El iPhone y el iPad 3G registran todos los movimientos del usuario
Conferencia Where 2.0 que se celebra en Santa Clara (California). Dos investigadores: Alasdair Allan y Pete Warden. Un tema a tratar: El iPhone y los modelos 3G del iPad guardan todos y cada uno de los movimientos que realizan los usuarios con sus dispositivos. Según han contado en la sesión ¿Quien tiene acceso a estos datos?, Allan y Warden han descubierto que los dispositivos de Apple almacenan en un archivo llamado consolidated.db las coordenadas de longitud y latitud de los dispositivos en todo momento, sin que el usuario lo sepa. Estos datos de geolocalización no son siempre exactos pero sí muy detallados como explican.
“No estamos seguros de por qué Apple está recopilando estos datos, pero es claramente intencionado, ya que la base de datos se restaura mediante copias de seguridad e, incluso, las migraciones del aparato”
Ambos han contactado con el equipo de seguridad de Apple para informarse sobre el asunto pero no han recibido respuesta alguna. Por lo que a medida que este asunte se expande veremos cual es la reacción de Apple.
¿Debemos preocuparnos?Es difícil encontrar una respuesta universal porque todo dependerá de cada uno. Yo os daré mi visión de este asunto. Mantener nuestra privacidad es algo importante pero en ocasiones ya la “descuidamos” bastante haciendo uso de aplicaciones que muestran nuestra posición y más datos. Por tanto, ser alarmistas no tiene sentido. Si es cierto que existe una diferencia importante: en esas ocasiones somos conscientes de estar haciendolo y según estos investigadores ahora ni lo somos ni podemos evitarlo.
Luego, el problema está en ese número de usuarios a los que sí podría suponerle un verdadero quebradero de cabeza por temas de seguridad. Primero porque se podrían tener acceso a todos sus movimientos realizados a lo largo del último año, segundo porque el archivo que almacena dicha información no sólo se guarda en el dispositivos (iPhone o iPad) si no que también en los equipos donde sincronizamos, lo que amplía la posibilidad de poder acceder a él por personas amantes de lo ajeno.
Por tanto, si nos preocupa dicho tema podemos hacer dos cosas:
Proteger nuestro dispositivo con código de bloqueo y activar la opción de borrado de datos cuando el código se introduzca erróneamente en diez ocasiones. De modo que si perdemos nuestro dispositivo no tengamos que preocuparnos. Encriptar la copia de seguridad que iTunes hace de nuestro dispositivo.Al igual que pasó con el tema de la plataforma iAd, debería de existir la opción de anular esta recopilación de datos. La cual parece haber empezado con la versión 4 de iOS que se lanzó en 2010. Veremos si Apple tiene algo que decir al respecto, si explica el motivo por el cuál almacena dicha información o simplemente pasa de largo como ya ha ocurrido en otras ocasiones.
Lo que está claro es que no es algo nuevo pues ya cometamos en Applesfera la posibilidad de que Apple compartiese los datos de geolocalización con sus socios. Os dejamos con el vídeo donde muestran información detallada y que cada une saque sus propias conclusiones y opiniones.
Vía | El País
En Applesfera | Apple podría compartir los datos de geolocalización con sus socios
Track iPhone Location & Movement on a Map with iPhoneTracker
Want to see where an iPhone has been? How about a detailed map of an iPhones movements, tracking hotspots of where it is physically located most often? Check out iPhoneTracker, a free app that does exactly that.
iPhoneTracker works by parsing through locally stored iPhone backup files and placing stored location data on a map.
You can download iPhoneTracker for free from the developer (Mac OS X only)
The image up top shows one of the detailed maps of iPhone movement the app produces, and you can see a movie generated based on tracking iPhone locations at the bottom of this post.
iPhone movement mapping & tracking not entirely accurate
The data isn’t 100% accurate and some pieces are missing or misplaced, using iPhoneTracker to look at my own iPhone movements, the app missed some significant activity (like flying across the country) and it even placed me in a few locations I’ve never been. The developer of the app explains some of this discrepancy:
As far as we can tell, the location is determined by triangulating against the nearest cell-phone towers. This isn’t as accurate as GPS, but presumably takes less power. In some cases it can get very confused and temporarily think you’re several miles from your actual location, but these tend to be intermittent glitches.
So it’s not entirely accurate, but it’s close. Now, there’s been a bit of hub-bub on the web about iPhone’s tracking your location and movements but I’m not sure why anyone is surprised by this. Remember, your iPhone (and iPad 3G) pings cell towers constantly and has a GPS unit in it, of course it’s going to track your physical movements. The real question is why exactly is this data being stored locally? Who knows, but I’d guess that any device with cellular triangulation or GPS keeps similar information. Some people are finding this location tracking creepy, but personally I think it’s interesting to look at.
Maps locally stored location data only
It’s worth mentioning that iPhoneTracker only works to check locally stored iPhone and iPad backup files, meaning you can’t use this app to remotely follow someone else. Yes, you could run this app on any Mac and it will map out that iPhone/iPad users location data, but that’s pretty invasive and you probably won’t make any friends doing so, and remember that the location data is not 100% accurate.
Prevent iPhone tracking by encryption
If you don’t want someone to be able to use this app to track your iPhone movements, all you need to do is encrypt your iPhone backups. This causes the backup file and your location data to become unreadable unless the backup is decrypted, which would require your password in iTunes. Encrypting your backups is a good idea in general, regardless of how you feel about location tracking.
As I mentioned earlier, the app also creates movies that can be played back showing iPhone movement on a map, here is one example from the apps developer showing a trip from Washington DC to NYC:
Currently the iPhoneTracker app is for Mac OS X only, but the code is open sourced so a Windows and Linux version will probably be released in the near future.
This isn’t the first example of the iPhone tracking location data, by default iPhone photos store GPS metadata, which can then be retrieved through Preview.app on any images taken by an iPhone. That feature can be easily disabled, however.
[ app found via HackerNews ]
The Washington Post Launches Trove, A Personalized Social News Site
The Washington Post Company this morning debuted its free, personalized, social news site and aggregator Trove in public beta.
First reported to be in the works and nearing launch by The Wall Street Journal in February 2011, Trove aggregates news across subjects of interest and important headlines of the day, from more than 10,000 sources.
The news site factors in a reader’s likes and dislikes, combining algorithms with ‘expertise from the newsroom’ (news of the day selected by an editorial team).
Trove takes advantage of Facebook Connect to pull in a user’s interests as outlined by his or her Facebook profile to help jump start the personalization part of the equation.
The Washington Post promises to add more social media features and site capabilities to the mix in the coming months.
Trove is available on the desktop, Android and Blackberry phones. In a welcome letter by WashPo chairman and CEO (and Facebook board member) Don Graham, we learn that iPhone and iPad apps are also ‘coming soon’.
According to the WSJ report, the company is investing between $5 million and $10 million in the site. Note: The Washington Post acquired personal news aggregation service iCurrent back in July 2010, so we wouldn’t be surprised if a large part of the machinery behind Trove stems from that particular deal, terms of which were not disclosed. (Update: yup).
Trove, which has been in private beta since February, was created by WaPo Labs, a technology team of The Washington Post Company tasked with developing and incubating new media opportunities that is led by the company’s Chief Digital Officer Vijay Ravindran.
Ford Motor Company signed on as Trove’s exclusive launch sponsor.
For your further reading pleasure:
Exclusive: An Early Look At News.me, The New York Times’ Answer To The Daily
Who Is The Daily For?
What Should An iPad Newspaper Look Like?
CrunchBase InformationThe Washington Post CompanyInformation provided by CrunchBase
Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, AmEx And Others Offer Over $400M In Value To Startup America
Unveiled at the end of January, the Startup America Partnership has just announced a slew of new company commitments, in conjunction with President Obama’s Town Hall meeting at Facebook today.
For those uninitiated, Startup America is a White House partnership with AOL co-founder Steve Case and the Kauffman and the Case Foundations, with the aim to increase “the number of new, high-growth firms that are creating economic growth, innovation, and quality jobs; celebrate and honor entrepreneurship as a core American value and source of competitive advantage; and inspire and empower an ever-greater diversity of communities and individuals to build great American companies.”
15 companies are upping the ante on their Startup America commitments today, delivering over $400 million in value over the original Startup America commitment, derived from partnerships with companies like IBM and Intel. Startup America is also rolling a membership program in which companies in various stages (like “Startup,”"Rampup” and “Speedup”) can apply for these resources.
And the resources are impressive. Here’s a run down of the specific companies: Google is donating over $100 million worth of Google Ads to the cause and HP is offering an estimated $100 million in discounts on printers and other products. Facebook will be hosting startup specific events (Startup Days) in May, with “Mobile Startup Day” on May 4th in Palo Alto and “StartUp Day: Platform” on May 18th.
American Express has devoted over $125 million in value to member companies by giving preferred pricing to Startup America startups. Cisco has committed to provide training to around 6,000 entrepreneurs in 50 cities by January 2014, valued at $3 million. Ernst and Young has pledged more than $7.5 million’s worth of its finance services for SA companies. And Electronic commerce and payment processing site First Data is giving discounts on processing services.
LinkedIn will be contributing services, training and products to partner companies, and Microsoft will be offering qualified Startup America participants entry into its BizSpark program. Silicon Valley Bank will be holding an event for the specific purpose of helping entrepreneurs succeed and Salesforce will be providing its products and services free or at a discount as well, such as its CRM platform and workflow engine, to all participants.
Global funding platform IndieGoGo is giving Startup America members the ability to raise $30 million at a 50% campaign fee discount, and will feature their campaigns on its partner pages. Intuit will be investing $37 million in services and products including QuickBooks and Intuit Payroll services.
From the non-profit sector come contributions from The National Center for Women & Information Technology NCWIT, which will be providing female mentors and promoting the achievements of women to other female entrepreneurs in the program.
Palindrome Advisors will be connecting 1,000 Startup America entrepreneurs with key advisors in the industry who will commit to mentor and engage with the individual startups. Advisors such as Chris Kelly, Former Chief Privacy Officer of Facebook, Adam Bain, Chief Revenue Officer at Twitter, Neal Mohan, VP of Product at Google and Brett Brewer, Founder of MySpace will all be participating.
“Young businesses have created 40 million jobs over the past 25 years, and the need to create a strong ecosystem for startups in our country is more paramount than ever,” said Startup America’s Scott Case. The roster is indeed impressive and companies seem to be jumping behind this thing, so if anything it’s a good bandwagon to be on.
IBM Beats The Street, Posts Revenue of $24.6B; Net Income Up 10 Percent To $2.9B
Following strong fourth quarter 2010 results, IBM released first quarter earnings today, reporting $24.6 billion in revenue for the quarter which is up 8 percent (or up 5 percent adjusting for currency). Diluted earnings came in at $2.31 per share, compared with diluted earnings of $1.97 per share in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 17 percent. Analysts expected $2.30 a share on revenue of $24.04 billion.
First-quarter net income was $2.9 billion compared with $2.6 billion in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 10 percent. Operating (non-GAAP) net income was $3.0 billion compared with $2.6 billion in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 13 percent.
Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM chairman, president and CEO said in a statement: “We delivered a strong first quarter with revenue growth across hardware, software and services and with more than 40 countries growing in double digits. We continued to see excellent momentum in our growth initiatives – smarter planet, cloud, business analytics, and growth markets – which bring together the full value of the IBM portfolio…We achieved broad-based margin improvement, while our cash flow and strong financial position enabled us to continue to return value to our shareholders. The company is raising its full-year 2011 outlook, expecting operating earnings per share to come in at least $13.15 from $13.00 previously expected.
The company’s total gross profit margin was 44.1 percent in the 2011 first quarter compared with 43.6 percent in the 2010 first-quarter period. In terms of The Americas’ first-quarter revenues were $10.3 billion, an increase of 9 percent (8 percent, adjusting for currency) from the 2010 period. Revenues from Europe/Middle East/Africa were $7.8 billion, up 3 percent (2 percent, adjusting for currency). Asia-Pacific revenues increased 12 percent (4 percent, adjusting for currency) to $5.9 billion. OEM revenues were $600 million, up 13 percent compared with the 2010 first quarter.
Revenues from the Software segment were $5.3 billion, an increase of 6 percent (4 percent, adjusting for currency), or 10 percent (8 percent, adjusting for currency). Revenues from IBM’s key middleware products, which include WebSphere, Information Management, Tivoli, Lotus and Rational products, were $3.3 billion, an increase of 16 percent (14 percent, adjusting for currency) versus the first quarter of 2010. Operating systems revenues of $542 million increased 9 percent (7 percent, adjusting for currency) compared with the prior-year quarter.
Revenues from the WebSphere family of software products increased 51 percent year over year. Information Management software revenues increased 13 percent. Revenues from Tivoli software increased 8 percent. Revenues from Lotus software increased 1 percent, and Rational software increased 5 percent. And revenues from the company’s business analytics operations across services and software segments increased 20 percent.
Revenues from the Systems and Technology segment totaled $4.0 billion for the quarter, up 19 percent (16 percent, adjusting for currency) from the first quarter of 2010.
IBM ended the quarter with $13.2 billion of cash on hand, which is significantly higher than the $11.7 billion left in cash in the fourth quarter of 2010. IBM hasn’t really been on much of an acquisition spree this year, buying real estate software company Tririga this year. Big Blue has known to be bullish on acquisitions so perhaps we’ll see more M&A coming from the company in the second quarter of 2011.
