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iOS 12 Will Automatically Share Your iPhone Location With 911 Centers (phonedog.com)
Apple has revealed a new feature that's coming to the next version of iOS. With iOS 12, iPhone owners will be able to automatically share their location data when they dial 911. PhoneDog reports: Apple explains that it'll use RapidSOS's IP-based data pipeline to securely share an iPhone owner's HELO (Hybridized Emergency Location) info when they call 911 call centers. This system will integrate with many 911 call centers' existing software. HELO data estimates a 911 caller's location data using cell towers as well as features like GPS and Wi-Fi access points. Apple began using HELO in 2015, but by utilizing RapidSOS's tech, too, it should make it much easier and faster for a 911 call center to locate a caller.
I mean, am I the only one that didn't assume that calling 911 would already be tripping and sending GPS data?
Nope, only the NSA gets that information today.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
We will still be telling the NSA aboit your whereabouts, we just dont want you to know thats the only reason we are upgrading that
Federal pound-me-in-the-ass Penitentiary
Maybe now they'll be able to find out which phone keeps calling 911 from the repair center.
Why can't Apple also display the same geo-coordinates on the iPhone's screen during an emergency call, to give a caller the ability to communicate their location verbally when technical methods fail. Android already does this.
According to the Wall Street Journal, only half of the nation's 911 centers are integrated with RapidSOS, who makes their solution available free of charge to local authorities. As a result, there is a real possibility that a 911 call-taker will never see the improved location data from an iPhone running iOS 12.
Every year, the media runs stories about how some vendor or startup has invented the end-all solution for wireless location accuracy. But, they never address the real problem: many of the 9,000+ PSAPs (911 centers) cannot afford to upgrade to the latest technologies because state and local politicians have been diverting 911 fees and taxes to plug their government budget deficits. See https://www.fcc.gov/general/911-fee-reports
On an iPhone, alternate methods of finding geo-location coordinates (for example, switching to the Compass App or dropping pins in the Map App) can add to a caller's stress during an actual emergency. If Apple could display the hybrid location geo-coordinates on-screen during a 911 call, then everyone would benefit regardless of the 911 center's technical capabilities.
You know, the one that got stuck under the seat and called 911 but they couldn't find him and he eventually suffocated. Of course I have no idea whether he was using an iPhone or not, but there's at least a pretty decent chance he was.
Oh, probably not. You're also probably one of those people that assume that calling 911 on your cell phone will get you the nearest 911 center and that you won't be put on hold waiting for an available 911 operator. None of that is true.
Even better, the fact that Apple will be providing this information doesn't mean that 911 operators will ever receive it. I can't find up to date information, but apparently despite the information being made available, a large number of 911 centers can't receive this location data, regardless of phone provider. (And if you check the article, HELO is a standard Apple invented, so who knows how many 911 call centers can even receive it.)
911 is horribly broken in the US.
I sure hope cre!mer will finally upgrade from his old iPhone 6 and get a new iOS 12 phone.
This way, the emergency services can know in advance where he is and warn us in advance when he gets near us so we can flee.
Also, I still use my iPhone 6s and reduce my monthly bill from $80 to $50. As a phone and a video camera, the iPhone 6s isn't obsolete and I use it to make my videos on youtube. As a Sprint very special customer for 20+ years, Sprint will always give me a new iPhone for free if I decide to stop using the 6s as a phone in the next several years.
Bonus: get some silver coins, view recommendations on my special Youtube channel dedicated to the topic! They constitute a fail-safe insurance strategy for your retirement!
There are companies using your cellphone to track which aisle and product you are looking for at in a supermarket.
In certain areas where a person makes suicidal threats and becomes uncontactable the person location can be accessed via telco using there phone to quite reasonable accuracy.
Governments also have the ability in certain countries tries to push messages to cellphones. What else can they push?
Why isn't 911 an app? Expect more of your government! Wouldn't it be useful to have an Uber-esque display that shows how far away a cop is to you? If they have a standardized way of assessing the need for cop/ambulance/etc, wouldn't such a thing be better expedited by pressing a button? Why should you have to tell the operator your location when an app can just query GPS?
I guess only people who have ever had to call 911 in a life or death situation (I have) know that it sucks waiting 10 minutes for the police to arrive. (You might even say: They are entirely useless for doing anything other than filing a police report.)
Because you'd get upset when you're hiding under the bed while someone is invading your home and you see the closest officer stop at the local donut shop.
And why the other phone makers haven't also figured it out.
I, for one, look forward to the day when I can get 5G and say goodbye by Comcast.
I dropped the landline and ported my landline number to Google Voice years ago (The google voice number forwards to our mobile numbers.). My wife however, seems to be stuck in the 20th century and periodically tells me she wants a landline. Mainly, she says, so that when she eventually needs to call 911 they'll know where she is. She's called 911 exactly zero times in her lifetime, so what are the odds that she'll need to any time soon? And then somehow be unable to tell the 911 operator where she is?
/me thinks the odds are nearly zero. Maybe in another 30 years when a heart attack or something is a real risk.
So that'll be a plus if I can tell her she no longer needs to worry about telling 911 where she.
Don't forget to google: "average 911 response time"
People will read 18 minutes and think that is a joke somehow. No joke. It really is that bad.
I mean, am I the only one that didn't assume that calling 911 would already be tripping and sending GPS data?
One would also assume that a large commercial airliner carrying hundreds of humans 30,000 feet in the air would have a GPS tracker on it too, but we still seem to lose those fucking things in the 21st century.
For all the advancements in technology in the last few decades, sometimes I'm left utterly baffled at the fucking stupidity of certain systems.
Governments also have the ability in certain countries tries to push messages to cellphones. What else can they push?
They can push a turd back up your ass, you stupid illiterate sack of garbage.
did for PRISM with the NSA?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
18 minutes is pretty good. When I lived in the inner city I had 911 calls taking more than 3 hours to respond.
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And if you check the article, HELO is a standard Apple invented, so who knows how many 911 call centers can even receive it.
RapidSOS is not Apple-related, https://www.rapidsos.com/
It's all about money. A satellite system with GPS costs thousands to install and maintain and it adds weight with a very minor chance of ever being useful.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Three things that can make airlines safer overnight:
1) A transponder which relays GPS coordinates of the craft.
2) Parachutes instead of those ridiculous flotation devices.
3) Every adult aboard is issued a Taser for the duration of the flight.
This makes me happy. Is there something wrong with me?
RapidSOS looks like a lot of template garbage. Where is the link to their app?
"Will automatically" as the title suggests or "will be able to automatically" as the summary suggests?
"A transponder which relays GPS coordinates of the craft."
ADS-B is a joke. Designed by some idiot who didn't know anything about security in a modern world.
You can easily spoof ADS-B and say any aircraft is anywhere. The smart thing to do would have been to generate a SIGNED reply on the place and sent it out saying, "for sure for sure, here is where I am". The worst someone would be able to do is jam it.
But nooooo... The ADS-B protocol is open. You can broadcast out anything and the system will just read it in and naively trust it like Ken Ham reading the bible about god.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rapidsos.haven
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rapidsos.sos_beacon
Google apps available on Google Play. Apple just announced, and the IOS isn't yet released so it will be a while before you see an iPhone app, methinks. I'm not 100% certain but I think it's live on Android already. I know it's been in trials. Here's an article at Wall Street Journal talking about it: https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-tests-system-to-help-locate-911-callers-1518712754
Also I don't believe you will need an app anyway -- it's baked into the phone's firmware. Dial 9-1-1 and your phone will send your location to RapidSOS without you doing anything. The 9-1-1 call center has to have support for RapidSOS integrated into their call handling equipment. Not all vendors have integrated, but if the call center's equipment has the support for it, the service is free to the 9-1-1 call centers. The call centers just have to have compatible equipment and a connection to the Internet (or some other alternative access to the RapidSOS data center).
Disclosure: Even though I'm posting AC, I'll disclose that I work for a company that has integrated RapidSOS into our 9-1-1 product. Some time back we did a demo/test using a RapidSOS test phone. Our "person in the field" made the call from an undisclosed location. We tracked him to a Starbucks - and even identified which parking stall his car was in! This stuff is IMMENSELY better than what the traditional 9-1-1 call location technologies can provide.
My spouse and I both use iPhones - so today's announcement makes me very, very happy!
Many (not all, not most) cell systems these days will pass the tower location on to 911 along with an approximate distance from the tower, and an accuracy estimate expressed in percentage. (Tower location, 300 meters, 90% accuracy).
Beware of the Leopard.
TFA is light on details (basically just the summary), but I'm a bit confused as to what makes this tech separate from the existing E911 tech we've had as a requirement for a decade.
E.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_9-1-1#Requirements
Fundamentally, E911 Phase 2 was already going to be using device sensors when available I thought, and not just the triangulated position (correct to ~ 300m, but possibly not good enough in an emergency). Is RapidSOS just a service-mark for the engine calculating this? Why not leverage the existing device data? Simply force on loc settings using the existing low-level code that already handles 911 calling within all US handsets (which is what allows even a firmware-locked phone to dial out).
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
Apple sells your location to anybody with money. 911 call centers, I'm assuming, don't have it in their budgets to buy locations from Apple, so no, I wouldn't think they'd have your locations. Why would you think Apple gave that data away for free?
I don't respond to AC's.
Former Marine here.
1) Yes.
2) Hardly. The movies make parachuting look easy. 'Tis not so easy. Parachuting may save a few people, as they MAY get "lucky", but parachuting is no joke, takes tons of training, and parachuting into water (overseas flights) is a whole 'nother animal, a skill which takes mucho practice on top of already being in outstanding physical condition. A wet chute will drag you under and drown you in half a heartbeat as well as anyone else that happens to be near you. Now imagine this at night. Night jumps are difficult enough on dry land, let alone adding water.
3) And some tard goes nuts/kid gets hold of it/someone loses their temper
move along, nothing to see here. not news.
apple's just doing this as a PR move. perhaps to try to get on law enforcement's good side during their battle over device security...
it's the carrier's responsibility to send the e911 data, the handset maker only needs to support the feature.. and apple iphones already do.
So is this US only?
And other cellphone tower spoofers? They can now also put out a detailed map of everyone they eavesdrop on? Or is this purely initiated by the phone calling 911?
It'll do it whether you like it or not --you get no choice whatsoever-- but because it's being sold as a "feature" they're abusing the language to suggest it'll empower you so therefore it's good for you. It's an obvious but not at all white lie.
Wouldn't it be useful to have an Uber-esque display that shows how far away a cop is to you?
I'm sure a lot of criminals would appreciate that feature, yes.
No sig today...
This makes me happy. Is there something wrong with me?
Not at all!
But please report to the nearest goverment agency and ask if they will please use your body to demonstrate to others
the extensive but smelly process of how to push somebodys turd back up their own ass,
You might even get to enjoy a vacation with other people who also might wish to push stuff back up in your ass.
How does this compare with the ETSI standard for Advanced Mobile Location which Android has supported since 2015 and has started mass rollout in Europe?
Is Apple going their own way here with yet another incompatible thing, only this time not at the expense of consumer convenience but rather at the expense of actual lives? The article is really shy on details.
I'll always remember calling 911 about a head on collision where one car was upside down, and the person inside was pinned in place by their destroyed door. The operator was yelling at me that she needed a better description of where we were, and as I was trying to figure out better landmarks (we were on a small highway) she ended up hanging up on me. SOMEHOW I called back and got the same operator. Immediately she recognized me and said something like: "WELL WHERE IS IT THIS TIME!"
I once called 911 for an injury emergency after an accident while traveling across the US. I had pulled off the highway to rest for the night near Lincoln NE. I was near a park on the outskirts of an unfamiliar neighborhood and could not provide any info about street names, crossroads, landmarks, etc. I asked the 911 operator "are you receiving my GPS location?" She said "yes sir, stay where you are, someone will reach you shortly". And someone showed up within 5min. So yes, the data does go out, at least in this case.
lol, sure thing big man. they'd shoot you in the face and rape your wife as you lay dying.
No way this will get abused. "Send incoming 911 call-id call via shitty-spoofing-website, watch iOS freak the fuck out and send location data, profit".
I am a software developer at a major PSAP (9-1-1 call center) here in Silicon Valley.
While I can't speak for other PSAP's, we are currently programming a new feature called NG911. It includes this location ability, and also the ability to receive text messages directly from the caller.
The feature is not complete, and its release won't coincide with this feature from Apple. It has been delayed, since we have less funding now (sorry to get political here...but when you cut taxes, that reduces the operating budgets of government organizations including 9-1-1).
Also, NG911 involves the carriers as well, so a lot of companies have to coordinate in order to make it all work.
But we are working on it. :) It should be available in San Jose and the surrounding cities within the next 6 months.
*cues up Public Enemy's 911 Is A Joke*
I mean, am I the only one that didn't assume that calling 911 would already be tripping and sending GPS data?
Not the GPS location, but they would get your location within 10m by using cell tower triangulation, which your carrier has and sends with the signal as metadata one 911 calls, it is a part of the protocol and required by law.
Yes, this has been going on for years. When I started working in the telecom industry in 2008 this was available. The issue is that the 911 call triggers the phone to do a GPS locate. That can take up to 30 seconds to get a good GPS position and send it, and in some cases the 911 call might be disconnected in that time. We would get 911 calling the telecom to ask for a GPS lookup on a subscribers number because it didnâ(TM)t come through. At that point itâ(TM)s just cell phone signal strength data off the towers so not as accurate but it was the best positioning available at that point. It sounds like they think this system will be more efficient.
--
Luck is just skill you didn't know you had.