“Emergency services organizations around the world are calling on Apple to implement a location feature which they say would save thousands of lives,” Ben Lovejoy reports for 9to5Mac.
“Advanced Mobile Location (AML) is a capability built into carrier networks which can automatically identify the exact position of someone making a emergency call with pin-point accuracy. Google added support for it in Android last year, but Apple has so far not responded to requests to implement it in iOS,” Lovejoy reports. “What AML does is recognize when an emergency call is being made, access the GPS and wifi chips in the phone and automatically transmit the precise location to emergency services.”
“While Apple is extremely hot on privacy, the the European Emergency Number Association – which represents more than 1300 emergency services representatives from over 80 countries worldwide – says that there is no issue,” Lovejoy reports. “The system is only activated by an emergency call, transmits the location only to emergency services and deactivates immediately after use. It is typically active for just 30 seconds.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The hacking potential is likely worrying to Apple, not to mention that the system is only in use in four countries to date so far (it’s rolling out in the UK and is fully deployed only in Estonia, Lithuania and the state of Lower Austria).