Apple Finally Talked About Why Its iPhone 11 Pro Is Tracking Users' Location

A few days ago, a report came out from KrebsOnSecurity saying that the iPhone 11 is tracking users’ location even after they have turned off the Location Service system, raising concerns that the smartphone may be sharing users’ location data without permission. After failing to address the report, Apple has finally raised its voice and given an explanation.

Apple stated to TechCrunch that the iPhone 11 lineup comes with an ultra-wideband tech under international regulatory requirements in which they must turn off the technology in certain locations. The company said:

However, it added that the process is carried out on the phone and it’s not tracking the locations of users if they have disabled Locations Services.

TechCrunch, though, reported that there will be a toggle tool coming with a software update in the future. Notably, Apple also responded in the same way regarding the last incident where people were confused with ostensibly offline settings and location tracking.

Questions around whether Apple is, in fact, tracking users arose earlier this week when Krebs released a blog post along with a video showing how he turned off location and settings for location services on an iPhone 11 Pro and yet the icon for Location Services still appeared in the Status Bar.

It was noted in Krebs’ post that this goes against the firm’s privacy policy and its reputation as the company prioritizing user privacy.

The on-going confusion around this issue can be because the iPhone maker does a poor job in communicating as well as responding to potential troubles with its products. However, its response to Krebs didn’t help. Apple said the arrow icon will appear for system services that don’t have their own switch in Settings, but that didn’t tell us what such system services were.

Furthermore, the tech giant once again didn’t respond to a comment request as Gizmodo contacted yesterday.