Apple is facing pressure Thursday to respond to claims that its iPhone 4 saves sensitive location data, which are transferred and stored on the user's computer in a protected and non-encrypted format.
A Conference of technology on Wednesday, Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, two British researchers, said a program on localization of smartphone records information and timestamp, which are then downloaded to the hard disk of the user.
The news prompted several politicians U.S. to send queries to Apple requesting clarification, including Edward Markey, a Republican member of the Massachusetts.
"I am concerned by this report and the consequences of this functionality for the privacy of individuals," Markey wrote in a letter to Steve Jobs.
Markey has asked the company to explain the question of whether the reports are true, why the company has installed the software and how it intends to serve.
Democratic Senator Al Franken sent a similar letter Wednesday.
In an e-mail Thursday, a spokesman for the Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said "we are following this with interest.".
"The issue is location-based information, which can be very sensitive personal information," senior advisor communications Valerie Lawton wrote in an e-mail, adding that so far, the Organization had received no complaints.
Attempts to contact Apple were not successful, and the company issued a statement on the claims.
Michael Geist, University of Ottawa Law Professor, said that the software is a worrying development.
"I think that there is privacy and security that the information itself is stored in insecurity, non-encrypted, to be potentially vulnerable to hackers and to the fishing expedition by application of the Act," he said.
Geist, who also serves as the Advisory Committee of experts of the Canadian Privacy Commissioner, said that it was able to recover its own location data with its iPhone 4.
"It is astonishing to see literally everywhere wherever you've spent the last months plotted on a map," he said.
Allan and park wardens have set up a website describing in detail how the information is recorded, where he is and measures that may be taken to protect the information, including encryption of data.
In a blog on the O'Reilly Radar, a technology Web site, they said that the data collection feature seems to have emerged with the release of iOS 4 in June 2010.
Allan and Wardan said data is transmitted not anywhere elsewhere, but it is normally stored in an unprotected format. He is also transferred to a new phone from Apple when this device is synchronized with the computer.
"We are not sure why Apple is collects these data, but it is clearly intentional, as the database is being restored through backups and even migration of device,"they wrote.""
A BBC News Online article suggests users may be tacitly consenting to the disclosure of this information.
Apple publishes its terms and conditions on its website.
"We may collect information such as occupation, language, code postal, indicative, unique device identifier, location and timezone where an Apple product is used so that we can better understand customer behavior and improve our products."", services and advertising" the document said.
However, Geist said that society must do more to be transparent about how it collects personal information.
"We are talking about tens of millions of people who are affected." Even if it is in the strict letter of the law, I think that goes outside the expectation of most consumers, "he says.
Geist said that wait to see the Governments in the United States and the Canada take a more active role in the coming days.
"I think that we will see real action here," he said.
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