iOS 9.3 To Snitch On Spying Bosses

iPhone Encryption: 5 Ways It's Changed Over Time

At a time when privacy and security concerns are heightened, Apple is preparing, with its upcoming iOS 9.3, to take the guesswork out of whether your employer is monitoring you via your iPhone.

Expected to be released later this month, iOS 9.3 will make it more difficult for employers and organizations using mobile device management to monitor employees in a stealth-like mode, according to a 9to5Mac report.

Users will get a warning on their iPhone lock screen and on the "about" page in settings that their iPhone is being managed by their organization via a message at the bottom of the iPhone screen, notes 9to5.

This new transparency feature will even go as far as letting the user know how they are being monitored by their employer, notes 9to5, citing an example of the type of message that may appear on the "about" page: "This iPhone is supervised. [Company name] can monitor your Internet traffic and locate this device."

Although most employees who are using company phones are aware their employer may be tracking their usage and location, as happens when they use company laptops, the iOS 9.3 feature reportedly leaves no doubt what type of monitoring is going on, and provides a helpful reminder when people access the phone.

This feature, however, won't likely help employees in all circumstances. Last year, for example, an employee was fired after deleting a location-tracking GPS app from her work phone.

[Read Apple Claims FBI iPhone Cracking Demands Are Unconstitutional.]

Nonetheless, Apple's iOS 9.3 transparency feature comes at a time when the company is working hard to reassure users it is in their court when it comes to protecting their privacy.

Apple is currently battling the FBI over demands that it create a backdoor to its encryption software that would allow the federal agency to access information and data that is stored on the iPhone of one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attack.

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