Find iPhone App

[+ g56whiz]

If you haven't loaded this app. you probably should ASAP. It's free. In a (senior?) moment of absentmindedness, I put my phone down in a store. When I went to retrieve it, it was long (well not really long) gone. I immediately proceeded to an AT&T store where a friendly clerk handed me his unit with this Find iPhone app loaded. I signed on with my Apple ID. The GPS function let me know that it was nearby. The app let me then lock the phone - just not my habit. I then sent the following message: "This phone has been locked and is being tracked. Please return it to where you got it no questions asked. Thanks." When I went back to the store a friendly clerk announced that someone had just turned in my phone. I told him I didn't want to know who (this is a small town - he got the message). In desperation, the app would have allowed me to nuke it back to factory status but I didn't get that far.

 

I'm grateful.

[+ Hoover42]

Congratulations on getting your phone back.

 

You might be interested to know that the ability to track your phone, send messages to the screen, and lock or wipe it completely are all provided by Apple's own website, me.com.

 

It provides an advantage over the app by allowing you to do all that from a webpage.

[+ deej]

You might be interested to know that the ability to track your phone, send messages to the screen, and lock or wipe it completely are all provided by Apple's own website, me.com.

 

It provides an advantage over the app by allowing you to do all that from a webpage.

 

It's actually all one thing, tied up together. The app is just an interface to me.com (with an advantage that you don't have to type the phone's serial number because the phone already knows it).

 

The thing that users of older iPhones might be interested to know is that they don't charge money for it any more.

 

Go there. Do this. It's painless, MAJOR useful, and free.

[instudiocity]

Godson called me. He'd lost his iPhone in a night of drunken partying. I started messaging the iPhone through fund my iPhone site and the cabbie who had driven him home showed up at his house 20 minutes later with the phone-no charge, just get it to quit beeping!

[Lookin]

Congrats on getting your phone back. http://www.maleescortreview.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/thumbsup.png

 

It turns out your iPhone knows even more than it's letting on. According to a couple of British software developers, it's been tracking and recording every place it's been for up to a year.

 

With this application, you (or anyone else who has access to your phone or unencrypted backup files) can see just where you've been and when you were there.

 

Privacy advocates are worried, and Apple's not talking. http://www.maleescortreview.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/ermm.png

[+ deej]

Android phones are apparently sending location data back to Google for building traffic maps.

 

It's a rapidly developing story.

[instudiocity]

...It turns out your iPhone knows even more than it's letting on. According to a couple of British software developers, it's been tracking and recording every place it's been for up to a year.

 

With this application, you (or anyone else who has access to your phone or unencrypted backup files) can see just where you've been and when you were there.

 

Anybody with ANY SMARTPHONE, or Geo-Tagging Camera, or Laptop or Computer for that matter is 'foolish' to believe that device exists outside of space/time/place. Every Internet Connected Device has an IP address assigned to it. Even if the IP address is mobile, it's assigned to YOU. Geo-Tagging Cameras - ditto - you take a picture, you've created a record down to the millisecond as to where you were when. Part of GPS systems design is to determine where you are WHEN.

 

So don't feel comfortable if you don't have an iPhone or iPad, Androids do it too.

 

Oh, and dumb cellphones? They triangulate from Cell Towers, so the accuracy might not be so hot, but the phone company can triangulate your position to within a hundred feet with 3 cell tower hits at once.

 

Part of this CONNECTEDNESS requires a sacrifice of privacy, OR DO YOU NOT THINK DADDY DOESN'T HAVE THE ABILITY TO GRAB YOUR IP ADDRESS?

[Lookin]

I was aware of all that, but read the post again and notice that your perambulations are saved on the iPhone for up to a year. Then check out the application website, and watch the tracker follow your moves along with the date and time you were at each place. It's even smart enough to know whether you had a one-hour appointment or an overnight.

 

Betcha Daddy doesn't do that.

 

The GPS data collected by your ISP is (allegedly) available only for cause and only with a warrant. Your iPhone data can be collected by anyone who gets it (or your backup computer) in their hands. Interested spouse or boyfriend perhaps?

 

Of course, my life is an open book, but I expect there are some folks who are busy encrypting their backup files and chaining their iPhone around their neck.

[+ deej]

Instructions for wiping this data off your iPhone:

 

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/04/21/6508369-how-to-disable-your-iphones-creepy-tracking-feature

[instudiocity]

I downloaded the software to read my iPhone. While it has me in places I go, frequently. It also slows points where I have never been or haven't been in well over 10 years. So it's not 'absolutely' accurate data.

 

I was aware of all that, but read the post again and notice that your perambulations are saved on the iPhone for up to a year. Then check out the application website, and watch the tracker follow your moves along with the date and time you were at each place. It's even smart enough to know whether you had a one-hour appointment or an overnight.

 

Betcha Daddy doesn't do that.

 

The GPS data collected by your ISP is (allegedly) available only for cause and only with a warrant. Your iPhone data can be collected by anyone who gets it (or your backup computer) in their hands. Interested spouse or boyfriend perhaps?

 

Of course, my life is an open book, but I expect there are some folks who are busy encrypting their backup files and chaining their iPhone around their neck.

[Lookin]

I downloaded the software to read my iPhone. While it has me in places I go, frequently. It also slows points where I have never been or haven't been in well over 10 years. So it's not 'absolutely' accurate data.

Again, from the link:

 

Why are some points in places I’ve never visited?

 

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.

 

Of course, if it shows you spending the day at the dog track when you were actually calling on customers, it could just be Apple screwin' with you.

[instudiocity]

the link[/url][/u]:

 

Why are some points in places I’ve never visited?

 

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.

 

Of course, if it shows you spending the day at the dog track when you were actually calling on customers, it could just be Apple screwin' with you.

The map shows me over 50 and sometimes 100 miles away from places I have been. It shows me in the middle of the Arizona desert between LA & Phoenix, but I've not been east of Indio in YEARS.

[Lookin]

Apple says it's a bug and all a big misunderstanding, and then proceeds to show they understand it very well by:

 

• cutting the stored data down to seven days worth

• eliminating it from backups to your computer

• stop collecting it when you have "Location Services" turned off

• encrypting it when you have "Location Services" turned on

 

They also said that some of the location data comes from cell towers that can be a hundred miles away from where you actually are, but neglected to mention that location data can (and often does) also come from a wifi point in the very same room.

 

The software update with the fixes should be available shortly. http://www.maleescortreview.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif