If you're looking to protect your privacy while using any of the best iPhones, one of the most effective things you can do is limit how your location data is used. And with iOS 26.3 just around the corner, you'll soon have another way to keep your private data under lock and key.
That's because Apple is about to introduce a new feature in iOS 26.3 called Limit Precise Location. As the name implies, this is designed to reduce the information that can be gleaned from your location, and instead provides much more vague data to cellular providers.
In a new support document on Apple's website, the company outlines how Limit Precise Location works. After explaining that your location can be pinpointed based on the cell towers your phone connects to, Apple says its new setting restricts the information that's available to carriers in this way. That might mean they can only determine the rough neighborhood where you are located, for example, rather than a precise street address.
Apple also notes that this new feature does not limit "signal quality or user experience," and it also doesn't hinder first responders, as they can still see your exact location during an emergency.
In order to use it, you'll need to open the Settings app and tap Mobile Service Mobile Data Options, then enable the toggle next to Limit Precise Location. Your device needs to be restarted whenever you enable or disable this feature.
It's worth noting that this new feature comes with some conditions. For one thing, Apple says you need to have an iPhone Air, iPhone 16e, or iPad Pro with M5 chip and Wi-Fi plus cellular connectivity in order for the feature to work.
Your phone must also be running on a compatible network, as detailed below:
- Germany: Telekom
- United Kingdom: EE, BT
- United States: Boost Mobile
- Thailand: AIS, True
[...] All of this means the new feature is having a somewhat limited rollout for the time being. But as more Apple devices start to use the company's C1 and C1X modems – the ones outfitted in the compatible phones listed earlier – this kind of privacy-preserving tool should become the norm for Apple fans. And that's great news for anyone who wants to guard their privacy just a little more securely.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by HeadlineEditor on Tuesday February 10, @01:54PM (2 children)
TFA is thin on details, as little seem to have been supplied by Apple themselves.
But the phone itself would seem to have little influence on how its location is determined by the carrier:
Enhanced 911 [wikipedia.org]:
Defeating any of these would suggest deliberately altering the signal from the phone to the radio tower. Not impossible, but kinda spooky stuff. The wiki doesn't mention it, but in practice the "Phase II" locating system used by 911 in the USA is often accurate to within 2 meters, though it's not required to be. [fcc.gov]
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 10, @02:29PM (1 child)
Even if you randomize your hardware addresses if you don't randomize everything at the same time others might still be able to trace you.
For example, if you also carry around a watch and earbuds that use bluetooth, imagine how much easier it is to track you. Your phone changes its address? But your watch and earbuds haven't changed yet, so they still know where you are, then they see bunch of "new phones" in the same area, after a while they can figure out which new phone is yours since it's in the same area as the watch and earbuds.
Of course even if you randomize everything at the same time, they might still be able to figure out which new ones are your devices but it's harder, especially if you do it in a busy crowded place. Or you turn everything off and then move to a different location.
FWIW I notice for some cars their bluetooth stuff stays on even if their radio/music player is "off". Makes it easier to track you, whether that's the intention or not.
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Saturday February 14, @06:36PM
Yeah, I agree that technique is limited in utility. Nobody is going to be fooled if there's one phone/earbud combo that's on a given trajectory and it changes into a new phone/earbud every sixty seconds and no other phone/earbud combos intersect with that. Such an approach only works when there's enough devices in an area to obscure the telemetry. If the resolution of the tracking system is good enough then it's completely worthless.
(Score: 1, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Tuesday February 10, @08:27PM (2 children)
So the carriers have to make their networks compatible with a feature that "restricts information that's available to carriers" in order for it to work. Seriously? What could possibly motivate them to do a thing like that?
It's not like they don't make money with this data, by either selling it directly or laundering it through an AI company's LLM.
(Score: 2) by corey on Tuesday February 10, @10:00PM (1 child)
Yeah. I also wonder what’s the motivation for Apple. Is it reputation as a privacy focussed ecosystem? Because this feature costs a fair bit of money, and capitalist companies don’t spend money on useless (to them) things.
I have location turned off all the time, and turn it on when needed. Most apps work fine. It also helps save battery power, which I need to do since I have an iPhone SE 2, which has a notoriously small battery. Still, lasts a day and a half.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 11, @01:18AM
There was a time where Apple had enough sway to tell the telcos to fuck off. They could have done things like allowing hotspot tethering without the telco charging extra for example, by hiding the additional devices behind NAT. Fundamentally they don’t care about the user. It’s just marketing and really they only market these features in countries where that is a marketing differentiator.
I guess the bigger point is if they are going to play along with telcos and not flex to actually protect users, what makes you think they would put up resistance to a government?
(Score: 2) by Bentonite on Thursday February 12, @04:35AM
during an "emergency", then the precise location is always available.
It's pretty much impossible to hide your location from the towers now due to beamforming, but assuming it's possible, why would you trust proprietary software that doesn't serve you, to not send the GPS location instead?