(2019-02-05) Apples New Safari Privacy Settings Threaten Webbased Vr And Ar

Apple’s new Safari privacy settings threaten web-based VR and AR. With iOS 12.2, the company is introducing a new privacy setting called “Motion and Orientation Access” into version 12.1 of its browser, which will be disabled by default.

DigiDay speculates that a report from Wired last year is to blame for the changes. The report raised concerns that thousands of sites used scripts that pull data from a phone’s motion-sensors without the user’s consent. Many of these sites then used this data for tracking, analytics-gathering, and audience recognition.

Access to other data from a phone — such as location data — is preceded by a pop-up asking for user permission, but it’s currently unclear whether sites will be able to generate a similar notification to ask for access to motion data.