In other words 'Some apps or Apple services (e.g. MobileMe) may have to figure out where you are and send that somewhere'. This should be a no-brainer.
As one commenter said, it's just scaremongering for pageviews.
Of course, if you say yes, it also periodically sends data behind the scenes. Strange, but it's better than making this completely uncontrollable.
I presume my brother's iPhone 3gs correlated the wifi access point and his coordinates for someone when we opened the cabin this spring. This may be an "after the fact" license update.
Your wifi only being on sporadically isn't dispositive either. I took an Airport Express to a hotel once for a two-day conference, and for months afterward my iPhone thought my apartment in Seattle was in downtown San Diego.
I don't think you are going to find off the shelf gear to receive an Airport express through 12 inches of log, then across 1 mile of water with the surface of the water in the fresnel zone, I'm only about 10 feet above water level and the nearest land road is about 20 feet above water level. (The multiple paths from reflections off the lake create all sorts of cancellation problems.)
Even more unlikely, if they could sense my access point, they would still have to work out a vector and range to me since the nearest roads the other way are over the horizon. The road does not afford a sweep for meaningful triangulation. We are firmly in "zoom and enhance" territory now.
It doesn't have to be Apple sending data to Skyhook. I suppose any app with access to the location data and MAC address could do it. Or maybe Skyhook sent out a boat. Or perhaps someone manually sent the AP coordinates to skyhook.
More info: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4228
This likely means that this does not stop Apple from collecting the tracking information. They just will not use it to serve you the ads.
Yeah except, you know, when a user is in the exact same location every night for ~8 hours.
It seems people are more tolerant about Apple privacy issues.
Is it because the present issue is interpreted as a lesser issue?
I believe this is who Apple uses for 'Location' services. It's kind of creepy (privacy-wise) but what an impressive service.
