Apple’s next update includes new emergency alerts.
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Your location data is sensitive. It’s one of the primary targets of apps harvesting your data, whether on an iPhone or Android phone. That’s why Apple dedicates so much guidance, on-device flags and individual settings to Location Services.
But with its next update, Apple includes a privacy toggle to enable or disable location sharing, and this is almost certainly one you should keep turned on. The update introduces new emergency alerts, specific to your iPhone’s location.
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Per The Mac Observer, “Apple added a new Enhanced Safety Alerts section in iOS 26.2 developer beta 1. You’ll find it in Settings > Notifications. The page hosts new controls for critical alerts and a privacy toggle to improve delivery.”
Apple has only just released its critical iOS 26.1, updating a billion eligible iPhones with dozens of security fixes. But this latest iOS update also changes the update process itself, with silent, background fixes which shouldn’t require any action on your part.
Now iOS 26.2 is available in beta, and should be generally available before the end of the year. It includes the usual raft of features updates, but from a safety perspective it’s the “imminent threat alerts” that will drive many headlines.
New location sharing option
The Mac Observer
Apple makes increasing use of its shadow network, which is how devices lacking their own network radios can communicate online and register their status or location. AirTags, for example, simply piggyback on the connectivity of the nearest Apple device.
This Find My network is an “an encrypted, anonymous network of Apple devices.” And so that’s a second security/privacy consideration with Apple’s new critical alerts — which are distinct from the government alerts sent via your cellular network operator. You’re being detected by other Apple devices, not your network.
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“In emergency situations,” Apple says, “your iPhone can receive safety alerts and broadcast them anonymously to nearby Apple devices.” There’s inherent trust in Apple to run this shadow network without compromising the privacy of either the sending or “man-in-the-middle” devices used to forward these alerts.
Apple says you can “share your approximate location with Apple to improve the
timeliness and reliability of Enhanced Safety Alerts.” Any location sharing is a potential risk — as the NSA and others have warned. And sharing your location with Apple isn’t always good advice, for example with Significant Locations. But this one makes sense.