zlacker

There's an Ultra Wideband radio in the iPhone 11 and newer that isn't legal to use in all countries. Apple uses a location request sometimes just to determine if the device can legally run that radio or not.

>>ocdtre+(OP)
Thanks!

>>ocdtre+(OP)
It's nice of you to accept Apple's calling it "radio" but UWB is radar technology. Newer iPhones have radar built into them to make their location tracking more precise. Most people don't understand (or can't understand) the details, which is why the semantic load of calling UWB "radar" instead of "radio" is important for conveying its intended purpose.

>>ocdtre+(OP)
If that's the case, they wouldn't need to report the location back to themselves, would they? The phone would simply check its coordinates, and turn it on or off.

>>mankyd+t7
I don’t think anyone is saying that iOS does report back to Apple (and I don’t think there is any evidence that iOS does this).

The original concern was caused because iOS would still activate location services and display the icon during these checks, even if you had turned location services off completely in settings.

>>avianl+S8
That is exactly what the article is talking about.

>>fapjac+Q5
The RA in RADAR stands for RAdio. It’s like saying “light pointer” instead of “laser pointer”. For most people the distinction is irrelevant.

>>mankyd+ub
I’m not sure which article your looking at, but neither the OP article, or the Kerbs article suggests that Apple is collecting location data derived from location services on a phone and sending it back to the mothership.

The OP article suggests that IP data from the uploads could be used to estimate location, and their table has a “location” column. But that column seems to be referencing the fact that iOS reports when location services are turned on and off, rather than a specific location derived from the phones sensors.

This is of course ignoring opt-in telemetry which is used to improve maps etc. Which obviously involves sending your location back to Apple.

>>avianl+Wk
> but neither the OP article, or the Kerbs article suggests that Apple is collecting location data derived from location services on a phone and sending it back to the mothership

That is literally what the OP article is saying. Apple phones home your gps location even if you don't sign in. That's the claim of the OP article (really the claim of the paper the article is quoting)

From the paper: "iOS sends the MAC addresses of nearby devices, e.g. other handsets and the home gateway, to Apple together with their GPS location. Currently there are few, if any, realistic options for preventing this data sharing."

>>doctor+xe
You didn't understand what I said. I have an amateur extra license, and do a lot of volunteer work proselytizing for ham radio, working at field days, etc. For most people, there is a semantic payload with "radio" which conveys "communication" versus "radar" which conveys "tracking" (I imagine any semantic vector map would demonstrate this is true). The distinction is relevant, especially in the context of "your phone manufacturer is using this to improve its ability to track you in realtime". The UWB which newer iPhones use is not used for communication, because these frequencies are not suitable for that (yet?) in the environment. UWB is used for localization. Maybe there is some marketing material claiming that they're working on using it for "communication" but not anything like the conventional radio(s) the phone uses for communication.

>>mankyd+t7
This appears to be the case. From the linked article:

> The management of Ultrawide Band compliance and its use of location data is done entirely on the device and Apple is not collecting user location data.