Apple updated its privacy policy yesterday with some troubling language that permits Apple to collect, store and share “precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device” with the caveat that the data is “collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you.”  Hmmm.  So who ran this ad years and years ago?  And who was part of the company then and now?

Having said that this isn’t at a level to begin rioting outside the Cupertino offices or Apple stores.  Location-based services are the new, hip thing for service providers to pursue.  They envision a world of mobile advertisement where you walk down a street and pop open your iPhone and search for somewhere to eat.  In response, the iPhone shows you local restaurants with ads for each within walking distance.  Now, this isn’t quite up my alley as I’d probably have a plan already in place for where I want to eat, but similar scenarios could be drawn up (but I don’t have an iPhone either).  Then there’s the conspiracy theorists: you’re walking down the street and enter a T-Mobile store or a Dell store and all of a sudden your iPhone coverage dies out.  You leave the store and volia! it’s back on the grid.  Regardless, all of us have daily habits and patterns.  This includes when and where we use our mobile devices.  This data that is collected, anonymous or not, is easily tied to individuals or families – giving clear indications of where you live and work, how and when you commute, where you frequent for lunches or the gym you use.  As technology evolves, we as a society need to start thinking about what “privacy” really means and to what degree is that protected.

What might be most troubling in the whole change by Apple is that there appears no way to opt out of this but still be able to use iTunes.  A lawyer friend suggested that one print out the privacy notice, redline the portion about location data collection, storage and sharing to your wants and then mail it to Apple requesting approval of the modified terms and asking them to enable your access to iTunes.  Nice thought…not sure how it would work in reality.  It might solve some of the economic job woes as Apple would need more lawyers.

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.