Responding to the alleged accusations made by China’s state-owned television broadcaster, claiming Apple iPhone’s Frequent Locations feature to be a national security threat, the iPhone maker said that location-based data gathered is completely encrypted and stored exclusively on the individual’s device and that neither Apple nor any third party can have access to the iPhone user’s data.
Last week, Ma Ding, director of the Institute for Security of the Internet at People’s Public Security University in Beijing, in an interview with China Central Television network said that data collected through iPhone’s frequent locations function could include “extremely sensitive data” and even state secrets.
Denying the claims, Apple issued a statement saying that it has always been committed to protect its users’ privacy and that its location feature does not transmit any unique information related to the user or the device.
The iPad maker said that it has never worked with any government agency from any country to develop a backdoor in any of its products. The company clarified that it does not track its users’ locations and even never plans to do so in future.
Furthermore, the tech giant said that data gathered using the alleged location feature are encrypted and stored only on the user’s iOS device and are not backed up on iTunes or iCloud. Moreover, users can turn off the feature any time via privacy settings.
