New iPhone Privacy Feature Limits Carrier Location Tracking, But Irish Networks Not Yet On Board

Apple has introduced a groundbreaking privacy feature in iOS 26.3 that allows users to limit how precisely mobile carriers can track their location, addressing a layer of surveillance that has operated beyond user control until now.

However, no Irish mobile networks are participating in the feature at launch, meaning Irish iPhone users cannot yet avail of the enhanced privacy protection.

The new "limit precise location" setting reduces the accuracy of location data shared with cellular networks. Rather than pinpointing users to a street address through cell tower triangulation, carriers would only see the general neighbourhood where a device is located.

Unlike app-based location permissions that users can control through settings, cellular networks have historically tracked phones regardless of privacy toggles. Even with Location Services switched off entirely, carriers could monitor device locations through connections to cell towers.

The feature arrives following years of carrier mishandling of location data globally. In April 2024, the FCC fined Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon nearly $200 million combined for illegally selling customers' location information to third-party aggregators without consent. One aggregator, LocationSmart, had a free demo on its website that reportedly allowed anyone to pinpoint the location of most mobile phones in North America.

Emergency calls remain unaffected by the new setting, continuing to transmit precise coordinates to first responders. Apple services including Find My and navigation features also work normally, as they operate through the phone's location sharing feature rather than carrier networks.

The feature currently works only with devices equipped with Apple's custom C1 or C1X modems: the iPhone Air, iPhone 16e, and the cellular iPad Pro with M5 chip. The iPhone 17, which uses Qualcomm silicon, is excluded from the capability.

Carrier support remains limited at launch. In the UK, both EE and BT support the feature, alongside Telekom in Germany, Boost Mobile in the US, and AIS and True in Thailand. Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile are notable absences from the list.

Google introduced a similar capability with Android 15's Location Privacy hardware abstraction layer last year, though it faces the same constraint: modem vendors must cooperate, and most have not.

The development highlights a surveillance layer many users didn't know existed, one that privacy settings have been powerless to control until now.