Some additional safety features are en route for iOS 12.
In a press release issued on Monday, Apple, outlined how iPhones running iOS 12 will be able to share location data automatically and securely with first responders when you dial 911. Apple says this will help reduce emergency response times by providing faster and more accurate information that circumvents “outdated, landline-era infrastructure.”
Per the release, roughly 80 percent of all 911 calls hail from mobile devices. This makes it a bit more difficult from first responders to pinpoint the caller’s location, as cell-phone tower and GPS data aren’t that accurate to begin with, and everything from physical barriers to weather conditions can throw them off even more. The FCC is requiring carriers to be able to locate callers to within 50 meters at least 80 percent of the time, although those rules don’t take effect until 2021.
The new safety feature gets ahead of the requirement and uses the HELO (Hybridized Emergency Location) system, which can triangulate a mobile 911 caller’s location using cell towers and sensors on the device itself, such as GPS and Wi-Fi access points.
In iOS 12, Apple will be using RapidSOS’s Internet Protocol-based data pipeline to “deliver the emergency location data of iOS users by integrating with many 911 centers’ existing software, which rely on industry-standard protocols,” the company said. Apple also emphasized that the data shared with HELO and RapidSOS would not be available to anyone other than the the responding 911 operator during an emergency call.
The feature will be limited to 911 calls in the United States and it’s presently unclear whether a similar system will be implemented for emergency calls in any other country.
Apple has also stressed that user privacy will be honored in iOS 12, ensuring that the data collected is available to only one party and for a very specific purpose.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via Macworld