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IOS Operating Systems Privacy Software Apple Technology

iOS 12 Will Automatically Share Your iPhone Location With 911 Centers (phonedog.com) 69

Posted by BeauHD from the hands-free dept.
Apple has revealed a new feature that's coming to the next version of iOS. With iOS 12, iPhone owners will be able to automatically share their location data when they dial 911. PhoneDog reports: Apple explains that it'll use RapidSOS's IP-based data pipeline to securely share an iPhone owner's HELO (Hybridized Emergency Location) info when they call 911 call centers. This system will integrate with many 911 call centers' existing software. HELO data estimates a 911 caller's location data using cell towers as well as features like GPS and Wi-Fi access points. Apple began using HELO in 2015, but by utilizing RapidSOS's tech, too, it should make it much easier and faster for a 911 call center to locate a caller.
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iOS 12 Will Automatically Share Your iPhone Location With 911 Centers More

iOS 12 Will Automatically Share Your iPhone Location With 911 Centers

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  • I mean, am I the only one that didn't assume that calling 911 would already be tripping and sending GPS data?

    • Re:Didn't we all assume this was already happening (Score:4, Insightful)

      by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Monday June 18, 2018 @08:38PM (#56806552) Homepage Journal

      Nope, only the NSA gets that information today.

    • Many (not all, not most) cell systems these days will pass the tower location on to 911 along with an approximate distance from the tower, and an accuracy estimate expressed in percentage. (Tower location, 300 meters, 90% accuracy).
    • Apple sells your location to anybody with money. 911 call centers, I'm assuming, don't have it in their budgets to buy locations from Apple, so no, I wouldn't think they'd have your locations. Why would you think Apple gave that data away for free?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by elcor ( 4519045 )
        "Apple sells your location to anybody with money" - source?

      • Apple sells your location to anybody with money. 911 call centers, I'm assuming, don't have it in their budgets to buy locations from Apple, so no, I wouldn't think they'd have your locations. Why would you think Apple gave that data away for free?

        Prove it, or STFU, Hater.

    • Many assumed... but it never did.

      I'll always remember calling 911 about a head on collision where one car was upside down, and the person inside was pinned in place by their destroyed door. The operator was yelling at me that she needed a better description of where we were, and as I was trying to figure out better landmarks (we were on a small highway) she ended up hanging up on me. SOMEHOW I called back and got the same operator. Immediately she recognized me and said something like: "WELL WHERE IS

    • I mean, am I the only one that didn't assume that calling 911 would already be tripping and sending GPS data?

      Not the GPS location, but they would get your location within 10m by using cell tower triangulation, which your carrier has and sends with the signal as metadata one 911 calls, it is a part of the protocol and required by law.

    • Yes, this has been going on for years. When I started working in the telecom industry in 2008 this was available. The issue is that the 911 call triggers the phone to do a GPS locate. That can take up to 30 seconds to get a good GPS position and send it, and in some cases the 911 call might be disconnected in that time. We would get 911 calling the telecom to ask for a GPS lookup on a subscribers number because it didnâ(TM)t come through. At that point itâ(TM)s just cell phone signal strength
  • You know, the one that got stuck under the seat and called 911 but they couldn't find him and he eventually suffocated. Of course I have no idea whether he was using an iPhone or not, but there's at least a pretty decent chance he was.
  • did for PRISM with the NSA?

  • TFA is light on details (basically just the summary), but I'm a bit confused as to what makes this tech separate from the existing E911 tech we've had as a requirement for a decade.

    E.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_9-1-1#Requirements [wikipedia.org]

    Fundamentally, E911 Phase 2 was already going to be using device sensors when available I thought, and not just the triangulated position (correct to ~ 300m, but possibly not good enough in an emergency). Is RapidSOS just a service-mark for the engine calculating this

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sims 2 ( 994794 )

      I still don't understand how apple wasn't already doing this.
      I mean every basic phone i've had since at least as far back as 2005 has had the option to disable GPS but the option to disable GPS specifically excludes 911.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Re "Why not leverage the existing device data?" Why sell a city, state, counties, parishes on an existing service. Make them upgrade and pay in full for a new service.

    • That's what I was wondering about too. Awhile back, we ditched our landline and only kept our cell phones. Our biggest worry, since we had small children, was 911 access but we were assured that it would work fine. After a week, we needed to call 911 for our youngest child (we thought he was choking but it turned out to be a febrile seizure). I called 911 on my cell phone and they immediately knew where we were. This was almost a decade ago.

  • Doing their own thing? (Score:3)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Tuesday June 19, 2018 @06:31AM (#56808250)

    How does this compare with the ETSI standard for Advanced Mobile Location which Android has supported since 2015 and has started mass rollout in Europe?

    Is Apple going their own way here with yet another incompatible thing, only this time not at the expense of consumer convenience but rather at the expense of actual lives? The article is really shy on details.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      How does this compare with the ETSI standard for Advanced Mobile Location which Android has supported since 2015 and has started mass rollout in Europe?

      Is Apple going their own way here with yet another incompatible thing, only this time not at the expense of consumer convenience but rather at the expense of actual lives? The article is really shy on details.

      It's kinda-sorta similar, but that's about it. You have to remember that the emergency systems in North America and Europe are completely different. In

      • As long as everyone implements all systems that's okay. The last thing we need is fragmentation in life saving standards.

        One thing though, Europe's AML doesn't use the data layer, but rather uses the same system used for the underlying SMS service. AML works even when you're roaming without data or when using a voice-only SIM, and the underlying system does have prioritisation.

        Though I'm happy to be corrected about this if I'm wrong. I've only really scratched the surface of looking into it.

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