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FileWave iOS Kiosk (IPA) Location Tracking Problem

We have been made aware of an issue with our FileWave Kiosk Enterprise IPA app with regard to location tracking.  Simply put, iOS no longer allows our application to be approved once, and then allowed to collect geo-location information for all time.

Even when location tracking for the app is set to "Allow While Using", the application will re-prompt for permission on each application restart (usually multiple times).

We are currently investigating what changes will be required to make the Kiosk IPA less intrusive to your customers and will update here as we have more information.  In the mean time, here are some mitigation suggestions:

  1. Don't deploy the Enterprise IPA at all:

    • This may seem an odd suggestion, but this application was initially developed before the concept of "Lost Mode", and has largely outlived it's purpose

    • "Lost Mode" is much more effective at location lookup, because it doesn't suffer from the same pre-requisites that the IPA does, and it works even if the end-user has location services turned off

    • "Lost Mode" does not require the IPA

    • Outside of geo-location in "Tracked" mode, the IPA serves no other purpose, and tracking in this mode is delicate to manage at best, and largely ineffective since the user can disable it at any time

    • Apple, and other privacy advocates, are heavily leaning away from this type of location tracking, and before long it may not be possible at all

  2. If you don't want to change how you are deploying the IPA currently, consider setting your devices to "Untracked"

    • The issue of user prompts is only seen if FileWave believes the device is in a "Tracked" state

    • By moving devices to "Untracked" you'll avoid customer complaints while we work on a possible fix for this issue

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