ALERT SUMMARY
1) Your iPhone is equipped with a feature called Frequent Locations, which slowly tracks your location in the background to keep you updated via the Today View and the Lock screen on how long it would take you to get to your favorite places based on how often you visit them.
2) If you choose to enable Location Services during the initial iPhone setup, this feature will be enabled by default, so if you feel like it is a slight hindrance on your ability to remain private, you just might be right. In the Member Action Plan below, we’ll show you how you can disable the feature and keep your iPhone from knowing where you are going next.
3) Significant locations takes location samples every so often to find out where you spend most of your time. It plots down the places you visit on a map, and the times you visit them, and uses the information it gathers to determine where you’re most likely to go based on your current location. From this information, it’s able to give you tips in Notification Center and on the Lock screen on how long it would take you to get to your next destination, whether it’s home, work, or something else nearby that you visit often. For example, this feature might tell you:
- Right now, it would take you about 10 minutes to drive home, or
- Right now, it would take you about 37 minutes to drive to work
Additional Alert Information
Not only is the feature creepy overall, but its usefulness raises a lot of eyebrows and its methods of helping you find your way home are questionable at best. After all, if you wanted to know how to get home, you’d probably just launch your Maps app for yourself without iOS tracking you in the background.
Disabling Significant Locations is a good privacy step to take for all of your iOS devices, and not just one of them. Keeping this kind of information off of your device helps ensure that your privacy is secured even in the event that your device gets compromised - hacked or stolen.
For additional details and Step-By Step Instructions on how to protect and respond to this Alert, follow the link below.
Comments