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This privacy policy looks pretty much like it’s in reference to the fact that the iPhone (and to a lesser extent, Mac OS X/Safari, using geolocation with IP addresses) can report where you are.
So, for example, when you look up your location with the Maps app on the iPhone, Apple, by definition, has to transmit your location to Google. They are just disclosing this explicitly instead of just assuming the pop-up dialog box, as well as just the fact that this has to happen to show your location on a map to begin with, is enough to clue you in.
And, of course, iOS will tell other apps (all must request this, even Apple’s own apps) where you are, if they ask. These, the built in Maps app, and iAds, are almost certainly what this is about. It would be strange for Jobs to make such a big deal about privacy and add features to iOS 4 to make sure you know when you’re being tracked, just to blatantly spy on you otherwise.
Or maybe not, I don’t know. But it’s far more rational than thinking that Apple is going to spy on you, and hand your location over to whoever asks/pays (such as the FBI, like the troll above claimed). Hell, the fact that they state the information won’t be personally identifiable pretty much negates any value the data would be to an organization like the FBI in the first place.
The funny thing is, it looks like Apple is trying to be completely honest about their privacy policy (unlike how online services tend to be, with all the blundering by Facebook, for example, or the statements from people like Scott McNealy and Eric Schmidt about privacy, etc.), and the honesty is biting them in the ass, whereas instead if they just kept their mouth shut, they could do much worse (i.e., what the tinfoilers here are imagining) and nobody would ever know.
”node3 slashdot
