“Apple just announced that the next version of iOS, 11.3, will enable Advanced Mobile Location (AML), which automatically sends your location to emergency services in countries that support the solution,” Már Másson Maack writes for TNW.
“This is a pleasant surprise since Apple had been weirdly reluctant to enable the feature as TNW covered last year,” Maack writes. “The company ignored requests to enable AML and didn’t reply to TNW when asked about it, while Google enabled it for Android way back in July 2016.”
Maack writes, “The European Emergency Number Association (EENA)’s executive director, Gary Machado, told TNW that he was happy with the tech giant’s announcement: ‘This is huge news for people’s safety. It literally means saving more lives. From spring onwards, both Android and iOS devices will be able to provide accurate location to rescuers. It is now up to the countries to deploy AML everywhere in the world.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As for privacy concerns, which we’re fairly sure Apple has considered given the company’s thankfully hardline stance on user privacy, the EENA’s website states, “The technology is dormant on the smartphone and the location sources (either GPS or Wi-Fi) is only activated when the emergency call is made.”
SEE ALSO:
Apple previews iOS 11.3 with new battery health features, ability to turn processor throttling on and off, and more – January 24, 2018
Emergency services organizations call for Apple to implement life-saving location feature – August 10, 2017