Is your iPhone tracking your movements and keeping a secret file?

The Guardian newspaper has stirred up major buzz on the Web today with a report that two security researchers have apparently discovered that Apple's iPhone keeps track of a user's every movement and stores it on a secret file inside the device.

Moreover, writes The Guardian's Charles Arthur, the data -- which contains latitude and longitude and timestamp -- are then copied to the owner's computer when the devices are synchronized.

He says researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden have posted details on their blogs and on a website that addresses key questions.

Meanwhile, Gizmodo's Sam Biddle used the data he found on his phone to post a map that he calls "jarringly accurate" of his travels up and down the East Coast over the past year.

Biddle writes that the phone appears to rely on tower triangulation rather than GPS pinpointing, meaning it doesn't help to switch off "location services."

How troubling is this? Here's how security researcher Allan puts it:

"Neither Pete nor myself think there is any sort of conspiracy going on, however we're both worried about this level of detailed location data being out there in the wild."

Biddle says he has asked Apple for commentary.

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