Is Apple tracking you? iPhone 11 can monitor your location at all times even if you opt out – and the company KNOWS it’s happening
- iPhone 11 Pro running on iOS 13.2.3 found to tracker users even if they block it
- Apple’s policy says it sends locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers (where supported by a device) in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple
- However, users have been told that they can opt-out of the firm collecting data
- Apple told the researcher that this is ‘expected behavior’ of the technology
Your iPhone 11 may be tracking your every move, even if you blocked it from doing so, a new report reveals.
A security researcher found that Apple’s latest smartphone periodically seeks the user’s location even when all applications and system services are set to never request.
The Cupertino company, however, is aware the handset collects location data and said it is ‘expected behavior’.
The discovery was made by Brian Krebs of KrebsonSecuirty, a source that conducts in-depth investigations into security issues, who found the issue occurs with the iPhone 11 Pro running on Apple iOS 13.2.3.
A security researcher found that Apple’s iPhone 11 (pictured) periodically seeks the user’s location even when all applications and system services are set to never request.
The tech giant’s privacy policy states that it ‘will periodically send the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers (where supported by a device) in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple, to be used for augmenting this crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower locations’.
Apple’s privacy policy regarding the iPhone 11’s Location Service states that users can disable all location services with just a single swipe in Settings.
If the option is left on, ‘your iPhone will periodically send the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers (where supported by a device) in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple, to be used for augmenting this crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower locations’.
However, Krebs claims that users are not able to turn off location tracker for certain services when using the iPhone 11 Pro – even if they toggle shows it is blocked.
Users can choose which applications and services can ask for their data using the toggles in Settings. However, the report finds that even if they are off, Apple can periodically seek your location data
‘Apparently there are some system services on this model (and possibly other iPhone 11 models) which request location data and cannot be disabled by users without completely turning off location services, as the arrow icon still appears periodically even after individually disabling all system services that use location,’ Krebs shared in his report.
Krebs contacted Apple about the issue and was told that ‘this is by design’ and it is ‘expected behavior’ of the technology.
‘We do not see any actual security implications,’ an Apple engineer wrote in a response to KrebsOnSecurity.
‘It is expected behavior that the Location Services icon appears in the status bar when Location Services is enabled. The icon appears for system services that do not have a switch in Settings’ [emphasis added].
However, Krebs is not sold on Apple’s claims and believes the firm has ‘some system services that query your location regardless of whether one has disabled this setting individually for all apps and iOS system services’.
