Contrary to what people say on Facebook and TikTok, Apple doesn’t want to share your journal entries with strangers.
After Apple released its latest iOS software update in late February, users noticed that the update automatically downloaded Diary, a new app that Apple announced in December 2023. The app is designed to be like a digital diary, with the option for users to pin locations and post photos to accompany your writing, as well as daily writing and reflection prompts.
But iPhone users on social media started raising alarm about the app by sharing warnings about its default settings. In a widely shared description that was copied and pasted on social media (aka “copypasta”), people claimed that the “Discoverable by Others” feature in the Diary app’s settings would allow “everyone near you to know your full name and exact location you are geolocated.”
No, the iPhone Journal app will not give away your personal information
Part of what the Journal app does is provide curated ideas for the “Journaling Suggestions” section using Bluetooth. The suggestions are for Dnevnik users who might have writer’s block or who want queries about their entries and not engage in freelance writing.
Suggestions include user activity (exercise and exercise), media (podcasts and music), contacts (people who regularly text or call), photos (from your iPhone library and shared photos), and significant locations (either recurring locations or places where you spend the most time time in). By analyzing these fields, Journal can produce hyper-specific input queries.
Visible to others, a feature in the Diary app that is enabled by default, records the number of devices in your vicinity as well as any saved contacts that are within Bluetooth range. However, it does not store any details about contacts or people near you on your phone, nor does it reveal your information to anyone else.
In fact, it’s similar to the AirDrop feature, which allows nearby users to share information wirelessly. As with AirDrop, each share must be “approved” by the recipient.
The goal, essentially, is for the Journal to have some idea of what you did that day. If you were near a saved contact, you may have been with friends that day (the Log won’t know or share exactly which contact you were with, but will admit that you spent time with “one of your contacts”). If you’ve been surrounded by a bunch of other devices at some point, the app might mean you were out doing something that day, rather than at home alone. With this information, the Journal can provide prompts for writing about your day.
Apple says on its site that the journaling suggestions are “to help you remember and reflect on your experiences.” Information collected via Bluetooth is stored on the individual’s iPhone and is not shared with Apple.
The diary does not share your personal information — name or location — with anyone.
Misinformation related to the security of iPhone applications is not new
The reaction and fear is reminiscent of the reactions to another misunderstood feature of the Apple iPhone: NameDrop.
Released in September 2023, NameDrop is similar to AirDrop, where iPhone users can exchange basic data with each other as long as their devices are in close proximity. AirDrop is used to share and receive photos and documents; NameDrop allows users to share contact information with each other without having to hand over the device to another person and enter the information themselves.
The warnings went viral on social media, with people claiming the feature “allowed your contact information to be shared just by bringing the phone closer” and adding that parents should “consider changing these settings after the update on your children’s phones” to “help keep them safe .”
Apple reiterated that for NameDrop to work, both devices must be unlocked and “within inches” of each other, and users must tap the “Share” button to complete the exchange. No contact information is automatically shared if two iPhones are simply near each other.
How to turn off ‘Visible to others’ in the iPhone Journal app
Users can control whether they can be discovered by other Journal users by disabling the feature.
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To turn it off, go to “Settings,” then “Privacy & Security.” Click on “Logging suggestions” and turn off “More can be discovered by others”.
Users can also turn off Diary’s ability to use the number of nearby devices and contacts to make writing suggestions.
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Go to “Settings”, then “Privacy and security”. Click on “Journaling suggestions” and then tap on “Preference suggestions with others”.
By turning off both features, however, the logging suggestions will not be as accurate or specific when providing queries.
Other questions related to the privacy of the Journal application
On Apple’s Tips for Journaling and Privacy page, the company emphasizes that Journal entries are encrypted when the iPhone is locked and are also encrypted and stored on the user’s iCloud. There’s nothing specifically denying that Apple collects data from Journal, even though most of the data used in Journal — a user’s photos and location, for example — is already on their iPhone.
In addition to encryption, users can also enable secondary authentication to open the Diary app, as well as lock the app with an iPhone passcode, Face ID, or Touch ID.