What you need to know

An app built for Apple iPhone users to “capture life’s moments” has instead garnered attention for the wrong reasons. Rumors continue to swirl around social media that the tech company’s Journal app poses serious risks to online security and privacy.

“It allows everyone near you to know your FULL NAME and EXACTLY where you are geographically located!” one viral Facebook post stated. “This is a big mess.”

Tech experts say those rumors are unfounded. Furthermore, iPhone users may have overlooked one basic setting on their device that can really give away their identity to complete strangers.

Here’s what we know.

What is the Journal app for Apple iPhone?

A new Diary app designed by Apple allows users to keep a digital diary using photos, videos, audio clips and location data from their iPhone or iPad devices from a set point in time.

Think of it as a personal social media app, but without the “social” part. Log entries can be kept private, according to Apple, with the option to additionally lock the log behind a user passcode or Face ID.

To motivate you to write, the app will send you notifications based on your iPhone activity.

“With Journal, users can record and write about everyday moments and special events in their lives,” an Apple spokesperson said in a December statement. “On-device machine learning provides private, personalized suggestions to inspire journal entries, and customizable notifications help users develop their writing habits.”

How did the Journal app get on my iPhone?

Most Apple users found that Journal was automatically downloaded to their iPhone or iPad after the company updated its operating system to iOS 17.2.

Why are some people worried about Diary on iPhone?

It didn’t take long after the app’s launch for viral claims to circulate on Facebook that anyone with an iPhone could see another user’s full name and track their location. These rumors are false, according to experts, including fact-checkers at Snopes.com, who have debunked such claims.

What are the rumors based on?

At the heart of people’s fears are two settings (which you can turn off) in the Diary app: “Journal suggestions” and “Can be discovered by others”.

These settings rely on Bluetooth to detect the number of devices and contacts around each person’s iPhone. Viral posts on social media suggest that they allow any random person close enough to spy on you.

Experts say these features are largely misunderstood.

How does the Dnevnik application use your data?

The journaling app examines five ways a person uses their iPhone to make suggestions for what to write about. This includes the following:

Activity – exercising or working out.
Media – what kind of music or podcasts does the person listen to.
Contacts – to whom the person sends a message or calls.
Photos – pictures you take or share.
Locations – where you go and how long you spend there.

If that sounds creepy, Apple says its journaling app doesn’t broadcast this information to the world. Every notification is just for you.

For example, if you spend an hour at a coffee shop with friends and end up taking photos of your drinks, the app can use that information to suggest that you write a journal about the experience.

(Image below courtesy of Apple)

Does the Dnevnik app share the contacts you hang out with?

Not; according to Apple, the company does not store this information or share it with others. It is kept strictly on your device.

“Journaling suggestions are created on your iPhone using on-device processing, and you control what types of data you want to include,” a spokesperson said on Apple’s website. “With the ability to lock your journal and iCloud sync using end-to-end encryption, your entries stay up-to-date and no one but you can access your journal — not even Apple.”

How to turn off the Diary application settings

If you don’t want to use the Journal app and are still concerned about your online privacy, it’s easy to turn off the “Journal suggestions” and “Visible to others” settings by taking these steps:

Go to “Settings” on your iPhone or iPad.
Go to “Privacy & Security”.
Click “Journaling suggestions”.
Tap to turn off “Visible to others”.

You can also turn off logging suggestions for any data the app collects on your device.

(image below courtesy of Snopes.com)

An overlooked privacy concern: Your iPhone’s name

Forget the Journal app. You may be giving your personal information to every stranger you come in contact with without even realizing it.

“Almost anyone can see the name of your iPhone,” writes Nelson Aguilar in a blog post for Gadget Hacks. “Anyone nearby who tries to connect to the Wi-Fi network will see it in their list of discovered networks as a personal hotspot. If you have AirDrop sharing open to everyone, nearby users can see your device name whenever they go to share a file or want to see who’s around.”