With iOS 17, Apple may restrict your iPhone's features based on your location to comply with local laws.

It’s called “countryd,” and it determines your location based on GPS, the country code of whatever Wi-Fi router you’re connected to, and your SIM card information. It’ll be used, says 9to5 Mac’s Filipe Espósito, to turn Apple’s upcoming app sideloading feature on and off. And once this location-based feature lockdown system is up and running, governments will surely want to use it for their own purposes.

"Apple's decision to disable location-based features is not entirely new, but it raises legitimate concerns about the potential for abuse and the balance between compliance and user privacy," attorney Min Hwan Ahn told Lifewire in an email.

Apple is working on something called “sideloading” for the iPhone. This means that phone users will be able to install apps from sources other than Apple’s App Store. In my recent reporting on this news, we saw that Apple only wants to enable this feature in countries where the law requires it. Right now, that’s every country in the EU.