Monday, August 17, 2015

A Warning to iPhone Users: Are Your Frequent Locations Being Tracked?

A friend re-posted this video on Facebook, and I'm sharing the link to it here as a public service: https://www.facebook.com/angela.smithruder/videos/10207372423775603/

The original poster is Angel Smith Ruder, and I thank her for sounding the alarm about this latest privacy concern on the iPhone.

I'm always so careful about what permissions I give to apps, and yet, when I checked my settings, my past locations were listed, just like the video warns.  PLEASE go to Settings on your iPhone, go to Privacy, Location Services, scroll down to System Services, and scroll to the bottom where you'll see Frequent Locations.  If it says "On", you can click and see all of the places you've recently been, including the exact GPS location of your Home address.

I did NOT choose to put Frequent Locations "On", so I suspect it means this is the default setting, and that you have to go out of your way to change it.  It's up to you if you do or not, but at least now you know about it and can decide for yourself.

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