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iOS 26.3 Adds Privacy Setting to Limit Carrier Location Tracking

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With iOS 26.3, Apple is adding a new "limit precise location" setting that reduces the location data available to mobile networks to increase user privacy.

iOS-26-Phone-App-Features.jpg

Mobile networks determine location based on the cellular towers that a device connects to, but with the setting enabled, some of the data typically made available to mobile networks is being restricted. Rather than being able to see location down to a street address, carriers will instead be limited to the neighborhood where a device is located, for example.

According to a new support document, iPhone models from supported network providers will offer the limit precise location feature. In the U.S., only Boost Mobile will support the option, but EE and BT will offer support in the UK.
  • Germany: Telekom
  • United Kingdom: EE, BT
  • United States: Boost Mobile
  • Thailand: AIS, True
This new location limiting feature also only works with devices equipped with the Apple-designed C1 or C1X modems, which includes the iPhone Air, iPhone 16e, and cellular M5 iPad Pro. iOS 26.3 or iPadOS 26.3 are required.

You can enable the setting on a compatible device by opening the Settings app, tapping on your cellular service, tapping on Mobile Data Options, and then toggling on Limit Precise Location. You'll need to restart your device when turning the setting on or off.

Apple says that reducing location precision will not impact signal quality or user experience, and it does not affect the precision of location data provided to emergency responders during an emergency call.

It also only limits the location data available to mobile networks, and it does not have an effect on location data shared with apps through Location Services.

The new feature is available in iOS 26.3, which is being beta tested right now. The iOS 26.3 update will launch to the public in the coming weeks.

Article Link: iOS 26.3 Adds Privacy Setting to Limit Carrier Location Tracking
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/26/ios-26-3-limit-precise-location/
Last edited:
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MacRumors said:
According to a new support document, iPhone models from supported network providers will offer the limit precise location feature. In the U.S., only Boost Mobile will support the option, but EE and BT will offer support in the UK.
  • Germany: Telekom
  • United Kingdom: EE, BT
  • United States: Boost Mobile
  • Thailand: AIS, True
This new location limiting feature also only works with devices equipped with the Apple-designed C1 or C1X modems, which includes the iPhone Air, iPhone 16e, and cellular M5 iPad Pro. iOS 26.3 or iPadOS 26.3 are required.
Click to expand...

What a strange set of requirements. This is so bizarrely specific.
 
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I wonder how Boost mobile made the cut in the US? I was under the impression they were an MVNO. I'll give them a try, I'm very pro any privacy-related measures. We're all tracked to the nth degree, and until this article I didn't realize cell phone carriers had any special access beyond what their towers tell them.

Thanks for this article!
 
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ghostface147 said:
Wait so the carriers just do it anyways since they don’t support it?
Click to expand...
OK, so I've looked into this. The reason Boost Mobile is the only US carrier to support it likely has to do with the actual network.

Boost Mobile in the US is the only 5G-only network in the US built from the ground up without any legacy 4G-or-older tech. The big 3 carriers in the US still have tons of LTE towers that they've upgraded to 5G in places.

If you want to learn more, look into Open RAN and 5G SA, they can implement complex, software-defined privacy features through code updates and allowed Boost Mobile to implement whatever modem handshake the C-series modems use to indicate location privacy should be respected.

AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile are still largely "hardware-defined" networks meaning they can't just update software... they probably won't be able to offer limiting location precision anytime soon. I think I'll give Boost a try on my secondary phone... I always wanted to try them since their off-the-wall commercials back in the late 90s...

 
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US Mobile has no network, they rent network access from AT&T, T-Mo, and Verizon. So unless they first become a Boost MVNO (which isn't currently a thing) and then start offering a Boost-only plan without Dark Star roaming or whatever they call it, I don't think they'll be able to offer this anytime soon (as in ... if US Mobile ever offers it, I'd expect it to launch post-2030)
 
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macaddiict said:
OK, so I've looked into this. The reason Boost Mobile is the only US carrier to support it likely has to do with the actual network.

Boost Mobile in the US is the only 5G-only network in the US built from the ground up without any legacy 4G-or-older tech. The big 3 carriers in the US still have tons of LTE towers that they've upgraded to 5G in places.

If you want to learn more, look into Open RAN and 5G SA, they can implement complex, software-defined privacy features through code updates and allowed Boost Mobile to implement whatever modem handshake the C-series modems use to indicate location privacy should be respected.

AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile are still largely "hardware-defined" networks meaning they can't just update software... they probably won't be able to offer limiting location precision anytime soon. I think I'll give Boost a try on my secondary phone... I always wanted to try them since their off-the-wall commercials back in the late 90s...

Click to expand...

but...Boost also provides service via between T-Mobile and ATT.
 
macaddiict said:
I wonder how Boost mobile made the cut in the US? I was under the impression they were an MVNO. I'll give them a try, I'm very pro any privacy-related measures. We're all tracked to the nth degree, and until this article I didn't realize cell phone carriers had any special access beyond what their towers tell them.

Thanks for this article!
Click to expand...
They don't have special access indeed; it's just their towers tell them a lot. Depending on the cellular network generation the phone is connected to, they can acquire the IMEI of a phone (a type of extremely sensitive unique devide identifier), angle-of-sight between the phone and the antenna (to facilitate beam-forming, a technology to increase received signal strength), signal strength measured at multiple towers (phones are designed to connect to more than one towers at any given time to enhance connection resiliency and throughout), and more. Virtually all of these could be used to help determine device location, in near real-time.
 
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I am interested in how it will work. Carrier location tracking is based on their towers so how could end devices limit location tracking?
 
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platinumaqua said:
I am interested in how it will work. Carrier location tracking is based on their towers so how could end devices limit location tracking?
Click to expand...
This is why so few carriers are on Apple's compatibility list. For the tower not to collect the data, it must recognize a "flag" or some detail in the modem handshake that indicates no precise location should be triangulated. The only US-based carrier with a network that can support this flag on all of its towers is Boost Mobile, since they build their network from the ground up after 5G launched, so they're not held back by 20-year-old-upgraded-network-equipment that can't handle this kind of feature.
FatLouie said:
but...Boost also provides service via between T-Mobile and ATT.
Click to expand...
You might be (like I was) thinking of the Boost Mobile that was an MVNO itself pre-2024. Nowdays Boost Mobile is owned by DISH networks and have built their own network with an AWS-based cloud core that can handle software-based features like limiting precise location.
 
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Love it! We should be able to opt-in with warnings.. "I accept all responsibility for myself in exchange for not being able to be tracked as closely as possible"
 
macaddiict said:
I wonder how Boost mobile made the cut in the US? I was under the impression they were an MVNO. I'll give them a try, I'm very pro any privacy-related measures. We're all tracked to the nth degree, and until this article I didn't realize cell phone carriers had any special access beyond what their towers tell them.

Thanks for this article!
Click to expand...
Well for 911 emergency purposes I presume they can pin 📍 point your location based on the cell towers, so in a emergency I would want them to know my location.
 
Really useful feature. However I think it will take a long time for the carriers to support it, if ever. Also not many devices support it today.
 
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