Steve Jobs: We Don’t Track Anyone

Apple has found itself in yet another controversy as it was discovered that the company was essentially tracking iPhone users’ locations on their devices. It is quite astonishing that people are stunned when they find out their phone has been tracking them. Each and every one of these smart-phones uses GPS technology. So the capability has always been there. Besides, Apple is not the only company that uses this practice to collect more data on its customers.

Conspiracy theories aside, Apple and Google are probably gathering all this data to improve their services and provide more value to their customers. This type of data can be used for geo-location based services and things of that nature. The funny part is, Steve Jobs does not believe Apple is actually pushing it with its approach:

We don’t track anyone. The info circulating around is false,

said Steve Jobs in respond to an e-mail claiming that Motorola Droid does not track users unlike iPhone. Unfortunately for Mr. Jobs, not everyone is going to buy that. A federal lawsuit has already been filed against Apple over this issue:

We take issue specifically with the notion that Apple is now basically tracking people everywhere they go… If you are a federal marshal, you have to have a warrant to do this kind of thing, and Apple is doing it without one,

said Aaron Mayer, an attorney for the plaintiffs. The problem here is most other phones do some tracking too. People who want their money back over this issue will not have an easy time finding a smart-phone that does not do a bit of user tracking. A can of worms has been opened for Apple. It will be interesting to see how Google and Apple respond to the pressure coming their way from the government.