Do You Know Where Your iPhone Is? It Knows Where You Are

Have you ever lost your cell phone, even just for a few minutes? I'm sure it's happened to the best of us once or twice. Well, if you happen to have an iPhone, you may not always know where it is, but it always knows where you are. According to Apple's latest privacy policy, the company knows where all of its iPhones users are, all the time, and it's sharing the information with third parties.

Surprisingly, this has yet to raise many privacy alarms. It wasn't very long ago that we learned Facebook was sharing our user names with advertisers without our permission, and we were outraged. So outraged that the practice stopped, almost as soon as the media got wind of it. And Google is facing a privacy investigation for collecting user data from Wi-Fi networks in neighbourhoods across Canada.

So what's the difference here? At the very least, Apple is letting iPhone users know that their location is being tracked, as long as they read the privacy policy. Also, it seems many iPhone users (arguably) want their location tracked, because it makes iPhone applications run better. And Apple does promise to keep the information anonymous, but as one writer asks, if enough information is provided, how hard can it be to identify people based on where they go?The biggest concern iPhone users should have with this location-sharing platform is that they can't opt out of it. The only option is to refuse to accept Apple's privacy policy, but if you do that, Apple blocks you from downloading applications and media. Is that really an option for most iPhone users?

Another concern is that users have no idea who Apple is sharing their location with. We've told you about Apple's recent launch of its iAd platform, which is about to make geographic information very important to a lot of advertisers. That's because a lot of iAds will be using iPhone users' locations to tell them about nearest branches, nearby sales, etc.

With the launch of iAds, wouldn't it be nice if iPhone users could decide for themselves whether they want their location shared, and with whom? Unfortunately, Apple doesn't think so. At this point, if you don't like being followed, your best option is to go Android.