Apple’s latest iPhone update (iOS 4.3.3) addresses the concerns raised by security experts regarding the automatically generated databases of user locations being saved to Apple devices and backed up via iTunes.
The new update now reduces the size of the location database—early reports had indicated that it may have held a year or more of location data—and will now prevent the database file from being backed up to your computer when you synchronize your phone with iTunes.
The issue was that anyone who had access to your computer (your spouse, your boss, your sitcom-style neighbor who pops over unannounced) could theoretically grab the file and use it to create a map of all the places you’d been over the past several months.
And perhaps most importantly, if you turn the Location Services feature off in your phone’s settings menu now, the location database will no longer collect any location data. It had been collecting data even if you had opted out of Location Services (GPS, mapping apps, etc.) in the past.
You can fire up iTunes to get the latest update, which is available for the following Apple products: iPhone 4 (AT&T version), iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, and 3rd- and 4th-generation iPod Touch devices.
Read More: iOS 4.3.3 Software Update [Apple.com]