iOS Location Tracking File Actually a Bug? Apple Accidentally Following You

After yesterday’s huge security furore which was set-off after reports that Apple was caching your travels via your iPhone or 3G packing iPad’s iOS word is coming out that this wasn’t ‘planned’

The file that holds your tracked trips is named Consolidated.db – this little blighter was the centre of attention as this data was not only held on your Apple device but also backed-up to your computer with every sync thus making it open to third parties should they have the desire to exploit your travel details and last known location.

I for one was more level headed about this than most but it sounds as though all those demanding Apple be burned at the stake may have been a bit swift with their witch trial.

One John Gruber reckons the existence of the file might be an error that’ll likely be cleared up in a forthcoming software update.

Gruber’s piece over at Daring Fireball reads: “My little-birdie-informed understanding is that consolidated.db acts as a cache for location data, and that historical data should be getting culled but isn’t, either due to a bug or, more likely, an oversight, i.e. someone wrote the code to cache location data but never wrote code to cull non-recent entries from the cache, so that a database that’s meant to serve as a cache of your recent location data is instead a persistent log of your location history. I’d wager this gets fixed in the next iOS update.”

I’m just wondering how a company such as Apple, who is notoriously picky about its work, could slip up like this – but then remember Antennagate?

Perhaps I’m a little to cynical but as Apple as yet to comment on this I am wondering if they’re using their ‘leak network’ to patch up the fact that they’ve been caught out.

What say you?