Imagine a company tracking the programs on a cell phone, how they are used, what data is changed in a program and then reports all of that back to head quarters. This is happening right now on iPhone’s and apparently iPod Touch’s worldwide. Scans of the code for the weather and finance widgets on the iPhone and iPod Touch reveal the hidden tracking code. This code sends the actual IMEI number of the iPhone or iPod Touch back to Apple’s servers. The IMEI number is what identifies itself to cellular phone companies. What Apple is doing with this information is equally clouded in secrecy.
What’s interesting about the data collection on the iPod Touch is that it does not have an IMEI number. So it begs the question, what is the iPod Touch sending to Apple instead of the IMEI number?
Users that have found the hidden code tried to modify it to exclude the collection of the IMEI number when using either the stock or weather widget. The widget at that point stopped working. Most users wouldn’t care about this kind of data collection and here is what Apple’s privacy disclosure has to say about it.
When you interact with Apple, we may collect personal information relevant to the situation, such as your name, mailing address, phone number, email address, and contact preferences; your credit card information and information about the Apple products you own, such as their serial numbers and date of purchase; and information relating to a support or service issue.
Tracking data usage on the weather widget is not that bad but when Apple wants to know what stocks are on the finance widget, it becomes more of an issue. Via Tuaw.
November 30th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
[…] Purchase a locked iPhone from T-Mobile in Germany and then pay an additional 600 euro’s. The IMEI number for the iPhone is recorded and sent to Apple. After about a full day, Apple’s iPhone database is […]