You know the drill by now.  Often readers will email the man himself, asking for clarification on various issues that may be surrounding Apple or their respective products.  Apple's CEO has reportedly responded to the tracking issue, in his usual fashion.

A MacRumors reader had emailed Jobs asking for clarification on the issue while throwing a slight hint about making the switch to Android if Apple didn't respond to the iOS 4 tracking controversy soon.  Not only did Jobs reportedly respond, but also turned the question right around saying that not only did Apple not track users, but that Android does, and referred to the info about iOS being bantered about in the media as being "false".

Here's the reported exchange:

Q: Steve,
Could you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone?  It's kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times.  Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid.  They don't track me.

A: Oh yes they do.  We don't track anyone.  The info circulating around is false.

Sent from my iPhone

As usual, there is little detail or info to backup the claims, and it seems to be a rather vague response.

While Android has been show to gather location information as well, however the database is limited to a much smaller list of entries and can be regularly wiped by the system.  The reported email from Jobs seems to claim that Google's location information is used in tracking users, and Apple does not.

Apple did respond to some questions about location tracking and privacy last July, making a note that users do have the ability to turn off location services entirely and that all location features do require explicit authorization from the user.  Though, The Wall Street Journal did discover that this newly-found database does get constructed even when location services are off entirely.

Should anything continue to develop on this front, we will certainly keep you posted!

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