Apple has been facing serious backlash over iPhones sharing their location even with the setting turned off. The issue came into light after security researcher Brian Krebs made this flaw public. The company had been denying to comment until now.
Krebs came out with his query this week. He said,“It seems they are saying their phones have some system services that query your location regardless of whether one has disabled this setting individually for all apps and iOS system services,”
At first, Apple denied to comment on the matter. However, Apple has finally decided to speak. The company said that this was “expected behavior” owing to the new “ultraband technology” in iPhones.
According to apple, newer iPhones are coming with an ultraband technology. This technology gives the phones ‘spatial awareness’ to understand where other ultraband devices are. This can be used to share files via AirDrop wirelessly, which is just one of the many applications of this technology. The feature might be used in the company’s highly anticipated upcoming “tag”-locating feature, which has yet to be announced.
“Ultra wideband technology is an industry standard technology and is subject to international regulatory requirements that require it to be turned off in certain locations,” an Apple spokesperson said in an interview. “iOS uses Location Services to help determine if an iPhone is in these prohibited locations in order to disable ultra wideband and comply with regulations.”
“The management of ultra wideband compliance and its use of location data is done entirely on the device and Apple is not collecting user location data,” the spokesperson said.
Apple’s delayed response has lead to more speculations. Users are getting suspicious about the fact the Apple did not comment right away. Because of this, the matter got way bigger than it should have and is now a hot topic of debate between users.
Experts agree with Apple and have said that there’s no proof that any data is being sent to Apple. Will Strafach, chief executive at Guardian Firewall and iOS security expert, tweeted about this. His analysis showed there was “no evidence” that any location data is sent to a remote server.
Apple has announced the they will be bringing forth a new feature to toggle the setting on or off in a future update.
