“The new iOS 7.1, which Apple launched this week, contained massively improved iBeacon functionality,” Mike Elgan writes for Cult of Mac.
“Among these improvements is that Apple has cancelled an element of user permission. Once you’ve installed a store’s app — say, for example, Apple’s own Apple store app — that store can put messages on your lock screen even if the app isn’t running!” Elgan writes. “I think it’s a real improvement. But I’m surprised privacy fans aren’t freaking out.”
“In a nutshell, the improvements to iBeacon fall into two categories. The first is in the area of general performance. Overall responsiveness for iBeacon is much better than before, according to developers who have tried it. The second is in the area of permissions,” Elgan writes. “It’s a bi-product of the fact that the public doesn’t understand the magnitude of how iBeacon and beacon technology will change human culture that the techno-panic crowd isn’t freaking out about the update. In the past, iBeacon was opt-in. Now, it’s opt-out… You do have to install an app, though… You should also know that iBeacon beacons don’t actually track you or collect data from your iPhone. They can only transmit information TO your phone.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: People aren’t freaking out because you have to install the app and give it permission to receive iBeacons. The iOS 7.1 improvements only serve to make iBeacons work better for those who’ve enabled them. Before iOS 7.1, iBeacons were kind of useless. It makes perfect sense to allow iBeacons to be received when the app is installed, permission is granted, and the app isn’t explicitly running; otherwise users would miss the iBeacons they asked to receive.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
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