iPhone 11 Pro collects 'mystery' location data even if you try to turn it off
The new Apple iPhone 11 Pro has an interesting issue: it’s collecting mysterious location data from its users, even when it technically shouldn’t be.
Security researcher Brian Krebs of KrebsOnSecurity recently discovered that the iPhone 11 Pro was displaying the small arrow icon, which denotes the use of location data on iOS devices, even though he had turned off location data for all apps and system services individually.
This issue does not appear to affect any previous models of the smartphone or other devices using iOS 13.
Krebs reached out to Apple thinking it was an error. Apple support forums have been talking about this issue as if it was a bug since September.
However, Apple’s response confirmed to the security researcher that this was actually not a mistake. The location data remaining on after each individual apps location data was turned off was intentional.
“It is expected behavior that the Location Services icon appears in the status bar when Location Services is enabled,” said an an Apple engineer in a statement to KrebsOnSecurity “The icon appears for system services that do not have a switch in Settings.”
The engineer added that they did not see any security implications with the issue. They did not specify what location data services could be toggled off.
To be absolutely clear, it is possible to turn off location data for the mystery system services. If a user goes to settings and clicks the privacy tab, there's an option to toggle off location services completely. No more mysterious data collection! However, this shuts off location data for everything.
If a user wants to shut off location data individually, as shown in the video above from Krebs, but still leave it on for a few apps of their choice, they’re out of luck. This means there are some system services that collect location data that aren't listed in the devices’ settings.
As Krebs points out, Apple’s privacy policy for Location Services insists that along with completely shutting the feature off, “you can also disable location-based system services by tapping on System Services and turning off each location-based system service.”
It’s unclear if other iPhone 11 models deal with location data in this way as well.
Mashable has reached out to Apple for more information and will update this post when we hear back.
UPDATE: Dec. 5, 2019, 1:29 p.m. ET In a statement to AppleInsider, Apple says that the location services that are not being shut off are related to Ultra Wideband Emissions regulation. Furthermore, the company said this is being done completely on the device and it is not collecting this data.
The full statement is below:
"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. iOS uses Location Services to help determine if 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."
