California privacy — The just-published California budget nixes the California Office of Privacy Protection, the first state-level privacy office in the United States and the source of crucial privacy assistance and information for Californians and California businesses. The World Privacy Forum is urging the Governor to reinstate funding for this critical office for Californians.

Important software update for Apple users — We have revised our iPhone and iPad privacy tipsheet to reflect Apple’s new software update for the iOS4 devices. We encourage all iOS4 device owners to update their software. Some device owners may also want to opt out of location sharing.

If the devices are left with older versions of the iOS4 software, the data stored on the iPhones and iPads will be unencrypted and can include latitude, longitude, when the location was visited, for how long, and the data could have been collected for as long as a year. Up to 2 MG of data can be stored, which can be a lot of location data.

Update — We have updated our tipsheet to reflect the new information that has been published regarding the Apple smart phone geolocation issue. Apple plans to make changes to its software to improve the privacy problems the tipsheet discusses.

Apple Privacy — Some of Apple’s products, including iOS 4 iPhones and iPads, have been tracking consumers’ detailed location information and storing the data directly on the devices. This raises privacy concerns, as the data on the phones and iPads is unencrypted and may be accessed directly. This tipsheet explains iPhone and iPad iOS4 geolocation privacy issues, including who needs to be most concerned about them, and what to do. Health care providers, overseas human rights workers, members of law enforcement and victims of domestic violence are among those who have special considerations and sensitivities to this privacy issue.