Steve Jobs claims Android, not Apple is tracking users

In an email, Steve Jobs responded to a random customer claiming that Apple isn't tracking anyone, but Android is.

By now you have probably heard that since the release of iOS 4, your iPhone and iPad has been secretly tracking your every move and storing that information in a file known as "consolodated.db" - a file that can be synched to iTunes. 

Keep in mind that the location information collected isn't all that accurate (based on cellular triangulation and not GPS) and there are rumors floating around that the issue will be treated as a bug in the next IOS release.

However, a MacRumors reader sent Steve Jobs an email about the matter, and he supposedly responded with the following, typically terse reply:

Q: Steve,

Could you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone? It's kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times. Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid. They don't track me.

A : Oh yes they do. We don't track anyone. The info circulating around is false.

Sent from my iPhone

As it is with most Steve Jobs responses of this type, there isn't much in the way of detail. It certainly sounds like he is implying that the location information collected by iOS isn't sent to Apple.

It also sounds like he believes Google does use Android to collect information on your whereabouts - something that has been more or less confrimed in recent days.

Apparently, Android collects location information in a database much smaller than Apple's that is regularly wiped by the system.

Either way, various government agencies are currently looking into the matter. Hopefully we will get more concrete answers on what is going on fairly soon.