CNETAnalysis: Apple CEO Steve Jobs has brushed-off the notion that Apple is using the location-tracking ‘bug’ in iOS to keep tabs on its users. The Cupertino-based company today admitted that the iPhone 4 does back up historical location data but doesn’t need to collect quite as much and promises to resolve the issue with a software fix Jobs, who remains on hiatus from full-time duty with the company due to illness, moved to dismiss the ever-present naysayers who suggest Apple might using the data for ill means. “We haven’t been tracking anybody,” he says. “Never have. Never will.” Investigation Jobs also chose the interview to defend Apple’s delayed response to the controversy, saying that they wanted to identify the essence of the problem before rushing out a statement. The stance has echoes of the antennagate fiasco that accompanied the launch of the iPhone 4, which also took Apple plenty of time to respond to. “Rather than run to the P.R. department,” Jobs says,”the first thing we always do when a problem is brought to us is we try to isolate it and find out if it is real,” “It took us about a week to do an investigation and write a response, which is fairly quick for something this technically complicated.” “Scott (Forstall – Senior VP of iPhone software) and Phil (Schiller – Apple’s marketing kingpin) and myself were all involved in writing the response because we think it is that important.” To find out more about Apple’s response to the controversy, see our earlier news item on the matter. Related Stories News.me app arrives for Apple iPad Samsung hits back, sues Apple in patent case Developers get the latest ‘iPhone 4S’ from Apple Big Grips launches childproof iPad cases Apple MacBook Pro set for complete makeover?
