iOS 13 Privacy: When Apps Use Your Background Location, It’s Now Shown on a Map

iOS 13 has a plethora of new features and currently, developers are plowing through the beta, digging out new additions in this latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system, coming this fall.

When it comes to privacy in iOS 13, Apple has added a new feature when it comes to apps using your location in the background.

iOS users normally can grant an app one-time access to your location or full-time location access in the background, which is a requirement for some apps if you want background updates based on your location. Weather apps and their ‘follow’ feature usually require ‘always on’ background location access.

iPhone users have never really known where and when an app has been using your location in the background, but iOS 13 has now revealed this in a very specific manner, by placing all the location data points on a map.

iPhone in Canada reader, Arshdeep, shared the following image below of the Environment Canada’s WeatherCAN iOS app. The pop-up explains the weather app has been using your location in the background and users are asked to take action. The prompt also shows a map with precise points showing where the app has been using your location in the background, when we can see below as near Kleinburg, in Vaughn, Ontario.

Ios 13 location data apps



Moving forward in iOS 13, users will be able to see exactly where apps are tracking them in the background, offering some transparency, allowing iPhone users to either kill location use in the background or to continue to allow it.

Apple is also set to introduce a Sign-in with Apple universal login, for developers to implement within their apps, essentially offering a more private way to register for an app instead of using Facebook or Google sign-ins.

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