Granberry's Parlor
tomierna
(Admin)
– December 07, 2007 09:46PM
Politics. Don Granberry on the old Spork Boards was quite fond of talking about them, and here we continue on in that fine tradition.
Tony Leggett
(Moderator)
– April 21, 2011 07:50PM
Oh, ok. I think there's
quite a few people upset about that...
Including me. I'm not buying an iPhone/iPad until that "feature" is fixed.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2011 07:50PM by Tony Leggett.
porruka
(Admin)
– April 22, 2011 05:46AM
I can understand the visceral response to this, and can even agree that the data should be encrypted automatically in the backup. In the grand scheme, though? Tempest, meet tea pot. I'd personally be far more concerned about records that carriers keep which *are* more accessible to organizations such as law enforcement.
Ignoring the idiots that post every location-oriented detail of their lives (checking in "at home" on 4sq? Come on), there is legitimate reason for a device that touts location services to keep a rolling log of location information.
johnny k
– April 22, 2011 06:27AM
I like that Franken cares about the same issues that the EFF does, but he's grandstanding here. Apple answered these questions for Congress last year:
http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4055&Itemid=141
Would be nice if Apple said something at all this time. But they're small beans compared to EVERY CELL CARRIER, who all have this information for all phones - smart or dumb - and happily give it to the government.
ddt
– April 22, 2011 07:04AM
Wasn't Apple publicly stating that they were using cell phone tower triangulation and wifi location dbs for location services before there was GPS in the iPhone? Could this be the genesis, or related?
ddt
porruka
(Admin)
– April 22, 2011 07:35AM
Apple still does; it's a service called
SkyHook as the GPS in the phone is assisted, not full.
John Willoughby
– April 22, 2011 10:43AM
Homo Sapiens Sedentarius
I think that recent iPhones do have "full" GPS; the Edge ones might not. WiFi iPads don't.
I think that this whole thing is a bug. Not that Apple records cell tower-based location, but that it doesn't encypt/erase it. I'll be the issue clears up within the next iOS update or two.
Cloudscout
– April 22, 2011 11:50AM
˙pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ʎɯ ɥʇıʍ ƃuoɹʍ ƃuıɥʇǝɯos sı ǝɹǝɥʇ ʞuıɥʇ ı ?ɹǝʇndɯoɔ ʎɯ ɥʇıʍ ǝɯ dlǝɥ ǝuoǝɯos uɐɔ
Starting with the iPhone 3G, they have a full GPS capable of operating in standalone mode but it will also take advantage of A-GPS to get a satellite fix faster.
Tony Leggett
(Moderator)
– April 22, 2011 05:11PM
Let me clarify, by "fixed" I'd just like that information to be encrypted so that every device I connect to doesn't have a record of every knocking-shop/drug-den/satanic-cult that's accessible to anyone with half a clue.
That said I of course see the value of having a device that makes use of location data -
if my boat floated that way I'd like this app, for example.
I just think unencrypted easy to access data means it's likely to be abused by stalkers.
John Willoughby
– April 22, 2011 10:31PM
Homo Sapiens Sedentarius
I think its significant that Apple COULD record precise, GPS positions, but instead is only recording cell tower triangulation positioning.
Tony Leggett
(Moderator)
– May 11, 2011 06:53PM
Just silly or outright creepy?
I guess the pat-down of an 8-month-old might find "offensive materials" but I doubt they're going to be um, weaponised...
tliet
– May 11, 2011 06:58PM
The terrorists have won, we have surrendered our freedoms.
El Jeffe
– May 12, 2011 12:33AM
What a journey.
agreed. Now they will propagate to train and bus stations, malls, schools, etc. And no possibility of revolt by the peasants.
John Willoughby
– May 12, 2011 07:27AM
Homo Sapiens Sedentarius
I thought it was great that when the terrorists attacked us "because they hate our freedoms," the first thing we did was gut the Bill of Rights and grant the government powers that we fought a war to retain for ourselves. Both parties lined up and stole my childrens' birth rights.
Tony Leggett
(Moderator)
– May 29, 2011 02:42PM
Quote
Mokers
The tea party is not libertarians.
Fair enough. Not in the proper sense. They certainly aren't socialists, small "l" liberals, moderates or traditional conservatives either. The closest I can think of a way to describe them is a schizophrenic nutjob variety of libertarians.
I don't mean to offend the saner, nicer proper libertarians who just want some fiscal conservatism and not all the nutty tin-foil-hat social conservatism that the TEA party comes saddled with. That said, TEA party does stand for "Taxed Enough Already" -- and that is a core plank of being a libertarian.
Tony Leggett
(Moderator)
– May 29, 2011 05:59PM
DPBD!
From the Economist:
Australia's current politicians couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding...
Tony Abbott, our opposition leader is an "oppose everything" tea-partier and the rather brutal assessment that the main reason we don't have a carbon price because America doesn't (and if they did, we would).
Depressed because it's so true.
tliet
– May 30, 2011 01:00AM
I see the same thing happening in my country as well. We have minority coalition of the christian democrats (CDA) and the liberals (VVD) ('liberal' has different meaning here; they propose more individual freedom) and they depend on the vote of Geert Wilders' PVV "party for freedom" (brown shirts). The PVV is able to hold the whole government hostage. Our senate is even more fragmented, as the coalition don't even have a majority together with the PVV, so they depend on the fundamentalist christians (who believe woman should not be voting or in politics) for a majority (of 2 votes).
Tony Leggett
(Moderator)
– June 01, 2011 03:24PM
Cloudscout
– June 04, 2011 05:37PM
˙pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ʎɯ ɥʇıʍ ƃuoɹʍ ƃuıɥʇǝɯos sı ǝɹǝɥʇ ʞuıɥʇ ı ?ɹǝʇndɯoɔ ʎɯ ɥʇıʍ ǝɯ dlǝɥ ǝuoǝɯos uɐɔ
That is one of the most awesome news stories I've ever read.
Tony Leggett
(Moderator)
– June 05, 2011 12:58AM
That is fantastic.
