Core iOS8 compatibility with iOS7

In my iOS8 compatible app, I wrote the following code. The app works great on iOS8 and I'm surprised by iOS7. My question is, why doesn't this code crash on iOS7?

#import <CoreLocation/CoreLocation.h>
.
.
CLAuthorizationStatus authStatus = [CLLocationManager authorizationStatus];
.
// TODO some of these statuses are iOS8 only not iOS7 - need to check.
if ((authStatus == kCLAuthorizationStatusAuthorized) || (authStatus == kCLAuthorizationStatusAuthorizedAlways) ||
(authStatus == kCLAuthorizationStatusAuthorizedWhenInUse))    {
<some actual code>
}

      

        
        
        
      

    

The constants kCLAuthorizationStatusAuthorizedWhenInUse and kCLAuthorizationStatusAuthorizedAlways were introduced since iOS8, so I expected a tragedy when I tried to run it in the iOS7 simulator, but everything went fine. Is this a problem I should be concerned about on real iOS7 devices (I don't have it anymore), or is there something that suggests this code works on iOS7 that I don't know?

Thanks in advance.