Loopt, a location-based social networking service, will be the first third-party iPhone service to work in the background while you’re not actively using the app.
I thing there are two important things about this story. One is the fact that with special deals you can have your iPhone app working as a background app. This feature is not available to all app, in fact this is the first time I’m hearing one non-Apple app being accepted (n.b. see update at the end of the post).
Anyways, the question that triggered this post is: aren’t by default-on location based apps a concern to your privacy? While I like sharing things about me, sometimes about my location, I am concerned about location based tracking turned on all time. In my opinion, this sort of services should be permission-based on-demand only. What are your thoughts?
Update: Upon further investigation I must make an important correction: Loopt iPhone app does not run on the background. Their solution is using data provided by AT&T and has nothing to do with background tasks on your iPhone (basically AT&T is able to send over to Loopt your location info).
