Given the current world crisis of the coronavirus COVID-19, the Government of Spain is taking a series of actions that are included in the different documents attached to the BOE of the state of alarm. Among them, the geolocation of users through their mobile phones stands out, something that already happened months ago for other unrelated reasons. In this post we explain what it is and how you can prevent your iPhone from providing these data without your permission.
How and why do they track your phone?
There are several countries that are taking computer measures similar to those that the Spanish administration has taken in order to locate potential coronavirus infected. In fact, similar measures are already being studied in the European Commission. The fact is that the news spread like wildfire over the weekend, generating much confusion in this regard, since for sure few people know what this tracking really consists of.
In accordance with what was published in BOE A-2020-4162 of March 28 , we can find references to an application created by the Secretary of State for Artificial Intelligence and Digitization, which would have the purpose of helping citizens to carry out a self-evaluation of COVID-19 symptoms. Depending on what results it obtained, the data related to its geolocation could be sent in order to confirm that the person is in the autonomous community that he marked and what his movements are.
In any case, the anonymity of the users will be maintained under the state and European data protection laws, so the data will be encrypted and will be merely instrumental in determining some statistics. In no case will there be someone who knows data such as your phone, name or surname, so the privacy of each person would be guaranteed.
How to prevent your iPhone from being geolocated
For weeks now, there have been some apps and web services that offer diagnoses to users, despite not being considered medical instruments as such. However, the app dependent on the Ministry of Health and referred to by the BOE has not yet been published. Therefore, at the moment there is no possibility that an iPhone or any other can be geolocated through this method.
However, if you do not want them to track your phone, it would be enough not to use that application. In case, of necessity, you wanted to install it, you could prevent tracking by removing the SIM card from the iPhone. You have probably read that you have to set the airplane mode or the like, but it is not true. The only effective method is that the SIM is not in the device, since it is through this chip that the tracking tool is able to geolocate a mobile device.
Another option that you could manage if necessary is to not take the phone out of the house . With this confinement, except in exceptional cases, your outings should be limited to a short period of time. That is why perhaps it would not be essential for you to have to carry your iPhone with you. That way, geolocation would still be active, but the location that would be sent would be your home even if you have left home.
In any case, we want to emphasize that there is no problem with this . No one will use your data to sell it to third parties or anything similar. This medium is used as one more instrument in the fight against the expansion of the coronavirus. No one will know if you are skipping any rules because the data is anonymous, but please have a head and stay home.