Apple iPhone Secretly Uploading Call Logs when iCloud is Enabled?

2016-11-18 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: Apple, Apple iOS, Apple iPhone and iPad, iOS, privacy, security

Where is Tim Cook’s voice on such matters? He seems to have time to express his views in other ways about non-business matters, so how about discussing this privacy issue openly and honestly? Deny it or acknowledge it, but speak up Tim.

According to IPHONES SECRETLY SEND CALL HISTORY TO APPLE, SECURITY FIRM SAYS at TheIntercept.com:

Russian digital forensics firm Elcomsoft has found that Apple’s mobile devices automatically send a user’s call history to the company’s servers if iCloud is enabled — but the data gets uploaded in many instances without user choice or notification.

“You only need to have iCloud itself enabled” for the data to be sent, said Vladimir Katalov, CEO of Elcomsoft.

The logs surreptitiously uploaded to Apple contain a list of all calls made and received on an iOS device, complete with phone numbers, dates and times, and duration. They also include missed and bypassed calls. Elcomsoft said Apple retains the data in a user’s iCloud account for up to four months, providing a boon to law enforcement who may not be able to obtain the data either from the user’s phone, if it’s encrypted with an unbreakable passcode, or from the carrier. Although large carriers in the U.S. retain call logs for a year or more, this may not be the case with carrier outside the US.

It’s not just regular call logs that get sent to Apple’s servers. FaceTime, which is used to make audio and video calls on iOS devices, also syncs call history to iCloud automatically, according to Elcomsoft. The company believes syncing of both regular calls and FaceTime call logs goes back to at least iOS 8.2, which Apple released in March 2015.

MPG despises iCloud not for such things (reason enough), but for its severe design problems and bugs, free to enjoy for anyone with more than one computer or iPhone.