“As anyone who closely follows Apple can attest, the company tends to harp on user privacy whenever it touts new software features,” Yoni Heisler reports for BGR. “Not only do Apple executives genuinely care about protecting user data, a privacy-oriented philosophy also helps Apple differentiate itself from rivals like Google.”
“With iOS 11, it’s worth noting that Apple will give privacy-minded users even more of a reason to breathe easy.,” Heisler reports. “Specifically, developers this week discovered an update to the Location Services pane wherein every app will now include a ‘While Using the App’ option as it pertains to allowing location access.”
Heisler reports, “If history is any indication, iOS 11 will be released to the public this September just days ahead of the iPhone 8 launch.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Finally, the end of apps that only offer “always” or “never” location access!
There is a Calculator app for iOS that requests Location Data and any number of other apps asking for data that they o not need in order to function. What exactly is going on with all of that?
If the calculator deals with monetary exchange rates, I could understand. Otherwise, it sounds like marketing exploitation. Surveil the victim, oops, customer.
Some randomization and degradation of precision for the user’s location provided would be a real boost for privacy.
Have to make sure that function excludes emergency services or iPhones will become quite problematic for first responders trying to locate the owner.
The reason I uninstalled Waze is because it required constant use of my location.
Isn’t the point of Waze crowd-sourced ‘local’ traffic conditions? How would it know what ‘local’ is to you if it had no access to your location?
It should not ever track you when you aren’t using it. But, it currently does. No one should trust Facebook or Google at this point. You are the product these companies sell.
Doesn’t iOS allow you to set permissions to only when the app is running?
So glad this is finally offered!
Nice to see Apple implementing another great feature from Jailbreak apps!
Finally!!!!
Will Apple also allow users to uninstall unwanted default apps including the facebook and twitter integration?
The official word I read is that in iOS 11 the user can ‘Hide‘ Apple’s default included apps. Uninstalling them does not, so far, appear to be an option.
…Developers this week discovered an update to the Location Services pane wherein every app will now include a ‘While Using the App’ option as it pertains to allowing location access
Huh? That’s available in iOS 10.3.2. Here’s where:
Settings: Privacy: Location Services: [App Name]
Example: In flok I have these options which popped up as available to me the first time I ran it:
ALLOW LOCATION ACCESS
Never
While Using the App √ [My choice]
Always
Every single app listed in Location Services has at least the options of ‘Never’ and ‘While Using the App’.
Please bludgeon me into cognition.
The Nordstrom app has only two options, always and never. It does not have the while using option. This suggests that developers have set these through an API, but Apple has decided to control it at the system level.
OIC. Excellent revelation. Naughty Nordstrom.
The uproar was about Uber creepily tracking customers willy-nilly. I only used Nordstrom as an example.
Thank you. Uber still isn’t approved for my corner of the universe. But surveillance of users has been a perennial problem for a variety of devices and apps.