Apple Refuses To Enable iPhone Emergency Settings that Could Save Countless Lives (thenextweb.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Despite being relatively easy, Apple keeps ignoring requests to enable a feature called Advanced Mobile Location (AML) in iOS. Enabling AML would give emergency services extremely accurate locations of emergency calls made from iPhones, dramatically decreasing response time. As we have covered before, Google's successful implementation of AML for Android is already saving lives. But where Android users have become safer, iPhone owners have been left behind. The European Emergency Number Association (EENA), the organization behind implementing AML for emergency services, released a statement today that pleads Apple to consider the safety of its customers and participate in the program: "As AML is being deployed in more and more countries, iPhone users are put at a disadvantage compared to Android users in the scenario that matters most: An emergency. EENA calls on Apple to integrate Advanced Mobile Location in their smartphones for the safety of their customers." Why is AML so important? Majority of emergency calls today are made from cellphones, which has made location pinging increasingly more important for emergency services. There are many emergency apps and features in development, but AML's strength is that it doesn't require anything from the user -- no downloads and no forethought: The process is completely automated. With AML, smartphones running supporting operating systems will recognize when emergency calls are being made and turn on GNSS (global navigation satellite system) and Wi-Fi. The phone then automatically sends an SMS to emergency services, detailing the location of the caller. AML is up to 4,000 times more accurate than the current systems -- pinpointing phones down from an entire city to a room in an apartment. "In the past months, EENA has been travelling around Europe to raise awareness of AML in as many countries as possible. All these meetings brought up a recurring question that EENA had to reply to: 'So, what about Apple?'" reads EENA's statement.

Comments

Not surprising...

[irving47]

They are joining you in showing "courage" in braving the wilderness or emergency situation on your own.

Re:Not surprising...

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

I'm all for defending privacy, but in a situation where a phone is already being used to call emergency services, giving an exact location is hardly an infringement, is it? You're not just calling them for a friendly chat. You're calling them because something bad happened and someone needs help, as soon as possible, wherever you are right now. Something that reliably tells the ambulance crew where to find a casualty even a single minute faster than describing their location verbally to an operator and having them figure out where you mean is surely going to save lives.

Re:Not surprising...

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

There are scenarios where you'd want to call emergency services but not reveal your location. They might not be very common, but they might still be very important. It's not unheard of for police department to be compromised by assassins. Why not ambulances too?

I'm sure that's a possibility, but unless you got the wrong side of Jason Bourne recently it's probably not something most of us need to worry about when calling for an ambulance.

On the other hand, ambulance services here in the UK deal with more than 100,000 Red 1 calls every year. These are the most urgent kind of medical emergency, things like cardiac arrests or where a casualty has stopped breathing. The target for an emergency vehicle arriving at the scene in these cases is usually 8 minutes, because the casualty's chances of survival drop rapidly if they don't receive that level of care by that time.

If you consider calls to all potentially life-threatening situations, which also typically have an 8 minute target, the figure is more like 50,000-100,000 per day. Although most calls aren't for something as serious as a cardiac arrest, there are many other conditions -- strokes, for example -- where providing care even a little faster can significantly improve a patient's chances of survival or a good recovery.

Not adopting a system that will get significantly faster help to millions of people with potentially life-threatening conditions every year because you're worried about a hit man infiltrating the ambulance service seems like a decision for movie script writers, not people making real world decisions with real lives at stake.

Good to see Apple stands for privacy

[Anonymous Coward]

As usual, these CONservatives hate us and want to spy on us.

Re:Good to see Apple stands for privacy

[arth1]

It's not so much about who, but if the feature is enabled to get accurate detection, someone will seek to use it, whether it's law enforcement, political regimes or other.

And quite frankly, it's not like emergency services are going to wait for SMS with location details - that would slow down dispatch for everyone, and cost more lives than it saves.

one side only

[zugmeister]

When you read an article that describes this incredible thing and all the advantages it brings, and how easy / painless it would be to implement, I kinda start to feel like a car salesman is telling me how cheap some car is. I suspect there's more to the story, and quite possibly a good reason Apple's not enabling this service.

Anyone out there have the other half of the story? I'm gonna go get some caffeine.

Re:one side only

[simplypeachy]

I'm sure if there was a good reason Apple refuses to enable it, they'd reply. To someone. To anyone.

Re:one side only

[Baron_Yam]

So far as I know, in Canada and the USA there's already e911, which is a system whereby the cell phone's GPS is turned on, regardless of the user's set preferences, and a GPS fix is sent to the 911 call center by the mobile service provider.

At least in Canada, this was mandated by law for all new phones (because the USA was doing it anyway, and we're effectively a sub-market of the USA so we were getting it anyway). It's also mandated in Canada that the phone companies pass along the e911 data, and that 911 call centers be set up to accept it... though I believe there are/were plenty of delays by both in implementing.

I'm somewhat confused as to whether AML is a different name for e911, or if it's an additional system that uses WiFi maps to enhance location services. I suspect the latter is the case, and Apple already has e911 which is, as far as I know, required by law, and they simply don't want to have to worry about paying Google for a good map of known WAPs. (Because you know Google would be the one that knows every WAP by SID and lat/long)

Re:one side only

[jellomizer]

Exactly.
Usually one sided arguments at least try to state reason why the opposing side has its ways (often rather lame, or goes into conspiracy theory), but that is better then just nothing.

Does this open up security concerns? Is this AML a new thing that will probably be put into the next version iPhone 7s and 8? Did Apple ever get the Specs for this? Could this conflict with something else...

Apple tends to have a slower development schedule then Android, and Apple is less likely to release partial implementations.
But stating it is easy, without actually knowing all the details, is rather stupid.

Re:one side only

[tlhIngan]

E911 and AML are different.

Basically, what happens is E911 embeds the location information in the control plane when you make a call, so it's the responsibility of the carriers and everyone to forward the data onwards to the emergency center.

AML is completely data and user plane. Basically, if you make an emergency call, your phone turns on GPS and location services (WiFi or other high-precision source). It also turns on data services (even if you have data roaming OFF, or do not have a data plan), and performs an NTP request to get the current date and time. It then takes that information and sends an SMS to emergency services.

E911 requires whole stack integration - mostly to get GPS data to the cellular modem so it can forward it on transparently to the user. AML is completely high level OS based - if you make an emergency call, the OS turns on cellular data and wifi, makes contact with NTP servers to set the local clock, then sends off an SMS.

Basically it's done because in Europe, E911 would be hard to implement because it requires upgrading the entire infrastructure to support it, while AML requires no upgrades since it uses existing infrastructure.

This is probably the reason why Europe has moved towards making roaming basically obsolete - because AML has the possibility for incurring charges on your bill which you cannot control. I mean, it would suck if you got into an emergency and then got hit with extra charges for the data use and the SMS. Especially if you do not have a data or texting plan where the per-use charges can be exorbitant. If you're a tourist, even more so - you witness something, call emergency services and now your phone bill is jacked up without you knowing. At $1/kb or more for per-use data, I'm sure people would be furious about it knowing they did NOT use any data at all except on WiFi. And likely same for SMS as well - foreign texting is expensive, and even more so when it's roaming.

So in the EU, because roaming is basically eliminated, it would get rid of the excess roaming charges from such data use and SMS use - you'd pay your normal rates regardless of where you are. (Of course, it's having issues because people would want to buy plans from cheaper countries since you can use it anywhere).

I would guess that they'd also waive the data charges too during an emergency call, but I won't know. I would also guess it could be subject to hijacking since it's just a normal SMS that is sent and we know of the SMS hijacks available with SS7. So it's possible for a bad actor to trigger the AML code in the OS and then trap the SMS that is sent to get a user's exact location.

Now Tell Us What You Really Think

[CanHasDIY]

Is it just me, or does this summary seem very one-sided and accusatory?

I'd like to hear Apple's rationale - too often, security is sacrificed in the name of "safety"

Countless

[sexconker]

When someone tells you something is "countless", it usually means they want you to believe it's sufficiently many to accept their argument, but have no evidence to back that up.

How many people would this actually save?
What is the potential for abuse?

Re:Countless

[93 Escort Wagon]

The article listed exactly one life purportedly saved by this tech when a Lithuanian boy called the local equivalent of 911.

But one life obviously scales up to "countless".

However this service is actually only available in "UK, Estonia, Lithuania and parts of Austria" - not the EU as a whole, which seems to be implied by the submission. And, since the tech is owned by Google, we don't know what other requirements may be involved... as I recall, when they were still the official map provider for iOS, they kept lobbying for more access to iPhone owners' location data.

Hippocrites

[jediborg]

Yeah cause we can trust that this advanced location tracking feature won't be abused by governments to spy on its citizens. Its not like apple had to stand up against the intelligence industrial complex of multiple nations and tell them that encryption is part of the right of free speech and they won't submit to weakened encryption, or assist governments in decrypting phones outside of due process and in violations of ones 4th amendment rights.

For non-americans out there: 4th amendment right is your right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Its a right that pre-dates and existed before the United States, is an unalienable right of all humans not just Americans, and if your government doesn't already promise/guarantee such a right in a written and binding document similar to the U.S constitution, you should demand one from your government!

Problem with emergency calls from Android

[Nexus7]

The other day I go to report a dangerous situation on the road to 911, the call goes through, then I go to turn the speakerphone on, since it is loud on the street, and.. well, I can't, 'cos there's this big bar across all that with a busy indicator, but eventually it gets my location and shows me a picture of where I am. So they crippled the phone app to let me know where I am?

Re:Apple will bow to pressure.

[spire3661]

ITs called 'Lib-er-ty' Specifically i should have the option of NOT providing my location constantly. Any smartphone that doesnt offer root by default should be banned outright, no exceptions. See i can spout unrealistic absolutes too.

Re:Now Tell Us What You Really securing?

[PPH]

What are people trying to secure?

Their location and identity in the event they are trying to report an incident anonymously.

they do?

[Maury Markowitz]

>Apple Refuses

So "no comment" now means "you refuse"? I think the civil liberties people would have a problem with that statement.

>Could Save Countless Lives

Given that it exists on Android, it seems extremely countable to me.

Another story with "Apple" in the title for teh clix.

Re:Apple will bow to pressure.

[Carewolf]

ITs called 'Lib-er-ty'

Specifically i should have the option of NOT providing my location constantly. Any smartphone that doesnt offer root by default should be banned outright, no exceptions. See i can spout unrealistic absolutes too.

Well, good because that is exactly what AML is NOT doing.... Fantastic, you can have everything you want and still be saved from a heart attack.

Re:It'll be in the next iphone

[Black.Shuck]

Remember, apple isn't a technology company, they're a luxury brand marketing company.

How does tripe like this get modded "Insightful"?

Apple make good things. Apple are good at marketing those things. One does not preclude the other, you know. It's entirely possible to make good things and be able to have a team of people devise a really good marketing strategy for them too.

You can even have those people in the same building at the same time, if you like. It's amazing, but you can have different "departments" within the same campus, with teams of people taking care of different parts of the business.

But I guess this doesn't satisfy our outlet for tribalism when it comes to technology. Or sports teams. Or car brands. Or your favourite fucking brand of socks.

If it can be abused, it will be abused.

[Sqreater]

Law enforcement and government will find a way to turn it on "for the public good." Sometimes you just have to stubbornly say no in order to protect rights, freedom, and privacy. Rights cost, not just on the battlefields of our nation's wars, but in our daily lives. Sad, but very true.

Re:If it can be abused, it will be abused.

[dwye]

Our government is filled with morally and/or ethically fallible humans.

Maybe yours is controlled by angels, although according to The Book Of Enoch 1/9th of all angels revolted and became/invented evil, so even there, a bit of wariness might be wise.

Re:In Europe?

[alvinrod]

I'm not particularly worried. Usually you only really need to worry when both sides are getting in on it as then you know its a real screw-job. I'll make sure to keep an eye out for arguments about the safety of terrorists. Then we'll know we're in trouble.

Re:It'll be in the next iphone

[JohnFen]

Personally, running on hardware of equal power, I find Android to be superior to iPhone (as long as it's not one of those modified Android versions that the carriers crank out). But the reality is that both operating systems are roughly equally capable, so which one a person prefers is more a matter of taste than of some sort of objective superiority.

Not a right in many EU country

[aepervius]

In many EU country not only you HAVE to legally report any incident , but you are under the threat of a prison sentence if you don't assist (e.g. unterlassene Hilfeleistung (failure to provide assistance) is a crime under section 323(c)). You have no right to report incident anonymously, in fact you have a duty to stay until the rescuer are here to take over, you have a duty to give possible help you are able to (as far as you are able). There are similar laws in some other EU countries (not all mind you). Pretty much why a few month ago when there was some old guy lying down in blood, and a pair of adult was a bit non plussed as what to do, I *had* to stop and help, help make the person warm, try to check if they had brain problem , etc... Until the ambulance came. Now I would have stopped , the law be there or not, because I see it as the moral thing to do. But even if I did not have that view, I was legally obligated.

Re:OnePlus

[scdeimos]

Links for reference:

• [IMPORTANT] Emergency Call Issue Resolved – What we learned.
• Here's why some OnePlus 5s rebooted when calling 911, and how OnePlus fixed it