How OnLocation Mobile uses location tracking
If your organization has enabled the automatic sign in/out feature for OnLocation Mobile, they have enabled a geofence around your workplace. A geofence is a defined virtual perimeter, which works with your smartphone’s location settings to identify when you are on-site.
If you turn on the app’s location settings, OnLocation Mobile checks periodically if your location is near or has crossed the geofence. Location services use a combination of cellular, Wi-Fi, and GPS to determine a user’s location.
Location data is not logged in your organization’s MRI OnLocation account or uploaded onto OnLocation’s servers until you:
- Sign in or out
- Send a SOS alert
- Tap Send current location
- Update the answers to the basic questions in OnLocation Mobile, for example your expected duration on-site
Accessing location data
Select people in your organization who have the Reports Manager user role can view geolocation information in the following OnLocation reports:
These reports contain geolocation information that was recorded when you carried out any of the actions listed above.
It is not possible to access location data outside of these actions as this data is not stored either in your OnLocation account or locally on your OnLocation Mobile app.
The location data that is uploaded to OnLocation’s servers is only stored for the duration that your organization has a paid subscription. Once a subscription ends, customer data, including location data, is deleted after 30 days. For more information, check the Master Subscription Agreement.
Manage your location settings
When your organization invites you to join OnLocation Mobile, you will need to download the app and turn on location tracking.
We recommend selecting Always (iOS 14) or Allow all the time (Android 10 or more recent) when choosing your location settings. This will ensure you get the full functionality of the app.
By enabling location settings on your smartphone, you are allowing OnLocation Mobile to:
- Sign you in/out of your workplace automatically.
- Provide you with distances to various locations while on-site.
- Provide your location to your organization if you send an SOS alert.
- If your organization has turned on the Follow Me feature, OnLocation Mobile will track your location throughout the day until you sign out.
If you manually sign in to your workplace using OnLocation Mobile, your smartphone’s geolocation will still be stored in the organization's OnLocation account.
To complete the setup, you also need to configure the following settings:
- Allow push notifications
- If your location uses beacons, turn on Bluetooth in the settings app on your phone.
Smartphone location notifications
If you use an iPhone, you may receive a notification highlighting the number of times your location has been identified by OnLocation Mobile. It will also include an image from Apple Maps. This is an Apple security measure for any application that uses location and cannot be turned off. For more information, check their Location Services Privacy Overview.
Android users may receive a notification stating that ‘OnLocation Mobile is running in the background’. This notification cannot be dismissed, but you can update your settings to minimize the notification.
These notifications do not indicate that your location data was stored by the OnLocation Mobile app or by OnLocation. They occur because OnLocation Mobile checked your location to see your proximity to your workplace’s geofence.