[Andy8]

Apple Secretly Tracking iPhone IMEI and Usage

WTF?

[shifuimam]

I wouldn't call it a "gross invasion of privacy" that Apple knows what apps you're using on a cell phone - if anything, this would allow them to know what's most popular with their customers. Anonymous usage statistics are gathered from just about any website you visit - including your IP address, where you came from, and where you left to surf to.

If you have a Google.com account and look up stocks on finance.google.com, they know what stocks you're interested in. In fact, if you look up stock ticker symbols online at all (even without logging in anywhere), I'm betting that Yahoo! Finance or whoever records your IP and what ticker you looked up. Does it really matter, though? It's not like Apple's going to say, "Oh noes you were looking up Microsoft stock we must destroy you".

And I'm doubting that Apple is keeping a huge database of all the stock ticker symbols that evey iPhone user is looking up with their iPhone. That seems a little paranoid. I would imagine they're just seeing how often an iPhone accesses the Stocks widget.

People forget that corporations don't care about individual customers - they only care about their customer base as a whole, so Apple couldn't give a sh!t what YOU as a unique, individual, human user does with your iPhone - they just care about what the total iPhone population is doing collectively.

[Cold Warrior]

very interesting

They could probably query the SIM too, if they wanted, and thus determine if someone is using an unpartnered provider (e.g., USA T-Mobile), potentially opening the door to a worldwide kill order.

Just a little paranoid thinking.

[CorpITGuy]

I wish they'd disclosed this a little better than just fine print. With most of the Internet media and blogosphere going after them, Apple would've been smart to avoid another mini-scandal.

[Earth Mk. II]

I don't know how I feel about a number that's engraved on the back of my phone, and already sent along the network with every GSM transaction, being used in a web query.

Look, all we know for certain is that there is some string being sent to phone-wu.apple.com. We may reasonably assume that it is the iPhone's IMEI number (Question: What does the iPod Touch send?); however, we have no idea what apple is doing with it, nor do we have any way of knowing.

The paranoid response to this is that Apple is using this information to correlate usage data to individuals, but it's just as likely that Apple is using it to prevent blacklisted IMEIs (such as those from phones reported as stolen) from accessing Apple provided services over WiFi networks.

That article provides plenty of evidence that the IMEI is sent, just as it is regularly sent along the GSM network; however, it provides none of the claimed proof that Apple is tracking usage data. Something more than a web query embedded into a URL is needed to tell us that.

[msuper69]

I'm not worried at all. I've fashioned a neat little silver foil hat for me and my iPhone.

[frdmfghtr]

You can put your tinfoil hat away now...

Rumor Smashed: iPhone Doesn't Send IMEI Information to Apple

[analogika]

I <3 Heise.

BTW, every single time you use your phone to access anything on the internet through EDGE, or make a call, AT&T secretly tracks your iPhone IMEI and Usage.

In fact, it's how they bill you.