Geek Posted April 21, 2011 Posted April 21, 2011 <div class="KonaBody"><p><img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/encrypt-ios-backups.jpg" alt="Encrypt iOS Backups and Prevent Movement Tracking" title="encrypt-ios-backups" width="481" height="224" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-15199" /></p> <p>This whole <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2011/04/20/track-iphone-location-iphone-tracker/">iPhone location tracker thing</a> is getting a crazy amount of attention, and everyone seems surprised that a mobile device with a gazillion apps that ask for your location actually keeps track of your location. But, if you don’t want your location tracked, all you have to do is <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2011/01/30/encrypt-iphone-backup/">encrypt your iPhone & iOS backups</a>. OSXDaily has covered that tip before, but here’s a reminder how to do this:</p> <h2 style="font-size:1.2em;">Prevent iOS Movement Tracking with Encrypted Backups</h2> <ul> <li>Launch iTunes and connect your iPhone or iPad to the computer</li> <li>Within iTunes Summary, scroll down to Options where you’ll see a checkbox next to “Encrypt iPhone/iPad Backup” – check it</li> </ul> <p>You’ll be asked to set a password for the backups and now they’re encrypted, meaning no one can read them without that password. This means that iPhone Tracker app won’t work. Easy enough, right?</p> <p><strong>Encryption is Good Anyway</strong> Encrypting your backups is a good idea for general security purposes anyway. The iOS backup files are <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2009/09/11/iphone-backup-location/">easily found and explored</a> without encryption, which lets someone with access to the files listen to your voicemails, <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2010/07/08/read-iphone-sms-backup/">read your sms messages</a>, and, as the recent hooplah shows, track your relative movements on a map.</p> <p>Encrypt your data and you don’t have to worry about any of it.</p> <p><strong>iOS Update to Resolve Location Caching</strong> While it’s a great idea to encrypt data, you probably won’t have to for long to stop the movement tracking. <a href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/04/21/andy-ihnatko-location-log">John Gruber informs</a> us that the storage of location data is simply a cache file that isn’t getting cleared, and will be fixed in an upcoming iOS update:</p> <blockquote><p>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.</p></blockquote> <p>In other words, encrypt your backups for now, and wait for an iOS update to cure it all. </p> </div> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/xMg8my8dnn3hRHGABdnTXN2Zozw/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/xMg8my8dnn3hRHGABdnTXN2Zozw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/xMg8my8dnn3hRHGABdnTXN2Zozw/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/xMg8my8dnn3hRHGABdnTXN2Zozw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=1v2RuRxV3pg:nuw8zHPH8rk:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=1v2RuRxV3pg:nuw8zHPH8rk:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?i=1v2RuRxV3pg:nuw8zHPH8rk:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=1v2RuRxV3pg:nuw8zHPH8rk:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?i=1v2RuRxV3pg:nuw8zHPH8rk:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=1v2RuRxV3pg:nuw8zHPH8rk:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=1v2RuRxV3pg:nuw8zHPH8rk:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/osxdaily/~4/1v2RuRxV3pg" height="1" width="1"/> View the full article
Recommended Posts