New App Aims to Erase Swingers’ Online Tracks

Who better motivated to help iPhone users protect their privacy than a service that helps married people have affairs?

After Apple admitted last week that software “bugs” in iPhones were allowing each phone to build a location database stretching back months, Toronto-based company Avid Dating Life got into gear. The company, which runs a dating service for married people called Ashley Madison, had its engineers create a free app called iWipe that would erase the phone’s location history file and prevent future tracking. “Because Apple didn't step up and do the job, we, being the gatekeepers of discretion, decided to step in,” said Noel Biderman, founder of the company. Apple has said that it will provide an update to its software in coming weeks so the iPhone will stop collecting the data when consumers request it. But Biderman said the company had no excuse for not taking care of it right away. His app took just 48 hours to develop, he said.