Microsoft: Windows Phone 7 doesn’t store your location

Microsoft guarantees that smartphones with its Windows Phone 7 operating system doesn’t store location history like iOS and Android devices do, PCMag reports.

That’s good news for the small handful of users with Windows Phone 7 devices.

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Microsoft was the only manufacturer that answered PCMag’s query about storing the location. PCMag also contacted Nokia, RIM, HP and Google about storing the user’s location information but they didn’t answer.

The location storing issue came into light last week when researchers reported that Apple’s iOS devices store their location to an unencrypted file on the device, which is also synchronized to your computer. Steve Jobs responded to the news, saying Apple doesn’t track their users.

Android devices collect similar information about their whereabouts. Developer Magnus Erikson was able to extract the stored locations file from his Android smartphone. He shared his findings on GitHub.

Microsoft told PCMag that Windows Phone 7 platform also offers plenty of location-based apps. They all require approval from the user before they even start using location data. In addition, the operating system allows the user disable all location services if they want to.

Any good publicity is needed for Windows Phone 7. Its market share has been hovering below 10 percent . The latest figures from Nielsen reveal that 7 percent of recent acquirers bought a Windows Phone 7 smartphone.

That’ll probably change when Nokia releases its first smartphones with Windows Phone in 2012. Analysts predict that it will drive Windows to the number two spot on the market by 2015, second to Android.