Apple sued over recent iOS location tracking issues, Steve Jobs weighs in

Bloomberg is reporting on a new lawsuit filed against Apple today. The lawsuit is regarding the recent announcement that iOS devices (like the iPhone and iPad) track users' locations and then stores the information on the device in an unprotected file. That file is then accessible by anyone who has access to the device or has access to that device's backups.

“We take issue specifically with the notion that Apple is now basically tracking people everywhere they go,” Aaron Mayer, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said today in a telephone interview. “If you are a federal marshal you have to have a warrant to do this kind of thing, and Apple is doing it without one.”

The two plaintiffs, an iPhone user in Florida and an iPad user in New York, are asking a judge to force Apple to stop collecting user location information and are asking for a refund for their purchases. The users claim that they would not have bought the devices if they would have known about the location gathering issue.

Meanwhile, MacRumors is reporting that one of their readers has sent an email to Apple CEO Steve Jobs regarding the location gathering issue on iOS, and received a response. The user asked Apple's CEO to expand on why the company tracks users, and claims that his/her Motorola Droid does not track user locations. Steve Jobs simply replies that Android phones do in fact track users, which we reported a few days ago, and that the rumors circulating are “false.”

Q: Steve,

Could you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone? It's kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times. Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid. They don't track me.

A: Oh yes they do. We don't track anyone. The info circulating around is false.

Sent from my iPhone

Jobs in his email seems to imply that Android devices gather location data in order to track users, which is not the case on iOS.