Q: The Find My Friends app would be really great if it did not require the iPhone passcode lock to be turned on. It is a real hassle having to put in the Apple ID to use the application. Turning on the passcode lock for the iPhone just to get faster access to Find My Friends is a far greater hassle.
Is there really no setting in the Find My Friends app so that a password does not have to be input if the user does not wish to do so? Some of us have no problem keeping our iPhone safe. Why should the writer of this app be so concerned about security?
– Jerry
A: Unfortunately, there is no way to override this—it is simply the way that Apple has designed the Find My Friends app to work. In fact, the ability to determine whether the device has a passcode set or not isn’t even available to third-party iOS developers, so this would explain why this feature exists in only Find My Friends, which of course is written by Apple itself, and not other location sharing apps.
Presumably, Apple made this design decision to protect the privacy of other users that may be sharing their location with you. With Find My Friends, your privacy is not a matter of keeping your own iPhone safe, but relying on your friends to keep their iPhones safe.
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