April 2011

• April 27th, 2011
• Jackson Parker

gps-google-iphoneA class action lawsuit was filed this week against Apple (AAPL) over the iPhone’s ability to track and store user’s location data. According to the lawsuit, filed by two men in Florida, Apple collects users’ location information covertly and the way they go about it is is a violation of law. According to the lawsuit documents filed, “users of Apple products have … no way to prevent Apple from collecting this information because even if users disable the iPhone and iPad GPS components, Apple’s tracking system remains fully functional.”

Apple’s stock tumbled yesterday as news of the lawsuit was made public.

The issue of iPhone location tracking made headlines last week when two researchers published a blog post that said iOS 4+ devices collect a users’ location in an unencrypted file known as “consolidated.db.” The consolidated.db stores user information including latitude-longitude coordinates and a time/date stamp.

The fact that Apple was collecting this user location data to serve up location-based services was no big surprise. But the researchers became concerned when they realized that this information is stored in an insecure manner, and transferred to a user’s PC when they sync their iOS device, whether they like it or not.

• April 19th, 2011
• Aurielle Destiche

Asthma is a very common illness. Worldwide, over 300 million people suffer from the inflammatory condition. Each year, is is estimated that over 250,000 people die from asthma attacks.

Asthma attacks are triggered by different things in different people. For example, my nephew always starts wheezing whenever he is near a grassy area such as a park or field. But his mother, my sister, only has asthma attacks whenever she is near second-hand smoke from cigarettes or cigars.

Because asthma attacks are triggered by different things in different people, doctors usually ask patients to track when and where their asthma attacks occur. Based on this concept, epidemiologist and medical anthropologist David Van Sickle has come up with a GPS add-on for asthma inhalers. Van Sickle’s company, Asthmapolis, created Spiroscout, a GPS based asthma inhaler, so doctors and asthmatics patients can identify the triggers of their asthma attacks.

When you have an attack and reach for your inhaler, the GPS tracking device will record the time and location of the attack; it can then either store or send the data to a remote server. It’s hoped that then a patient or doctor will be able to see patterns in when an attack happens, and what caused it–be it pollen or a chemical substance.

• April 18th, 2011
• Jackson Parker

Recently the FBI caught two building inspectors in Los Angeles County taking bribes in exchange for signing off on construction work. Now LA County says they want to start using GPS tracking devices to monitor all of their building inspectors.

According to FBI documents filed last week, the FBI bust involved an undercover informant and two building inspectors caught on videotape taking bribes in exchange for the approval of construction work. In some instances inspections were not even conducted. The informant paid over 40 bribes to the shady building inspectors. Bribes included cash, free building materials, free labor and, a free vacation.

Building and Safety spokesman David Lara told the LA Times that his department sent a series of recommendations to LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, including a move to use GPS tracking devices for all building inspectors in the future. “For us, it’s mostly about making sure our inspectors are where they’re supposed to be,” Lara said. “With the latest turn of events, it’s too bad that we’ve had to take that type of measure. But we feel in the long run it would provide better control for our supervisors.”

• April 16th, 2011
• Jackson Parker

GPS systems are very reliable, but they are vulnerable to jamming. North Korea was recently busted taking advantage of this fact. According to several news outlets and the top US military commander in Korea, Walter Sharp, North Korea has been jamming global-positioning-satellite (GPS system) signals used in South Korea for military and commercial purposes. Sneaky! Sharp was the first U.S. official to publicly confirm allegations of jamming made by South Koreans.

The GPS system jamming signals are interfering with both military and civilian GPS system signals. North Korea has been trying to jam mobile phones in the Seoul area, as well as GPS tracking devices used by South Korean military forces. Because of the jamming, some mobile phones both used by civilians and soldiers have not been working properly. Additionally, certain military equipment has been affected and has not been working properly, such as distance measurement devices used by artillery units.