Is the ride-hailing app secretly monitoring you? No longer in reality, however this iOS function might make it really feel that method.
09 Oct 2025
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3 min. learn
While you land at an airport, you will be greeted with a notification to your telephone that reads:
“Welcome to [your location] – Open the app to get instructions to the Uber pick-up level.”
For privacy-conscious customers who best permit apps to get admission to their location whilst the app is in use, this may really feel unsettling. How may Uber know the place you’re for those who limited the app to get admission to your location best whilst in use?
After seeing the message a number of instances, I in spite of everything checked Uber’s permissions, sure it used to be set to just “whilst the usage of the app” on each my non-public and trade telephone. And certainly, Uber’s location get admission to used to be set precisely as supposed: “whilst the usage of the app”.
And but, each gadgets displayed the similar notification every time I landed, and getting this permission improper on two gadgets gave the impression extremely not going. (As an apart, why there are different choices past this one is baffling. Why do any automobile provider or meals apps wish to know your location while you don’t seem to be actively the usage of them – rather then to trace you for industrial causes?)
The one different explanation why for what some may view as a privateness infringement can be a function referred to as “Background App Refresh”, which permits an app to run and replace its content material even while you’re now not the usage of it. Alternatively, this is able to be towards the main of restricting location get admission to to just whilst the app is in use, and it kind of feels fantastic that any app, particularly on iOS, could be allowed to avoid the sort of basic privateness keep watch over.
So, how does Uber (and in all probability different apps) know the place you’ve simply landed?
The solution lies in a function referred to as “UNLocationNotificationTrigger” that Apple supplies to builders. This option permits an app to fireside a pre-configured notification when the tool enters or exits a specified geographic area, comparable to an airport. That method, it successfully circumvents the intent in the back of the “whilst the usage of the app” environment.
So, to reply to the query above without delay: no, Uber or different apps don’t know your location while you land. The notification is generated in the neighborhood to your telephone when it detects that you simply’ve entered the pre-defined airport’s geofenced space.
Alternatively, the notification’s wording is deceptive: it makes it really feel like Uber is actively monitoring you and is providing steering. Actually, it’s best while you faucet the notification and open the app that your tool stocks your location with the app.
There are official causes for geofencing, after all. For instance, a circle of relatives protection app might notify folks when their kid’s tool enters or exits a chosen protected zone comparable to a faculty or domestic. Or to make use of any other instance, a smart-home app may remind you to modify off the lighting fixtures while you depart the home.
Then again, the usage of the similar mechanism for what can best be noticed as advertising and marketing is, individually, an overreach. On this example, Uber is advertising and marketing its products and services once I’m inside the barriers of the airport. Believe strolling via a prime boulevard and having each and every store’s app ping you to return inside of, principally ignoring your choice to percentage your location best while you’re the usage of their app.
It will appear smart for Apple to tighten the principles round location-triggered notifications and prohibit them to non-advertising functions. This may make certain that the notifications are restricted to capability that serves the consumer and isn’t used for monetization functions.
