From MacWorld: Apple made a big deal about our digital well-being when it unveiled iOS 12 at WWDC, but there’s one feature it didn't discuss that could have even greater life-saving benefits.
In a press release Monday, the company outlined how iPhones running iOS 12 will be able to share location data automatically and securely with first responders when you dial 911. Apple says this will help reduce emergency response times by providing faster and more accurate information that circumvents “outdated, landline-era infrastructure.”
But in reality, it's even more important than that. According to the release, roughly 80 percent of all 911 calls come from mobile devices, which shouldn't come as a surprise. What may surprise some people is that it's still difficult for emergency responders to pinpoint someone who calls 911 via cell phone. Cell-phone tower and GPS data aren't that accurate to begin with, and everything from physical barriers to weather conditions can throw them off even more. If you turn off location detection on your phone, you're turning off another way for people to find you. The FCC is requiring carriers to be able to locate callers to within 50 meters at least 80 percent of the time, but those rules don't take effect until 2021.
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