Your iPhone is logging your location

Software hackers have discovered that Apple’s iOS 4 software has a file that stores locations and time stamps of an owner’s every move. The file, labeled “consolidated.db,” can be accessed using an open source program called “iPhone Tracker.” iPhone and 3G iPad owners can use the program to output their location file onto an interactive map, with pins in all of the locations they have been to since owning the gadget. The iPhone Tracker comes courtesy of hackers Peter Warden and Alasdair Allen, who discovered the mystery file. “Ever since iOS 4 arrived, your device has been storing a long list of locations and time stamps,” Warden and Allen wrote. “We’re not sure why Apple is gathering this data, but it’s clearly intentional, as the database is being restored across backups, and even device migrations.”

Wired