Sorry, but you really don't know what you are talking about. There is much more to what Core Location does that what you are referring to.
You offhandedly dismiss an EXPERT in forensic software analysis in favor of a couple of amateurs who really haven't a clue about what they found???
This guy writes software for police and governments to examine cellphone content... for a living. HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT. Read the rest of the article before you dismiss what he has to say. He explains it and provides PROOF of what he says.
Further, this database does NOT keep what you claim... every time it logs the same location, it replaces the previous time you were there. It LOGS the location of the WIFI hotspot or Cell Tower radio, not the fact YOU were there and when is recorded just to know that newer data is to replace older data. It does not keep how many times you were by that radio point, just that you have been near that tower and the phone logged it... one record per radio source.
Not what I read. I read that the phone keeps a continuous log of everywhere you've been. If what I read was wrong, then I concede the point. If I was right, then I see NO valid technical reason for keeping a year long log of where you've been.
I've downloaded and run the program and can confirm that it lets me retrace my movements over the past 10 months with a scary level of precision. (Warden and Allan have obfuscated the data slightly in their application by showing information on a week-by-week basis, though they say that the data file it draws from goes down to the second.) The two scientists will be presenting their findings on Wednesday at the Where 2.0 conference in San Francisco.
According to Warden and Allan, the data seems to be compiled from cell tower triangulation, rather than GPS, which reduces its full precision (in my own investigation, I noted there also appears to be a log of Wi-Fi location data as well). My own map showed clusters around my home in Boston; the Macworld office in San Francisco, which I visit frequently; and other locations that I've visited in the past year, including Chicago and Houston. Zooming in further shows more detailed information, to the point of letting me isolate individual trips I've taken. And because the information is timestamped, you can theoretically even retrace steps on an extremely granular basis.
What technical reason justifies a 10 month track including WiFi spots? And cell tower triangulation can get you to within a couple hundred feet, not a few miles.