Breaking Update: Here’s a clear explanation of the latest developments related to Breaking News:New iPhone Setting Lets You Stop Mobile Networks From Pinpointing Your Exact Location– What Just Happened and why it matters right now.
Apple is introducing its first consumer device solution to limit how precisely mobile carriers track your location. The new “Limit Precise Location” setting in iOS 26.3, which will arrive in early February, reportedly reduces location data available to carriers from street-address accuracy to neighborhood-level precision without harming signal quality or emergency service functionality.
When this setting is activated, it limits how carriers use technical details to locate your position through cell towers. Rather than identifying exact addresses, carriers see only broader geographic areas, such as neighborhoods or general city areas. The catch? The feature requires carrier network support, so it will only work if operators enable it.
Only iPhone Air, iPhone 16e, and iPad Pro (M5) cellular models support the feature, as they run Apple’s C1 or C1X modems. All iPhone 17 models, despite launching after iOS 26.3, remain incompatible because they rely on Qualcomm modems that don’t have the equivalent privacy architecture. Apple launched its first in-house C1 modem in 2025 and aims to completely replace Qualcomm modems across all iPhone models by 2027, when its licensing agreement with Qualcomm expires.
So far, the only carrier in the United States to support the feature is Boost Mobile, which has roughly 7.5 million subscribers. Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have yet to adopt Limit Precise Location. UK users have support through EE and BT, Germany has Telekom, and Thailand has AIS and True, MacRumors reports.
Apple guarantees emergency responders receive full-precision location data during 911 calls and that app-based Location Services remain unaffected. Users can toggle the setting via Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options. The device will restart once you enable or disable it.
In 2024, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined major US carriers more than $200 million for illegally selling customer location data to third parties.