I'm moderately cynical about Apple's motivations. I think they've done it because it helps them make money, not for any altruistic reason. Having this feature h

I'm moderately cynical about Apple's motivations. I think they've done it because it helps them make money, not for any altruistic reason. Having this feature helps Apple sell iPhones to us, and the iBeacon platform to advertisers. I don't think that makes a difference though, because Bluetooth LE beacons (iBeacons) are better in this respect - regardless of Apple's motivations. If your Alice's iPhone senses Bob's iBeacon then no information is revealed to Bob about Alice - an iBeacon can't receive, they're transmit only [1]. It's only once Alice installs Bob's app that Bob can get an indication that Alice is near one of his iBeacons. 1. http://radar.oreilly.com/2014/03/ibeacon-basics.html#_iaW3P0 http://radar.oreilly.com/2014/03/ibeacon-basics.html#_iaW3P0