DHAKA: Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has accused US technology giant Apple of threatening national security through its iPhone’s ability to track and time-stamp a user’s location.

The ‘frequent locations’ function, which can be switched on or off by users, could be used to gather ‘extremely sensitive data’ and even state secrets, said Ma Ding, director of the Institute for Security of the internet at People’s Public Security University in Beijing.

The tool gathers information about the areas a user visits most often, partly to improve travel advice.

In an interview broadcast on Friday, Ma gave the example of a journalist being tracked by the software as a demonstration of her fears over privacy.

‘One can deduce places he visited, the sites where he conducted interviews, and you can even see the topics which he is working on: political and economic,’ she said, The Straits Times publishes this report on Saturday.

BDST: 1340 HRS, JUL 12, 2014