Apple

Apple did not respond to a request for comment. Google could not immediately be reached for comment.

Apple's iOS operating system does not appear to make geolocation logs readily available to applications, but storing records of an owner's physical meanderings raises novel security and privacy concerns. Not only is the log stored on the device itself (a lock code can easily be bypassed by forensics software), but it's typically backed up on the computer to which it's synchronized.

One concern is the circumstances under which law enforcement can gain access to location histories. Courts have been split on whether warrants are required to peruse files on gadgets after an arrest, with police typically arguing that the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unusual searches doesn't apply. (The Justice Department under the Obama administration, in a series of prosecutions including one in Nebraska involving a crack cocaine dealer, has taken the same position.)

In addition, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has publicly asserted the right to copy all data from anyone's electronic devices at the border--even if there's no suspicion of or evidence for illegal activity. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has blessed the practice.

All of this has led to a spike in law enforcement interest in the topic. Micro Systemation, a Swedish firm that announced last year the U.S. government had placed the largest order in the company's history, offers a course on how to extract "GPS information" from the "Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices." A now-deleted description of the course, retrieved from Google's cache, says students will "learn how to acquire data and retrieve GPS location" from iOS devices. O'Reilly Media, too, offers a two-day workshop on iPhone forensics for the princely sum of $3,500. (Police get a discount.)

Micro Systemation said in a post on its Web site that this week's news "will come as a surprise to most iPhone users, as their devices do not give any visual indication that such data is being recorded." But, the company said with some apparent glee, they're "no surprise to the developers here at MSAB who have been recovering this data... for some considerable time."

The U.S. Department of Justice has funded tests of which "mobile device acquisition tools" are most effective in forcibly extracting information from iPhones. Test results (PDF) for the iXAM software say it was able to "acquire SIM memory and review reported location related data." Another evaluation of a competing product called Mobilyze 1.1 (PDF) said "if the cellular forensic tool supports acquisition of GPS data, then the tool shall present the user with the longitude and latitude coordinates for all GPS-related data in a useable format," although neither report appears to have tested that feature. The U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, even pays for training for local counter-narcotics agents to learn about iPhone and BlackBerry forensics.

A book titled iOS Forensic Analysis ($59.99 list) published by Apress in December 2010 elaborates on how the information is stored. Here's an excerpt:

Cell tower data also has geospatial data. This data covers all cell towers that the iDevice comes into contact with. This list can be very extensive and can assist in