If you’re concerned about your privacy and location tracking via your iPhone, this might help.
Twitter user Brandon Butch has noted that the second beta of iOS 13.3.1, released earlier this month, includes a toggle for disabling the Ultra Wideband chip in the device.
The toggle can be found by opening the Settings app, tapping Privacy, tapping Location Services, selecting System Services, and then toggling off the “Networking & Wireless” option.
Apple incorporated this toggle in the new beta after it was discovered that the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max handsets continued to track user location even after location services had been disabled.
The company stated that this was expected behavior given the Ultra Wideband chip found within the new iPhones and that this was operating as designed. The company stated that this met designed expectations given international regulatory requirements that mandate the U1 chip be disabled in certain locations.:
Ultra wideband technology is an industry standard technology and is subject to international regulatory requirements that require it to be turned off in certain locations. iOS uses Location Services to help determine if iPhone is in these prohibited locations in order to disable ultra wideband and comply with regulations.
The management of ultra wideband compliance and its use of location data is done entirely on the device and Apple is not collecting user location data.
Apple at the time stated that the company would offer a toggle that would disable the U1 chip entirely, and that the toggle would be found within the public release of iOS 13.3.1.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.