To use your security risk example, to exploit the stored location data would require resources. If the objective was to attack you or break in to your house, you could use the zero tech methodology of surveillance and seeing when you go to the gym or where you park your car at work, so they would know when/where the best place to attack you would be, which would also let them know when you're not at home and can ransack your house.
Random violence isn't predicated on knowing where and when your target will be somewhere, they just pick a target and wait until they're in a semi-private place. Targeted violence implies some planning and at the minimum the resources of one focused person.
There is a non-zero risk, but I think the actual risk is rather small. The people most likely to steal your stuff are looking to sell it. They might look at the contents of your computer or iPad for porn or possibly for financial/credit card information, but mostly they're just going to try to hock it for cash. I think it's going to be government agencies or corporate espionage who could have a use for this location data.
I see no sense to an iPad tracking location, though I can see Apple's rationale. It's a 3G device, it connects to cell towers, therefore the information is available so let's track it. That doesn't make it right, by any standard.
Like I said, I expect there will be a patch that will kill that file or put in better privacy guards, like encryption of said file. Myself, I've never enabled location tracking on my iPod Touch. Many apps ask for it, I deny them all. For example, The Weather Channel app wants to know my location. I have Cloudcroft programmed as the default. Half the time I access that app I am checking another city, so what difference does it knowing my current location make? Plus, if I told it my current location, it'd be off by 150 miles, which I find endlessly amusing.
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Random violence isn't predicated on knowing where and when your target will be somewhere, they just pick a target and wait until they're in a semi-private place. Targeted violence implies some planning and at the minimum the resources of one focused person.
There is a non-zero risk, but I think the actual risk is rather small. The people most likely to steal your stuff are looking to sell it. They might look at the contents of your computer or iPad for porn or possibly for financial/credit card information, but mostly they're just going to try to hock it for cash. I think it's going to be government agencies or corporate espionage who could have a use for this location data.
I see no sense to an iPad tracking location, though I can see Apple's rationale. It's a 3G device, it connects to cell towers, therefore the information is available so let's track it. That doesn't make it right, by any standard.
Like I said, I expect there will be a patch that will kill that file or put in better privacy guards, like encryption of said file. Myself, I've never enabled location tracking on my iPod Touch. Many apps ask for it, I deny them all. For example, The Weather Channel app wants to know my location. I have Cloudcroft programmed as the default. Half the time I access that app I am checking another city, so what difference does it knowing my current location make? Plus, if I told it my current location, it'd be off by 150 miles, which I find endlessly amusing.