You may have seen the recent flurry of social media posts questioning Apple’s privacy policy after the new Diary app spotted a “Time can be seen by others” setting—a setting that’s turned on by default, even if you don’t use the app itself.
This setting doesn’t actually do what you might think it does, based on the name itself. We’ll explain how the discovery feature works and why you should turn it off—or leave it on.
It’s important to be aware of the various security and privacy settings on your iPhone: These are matters that Apple takes seriously, but you still need to be aware of what you’re sharing and with whom. As well as the Diary app option, we’ll cover a few other key iPhone privacy settings, both turned on by default, that you might want to review.
Discovery in the Diary application
The first application is Journal, added with iOS 17.2. It’s a place where you can jot down thoughts and memories, collect pictures, and chronicle your travels—and, importantly for our purposes here, you can opt in to have the app send you suggestions. If you were at the beach, for example, the Journal might suggest you write about it.
These suggestions are stored on your device so Apple doesn’t see them, and you can turn them on or off by going to Privacy and security and then Suggestions for journaling in iOS settings. You will find that these suggestions are divided into categories, including Contacts and Photosso you can leave some of them on while turning others off.
A switch that has attracted several headlines is Others may discover, which is on by default and separate from magazine suggestions. This doesn’t mean that other people can see your journal, but it does mean that other users of the Journal app might get prompts to write about their time with you if they have journal suggestions turned on.
You won’t be specifically named—the other person will only see the request as “dinner with friends” if a lot of other iPhones show up in the evening, for example. And that doesn’t mean your location is tracked or stored anywhere. From Apple’s point of view, this is to help other people who want journal suggestions, even if you don’t use the app yourself—but of course you can disable it if you want.
Notable locations on your iPhone
When it comes to more iOS features that are enabled by default and that you might want to turn off if you’re concerned about privacy, there’s another one called Notable Locations. If location services are enabled on your iPhone (and they will be if you use maps and other apps that need to determine your location), then those significant locations will also be recorded—unless you turn them off.
Apple says that these notable locations “keep a record of the places you’ve been recently, and how often and when you’ve visited them.” Data is synced between your Apple devices using iCloud, but it’s end-to-end encrypted: Apple can’t see what those locations are, and neither can anyone else (unless they get physical access to your unlocked iPhone).
They are tracked “to provide useful location-related information in Maps, Calendar, Photos and more.” Two examples of their use given by Apple are these locations appearing higher up when looking for directions in Apple Maps, and the Photos app tapping into this information when putting together Memories slideshows (so your ‘favorite’ places would appear more often).
It is up to you whether you consider this collection of your location data to be reasonable and safe. In iOS settings, tap Privacy and security, Location services, System servicesand then Significant locations to see recently recorded locations. You can delete all recorded locations to date, as well as turn the feature off completely.
Turn off custom ads
Apple prides itself on offering a more private and secure user experience than its competitors, but it will still show you personalized ads by default – something Google does too. However, Apple keeps its ad networks more locked down than Google in terms of involving third-party marketers and tracking ads across devices.
Some of the information Apple can use to create your profile includes the apps you download and services you subscribe to, the apps you open frequently, and the topics you view on Apple News. This data is then used to put you in a ‘segment’ with thousands of other users, and these segments can then be targeted by advertisers.
In a way, custom ads are a win-win: advertisers reach people who are really interested in their products, and consumers get ads that are really relevant. You don’t necessarily want to see a bunch of links for baby food products if, for example, you don’t have a baby. However, it’s perfectly understandable if you don’t want your iPhone activity tracked in this way.
You can read more about Apple’s advertising policies to help you decide. If you want to turn off personalized advertising, go to iOS settings, then choose Privacy and security and tap Apple advertising find Personalized ads toggle switch. Note that changing this setting will not change how many ads you see, only whether or not they are customized.