ET iPhone home
Thrax
🐌Austin, TX Icrontian
Buried deep within the code of the iPhone weather and stocks widgets (There may be more), is a phone-home URL straight to the hipster overlords at Apple. The URL tracks your IP address, usage statistics and your phone's IMEI.
Perhaps the most concerning aspect is the transmission of the IMEI, which takes it from gathering anonymous usage statistics to personally-identifiable usage statistics. The IMEI is specific to each phone, similar to a MAC address for a network card, but is logged in your account information when you sign your life away to your mobile carrier.
When purchasing a new phone from your carrier, there is an activation sticker on the side of the box. It contains several barcodes, sometimes your name, perhaps some quantity of your account number, your new phone's number, the serial number of the phone and the ESN or the IMEI. If this information can be slapped on a sticker, you can guarantee it's in the great cosmic account cloud at AT&T.
Grab your tinfoil.
Perhaps the most concerning aspect is the transmission of the IMEI, which takes it from gathering anonymous usage statistics to personally-identifiable usage statistics. The IMEI is specific to each phone, similar to a MAC address for a network card, but is logged in your account information when you sign your life away to your mobile carrier.
When purchasing a new phone from your carrier, there is an activation sticker on the side of the box. It contains several barcodes, sometimes your name, perhaps some quantity of your account number, your new phone's number, the serial number of the phone and the ESN or the IMEI. If this information can be slapped on a sticker, you can guarantee it's in the great cosmic account cloud at AT&T.
Grab your tinfoil.
0