PC Doctor December 26, 2014
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Dear PC Doctor:
I recently bought an iphone and have been using it. I have an app that shows me the weather, temperature, etc. I noticed that, when I am in a different city, it shows me the weather for where I am, not where I’m from. How does that happen? How does the phone know where I am?
Thanks, Diane
Dear Diane:
I don’t know exactly what model or weather app you have, but I think I can still provide an answer to your question. Here is what I learned from the apple support website:
Location Services is a feature on your phone. It allows apps and websites like your camera, web browser, and weather app to use information from networks to determine your approximate location.
For example, an app might use your location data to help you find nearby stores and services, or your device may set its time zone automatically based on your current location. It stands to reason that your weather app is using Location Services to give you the weather report for the place that you are in when you access the app.
You must enable Location Services on your device and give your permission to each app or website before it can use your location data. When you give permission for these apps to use your location information, you're agreeing to their terms of use and privacy policies. It's worth taking a look at them to see how they will use your location data and what you think about that.
You can turn Location Services on or off at Settings > Privacy > Location Services. You can turn it off if you don't want to use this feature or to conserve battery life. You can individually control which apps and system services have access to Location Services data. When Location Services are off, apps can't use your location.
From what I understand, even if you don't enable Location Services on your iphone, your phone's location information will still be accessible for use by emergency calls.
So, I hope this at least partially answers your question!
Until next time … Happy Computing!
PC Doctor
