iOS 9.3 Will Make It Crystal Clear If Your Employer Is Tracking Your iPhone

Perhaps at least somewhat in light of the big security brawl currently taking place between Apple and the FBI, the Silicon Valley iPhone maker has been ramping up its efforts to implement and refine new iOS security measures across the board. To that end, Reddit user MaGNeTiX recently reported his stumbling upon evidence that Apple is taking a big step in iOS 9.3 — by integrating an extra layer of transparency when an iOS device is being managed by an institution or enterprise — like, for example, your work.

In other words, as long as your iPhone is running the forthcoming iOS 9.3 and is owned/managed by your place of work, a big, bold banner will now appear (by default) in the “About” section under device Settings > General. And also, for what it’s worth, on the lock screen display, too. After all, what could more boldly proclaim that your device is the property of “such and such corporation” than a big, bold banner permanently displayed on your home screen, right?

Of course, most of us are well aware that Apple already allows companies to track employee’s work-related iPhones — primarily via a thoroughly encrypted Mobile Device Management (MDM) protocol. However, the impending iOS 9.3 update will essentially remove any form of ambiguity as to whether or not an iDevice is personally or company-owned.

It’s really no secret that MOST company-owned iPhones are locked down to some extent, however iOS 9.3 will eliminate speculation in regards to how, or to what extent, the device is being controlled by your employer. For example, the “About” screen will note that the iPhone is supervised, and explains in what ways the device is not completely secure.

The banner will be displayed, as you can see, as follows: “This iPhone is supervised. [Insert company name here] can monitor your Internet traffic and locate this device.”

A cool byproduct of this new feature, however, is that it’ll become a lot easier to distinguish which of your devices belongs to whom. For instance, which is your personal and which is your work-related handset? In any case, this move is only the most recent in Apple’s extensive and ongoing effort to make privacy and personal security an understood issue for concern. And while this change, in and of itself, doesn’t necessarily help improve user privacy, it does dramatically improve transparency and creates a fool-proof understanding about what’s going on, right?

On a related note: iOS 9.3 is expected to be released to the public sometime later this March — most likely following Apple’s rumored ‘iPhone SE and iPad Pro’ event held on the 21st.