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iOS 13 and Bluetooth Permissions

Greetings Everyone,

For those that updated your iOS devices to iOS 13, you may notice apps requesting permission to use Bluetooth. Understand that this is a privacy feature Apple instituted for apps that may use Bluetooth to connect to items like beacons or other devices.

Here are a few simple things to consider when decided to accept or deny for an app to connect to Bluetooth:

  • Not allowing an app to connect to Bluetooth will not stop music playback to your Bluetooth headset. If your hearing aid or headset is controlled by an app or has settings that you can modify within an app, you will want to enable Bluetooth sharing within that app
  • If you have a fitness tracker, i.e. Apple Watch, Fitbit, Garmin, that relies and shares information with an app, i.e. Health, Activity, etc…., you will want to enable Bluetooth permissions within those apps
  • If you use GPS apps that may connect to a beacon but have never used beacons before, you can safely deny those Bluetooth permissions, i.e. Apple Store, Blind Square, etc….

If you wish to see a full list of those apps that have or may request permissions to use Bluetooth, go to Settings, Privacy, and Bluetooth to see the full list. A good portion of the apps on my own iPhone does not require Bluetooth to function properly, so I denied them access. This is for privacy since many apps that are requesting Bluetooth may do so as a way to collect a variety of information, like times you visited a store as noted by the time and date your iPhone passed by a beacon within a store that pushes information about current sales.

Thank you for your assistance,

Timothy Hornik

Timothy.hornik@gmail.com

(785) 330-3503

Learn more about blindness and Assistive Technology at https://BlindNotAlone.com