Apple stores minute by minute iPhone location data forever? (Sins of the Mother)

[Anonymous]

Watching the riveting true crime Netflix series Sins of the Mother, I was astonished to learn that [spoiler alert] the bodies of her children were found because the FBI accessed the iPhone of her dead brother months (or a year?) later and were able to see that he spent up to two hours on a certain corner of one of the suspect’s properties on the day after he had taken an iPhone photo of the two children.

It’s no surprise to me that they could get location and time stamp in the metadata of an iPhone photo. But Joe did they know the exact number of minutes he spent walking on sections of an acre of land, to the point that his cell phone helped them pinpoint where to start digging?

So, so where on our phones there is a trove of data accessible to law enforcement (but not us) that shoes is precisely where our phone was at one particular minute one day last year? And for how long we stayed in that location before moving?

Obviously, there’s no app to show ME that information. Why isn’t this a HUGE deal and a massive privacy violation? (Or does everyone know this and not care?)

[Anonymous]

I think it is a huge deal and location privacy has tightened up some but not a lot. People should care more but most don't. The regulators are looking at it more and I think there will be tightening down on location privacy but progress is slow.