iPhone 11 Pro found to collect location data even when you tell it not to

Apple announced the iOS 13 with enhanced privacy settings, but apparently it still tracks your location, even when the Location Services is turned off for all apps and features. According to Brian Krebs, the iPhone 11 Pro keeps pinging its GPS module to gather location data and doesn’t even hide it - the arrow in the notification bar appears shamelessly.

According to Apple’s Privacy policy, the phone will periodically send the geo-tagged location of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form. However, the company states it can be disabled systematically app by app.

Sadly, the video by Krebs reveals that even tapping Off to every app, and then turning off data reception, the GPS still pings a mysterious server when it is back online.

In a statement, a company engineer revealed the company doesn’t see any actual security risks. The arrow popping up is an “expected behavior”, however “the icon appears for system services that do not have a switch in Settings”, raising the major question is Apple hiding something from its users since there are features that cannot be turned off.

Source