in the first place.
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Its helpful in the sense that you can operate the ‘find my iPhone’ app and use google maps effectively, however it is creepy that someone on the other side at apple knows exactly where i am, where i have been and for exactly how long. But i’m pretty sure we all use the functions allowed through the iPhone when location services is switched on?
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Yeah, its definitely helpful, just a shame that it comes with a number of strings attached.
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Big Brother in real life! haha someone is enjoying themselves with all this damn data
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