Apple today released iOS 4.3.3 for the GSM-based iPhone, iPod touch and iPad to address privacy and security concerns related to the use of a location database on the devices. According to the release notes, iOS 4.3.3 contains changes to the iOS crowd-sourced location database cache including:
- Reduces the size of the cache
- No longer backs up the cache to iTunes
- Deletes the cache entirely when Location Services is turned off
Apple released the update in response to a concern that iOS 4 stored up to a year’s worth of GPS coordinates in an unprotected file. Apple issued a statement later to indicate that it was not using the data to track customers and that it would issue an update to address what it called a bug.
Apple also released iOS 4.2.8 for the CDMA variant of the iPhone 4.
The updates are available through iTunes.