Apple iOS 12.2 beta with several new features including Apple News app in Canada, a redesigned TV remote in Control Center, support for adding HomeKit-enabled TVs in the Home app, and more rolled out last month. However, with the stable release of 12.2, Apple will introduce a new Motion & Orientation Access toggle under Settings.
This setting is toggled off by default but must be turned on in order for websites to display features that rely on motion data from the gyroscope and accelerometer in the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. With the toggle on, web pages show real-time accelerometer and gyroscope data from the iPhone. With the setting toggled off, no motion data is shown.
This move might be a response from reports that claimed thousands of websites have unmitigated access to motion, orientation, proximity, and light sensor data on mobile devices. Software engineer Felix Krause also filed a radar and notified Apple’s security team about this matter in 2017.
It is also possible that Apple could tweak how this feature works in time for the public release of iOS 12.2. Perhaps the setting could be toggled on by default in a subsequent beta, for example, or Safari could prompt users for permission to access motion data when necessary as it does with location data.