iPhones and Android phones building vast databases for Google and Apple

iPhones and Android phones send back data about the locations of the users to the technology companies. Photograph: Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

Apple and Google are using smartphones running their software to build gigantic databases for location-based services, according to new research following the Guardian's revelations that iPhones and devices running Android collect location data about owners' movements.

iPhones and Android smartphones swap data – which does not contain information directly identifying the user or the phone – back and forth with their respective companies if the user agrees to use "location services".

The news has led some European governments to announce investigations into whether Apple is breaking privacy laws.

Samy Kamkar, a hacker and researcher, has shown that Android phones, which run on software written by Google, collect the location data every few seconds and store it in a local file, but also transmit it to Google several times an hour.

This functionality is almost certainly used in any phone that provides mapping services, meaning that similar files will exist in some form on all smartphones, including those from Nokia and BlackBerry-maker RIM. It is not known whether these models synchronise data from the phone to the companies' servers as well as storing it locally on the handset.

Sources familiar with Google's systems said the location data was used to help the phones orient themselves by identifying nearby mobile phone masts and wi-fi sources and comparing them with Google's own database, with which they are synchronised continually. The file is also updated so that if the mobile signal is interrupted – for example when the user is on a train and goes into a tunnel – it will be able to re-establish contact more quickly by knowing which towers are in the vicinity.

Apple and Google are collecting the data, which amounts to an international map of the locations and unique identities of cell towers and wi-fi networks, to improve targeting of their adverts based around mobile phones.

In a letter to the US congress last July, Apple confirmed it collected the data and said that, in order to be useful, "the databases [of tower and network locations] must be updated continuously".

The value of location-based services, which feature advertising, is reckoned to be $2.9bn (£1.75bn) already and forecast by the research group Gartner to grow to $8.3bn by 2014.

In 2009, Google itself pointed to the value for users of having Android phones upload real-time location data to its servers, suggesting it could give "a pretty good picture of live traffic conditions". It said: "We continuously combine this data and send it back to you for free in the Google Maps traffic layers. It takes almost zero effort on your part – just turn on Google Maps for mobile before starting your car."

A Google spokesman said Android phones explicitly asked to collect anonymous location data when users turned them on.

Apple iPhones and iPads also ask whether users want to have "location services" turned on, and the iPhone licence has a passage that says Apple "and its partners and licensees" may transmit, collect, maintain, process and use location data, including the real-time geographic location of the iPhone, though it points out that this is anonymised and can be disabled by turning off the "location services" feature.

However, even if users disable location services, the iPhone and Android phones are believed to continue storing locations of cell towers and wi-fi networks in what is known as a "neighbour list".

Google's list is limited to the most recent 50 cell masts and 200 wi-fi networks, while Apple's list is retained for up to a year. Sources close to Apple have suggested the long-term retention may be an error which it will correct in a future software update.

Privacy advocates fear that although the data is anonymised, the Apple data is not encrypted and could be misused by law enforcement or others who wanted to capture information about someone's movements.

One security researcher, Alex Levinson of Katana Forensics, said on Thursday that US law enforcement had already made use of the location data recorded by the iPhone in investigations.

Some police forces, such as those in Michigan, already carry readers that can copy all the files from a smartphone even if it is protected with a password, and that it has been used on motorists stopped for minor traffic violations. The American Civil Liberties Union says such examination amounts to an "unreasonable search", which would be illegal in the US.

In Germany, the Bavarian Agency for the Supervision of Data Protection said it would examine whether and why Apple's devices were capturing the information, and that it had asked Apple for more information.

"If it is true that this information is being collected... without the approval and knowledge of the users, then it is definitely a violation of German privacy law," Thomas Kranig, the agency's director, told the New York Times.

Italy and France are expected to do the same. France's data protection authority suggested that a major source of concern would be over whether Apple transferred any of the data to any commercial partners. "If the information is marketed without the knowledge of the consumer, it is much more serious," Yann Padova of France's CNIL said.

• This article was amended on 22 April 2011. The previous version stated that some European governments had announced investigations into whether both companies are breaking privacy laws

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Android phones record user locations too

Google's Android software collects data about the movements of users according to a Swedish researcher. Photograph: Robert Galbraith/Reuters

Smartphones running Google's Android software collect data about the user's movements in almost exactly the same way as the iPhone, according to an examination of files they contain. The discovery, made by a Swedish researcher, comes as the Democratic senator Al Franken has written to Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs demanding to know why iPhones keep a secret file recording the location of their users as they move around, as the Guardian revealed this week. Magnus Eriksson, a Swedish programmer, has shown that Android phones – now the bestselling smartphones – do the same, though for a shorter period. According to files discovered by Eriksson, Android devices keep a record of the locations and unique IDs of the last 50 mobile masts that it has communicated with, and the last 200 Wi-Fi networks that it has "seen". These are overwritten, oldest first, when the relevant list is full. It is not yet known whether the lists are sent to Google. That differs from Apple, where the data is stored for up to a year.

In addition, the file is not easily accessible to users: it requires some computer skills to extract the data. By contrast, the Apple file is easily extracted directly from the computer or phone.

Google had not responded to requests for comment at the time this story was published.

Senator Franken has asked Jobs to explain the purpose and extent of the iPhone's tracking. "The existence of this information - stored in an unencrypted format - raises serious privacy concerns," Franken writes in his letter to Jobs. "Anyone who gains access to this single file could likely determine the location of a user's home, the businesses he frequents, the doctors he visits, the schools his children attend, and the trips he has taken - over the past months or even a year."

Franken points out that a stolen or lost iPhone or iPad could be used to map out its owner's precise movements "for months at a time" and that it is not limited by age, meaning that it could track the movements of users who are under 13. Another security researcher, Alex Levinson, says that he discovered the file inside the iPhone last year, and that it has been used in the US by the police in a number of cases. He says that its purpose is simply to help the phone determine its location, and that he has seen no evidence that it is sent back to Apple. However documents lodged by Apple with the US Congress suggest that it does use the data if the user agrees to give the company "diagnostic information" from their iPhone or iPad.

Apple has still not commented formally on the purpose of the file, despite repeated requests from the Guardian.

The discovery that Android devices - which are quickly becoming the best-selling products in the smartphone space - also collect location data indicates how essential such information has become to their effective operation. "Location services", which can help place a user on a map, are increasingly seen as important for providing enhanced services including advertising - which forms the basis of Google's business.

Eriksson says he uncovered the files after seeing coverage about the iPhone file. "Following the latest days internet outrage/overreaction to the revelation that iPhone has a cache for its location service, I decided to have look what my Android devices caches for the same function," he wrote at the site where he has provided computer code to examine the file.

(Updated: corrected URLs so that they connect to target pages.)

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Bnter Brings Conversation Sharing App To Android Phones, Launches Bookmarklet

We’re big fans of Bnter, an app that allows you to share your conversations with others publicly. The same way you share photos via the web or your mobile phone, Bnter allows you to share snippets of conversations you have with friends on the web. While the startup initially focused on SMS, Bnter recently broadened its scope to allow users to share any sort of conversation, including GChat, in-person chat, email and more. Today, Bnter is launching a free Android app (which joins an existing iPhone app) and is launching a bookmarklet, and in-depth Twitter integration

The Android app (which works on OS 2.1 or higher) is similar in functionality to its iPhone cousin and the web app, and allows you to read your feed of conversations and people you are following, comment, search and add conversations. And because it is a mobile app, Bnter for Android can pull your text message stream into the app so posting is fairly easy.

Bnter’s new bookmarklet, which you can download here, allows for posting conversations directly from open chats in GChat, Facebook Chat, Foursquare comments, GroupMe, Twitter and Campfire to your Bnter profile.

Bnter, which has raised seed funding from a number of high-profile investors including Founder Collective and SV Angel, has also added a feature for automatic Twitter import of mentions on the service. Bnter users easily post Twitter conversations by linking their Twitter account to Bnter, and can review all conversations in a drafts folder before deciding to post the most interesting ones to Bnter.

For the New York Based startup, this release has been somewhat of a challenge. As Sarah Lacy wrote last week, Spark Capital reportedly reneged on a termsheet offered to Bnter, forcing the bootstrapped startup to take some drastic measures (for example, co-founder Lauren Leto isn’t taking a salary) to continue the release and product development. It just goes to show that despite certain hardships and bumps in the road, founders’ passion for their ideas can help sustain a startup in the most trying situations.

Also, you can see Leto explain why she founded Bnter in this recent Founder Stories clip.

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