When you upgrade from iPhone OS 3.1 to iOS 4, you’re greeted with a ridiculously long privacy agreement the first time you try to download anything from the iTunes store. You could scroll through all 45 pages on your device, or like I did you could just click agree and move on. But the folks at the LA Times actually took the time to read through the new privacy policy and found a couple of interesting changes.
First, the Big Brother news: Apple is collecting real-time geographic location of users’ iPhones and iPads. And Apple can share that information with partners and licensees. That means that third party apps may take advantage of that data to offer you geographically based advertisements, coupons, or other features.
Of course, that’s not entirely new. Third party apps have been doing that for ages — but only after asking you if you want to share your location. Now it looks like they may no longer have to do that.
On the other hand, Apple has also made it possible for users to disable automated cookie collection by opening oo.apple.com in Mobile Safari. This lets you block the new Apple iAd platform from monitoring your browsing behavior. That means instead of getting ads for products you might actually be interested in, you’ll get generic ads. But there’s something comforting in that sometimes.
via Engadget
