Find a Setting On Your IPhone: Privacy Alert

Are you worried about digital privacy? Yes, it is long gone in the current situation. There is always a service, feature, or a device tracking you. It tracks places you go, what you are looking online, and what you say. Compared to other devices, some are more intrusive. Without realizing, in some cases, you may be intruding more information digitally than needed. But, there is a way to stop this, and you can control all the devices at home from listening.

Of course, social media has become another huge offender. There is no judgment made here, but it can be the big offender. It is essential to limit app permission on your phone, and it is possible. You can disable certain features. But, there will be a map hiding somewhere deep within the settings of the iPhone. The map can track anywhere you go, and there is a need to find the same.

It is impossible to keep secrets from the iPhone. You may have wondered how your phone is pulling directions automatically when you get inside your car. Your phone knows that you are heading home as soon as you leave the office. Yes, it is the part of location services but in-depth and separately known as “Significant Locations.”You will be in shock when you look at these “Significant Locations.” inside your phone.

Before that, you should learn to access it, and in case if you want, you can quickly turn it off. Steps to access “Significant Locations” on your phone. Go to iPhone’s settings Now, tap on the privacy option available Go to Location services Now, reach out to Significant Locations there and tap on it. Now, you may have to enter your password and open your phone through FaceID. You will find a list of locations here. There will be some which you may think a bit off to you since the location may not always be precise.

Now, tap on a place, and you will go to a page with more specifics like a map. Even though it may not have located you correctly, it will take you to your area. Now, if not needed, you can easily take it off. Apart from these, you can individually edit locations if needed. Through this, you can make them no longer exist on your phone. For doing this, you can tap on any city where it had you in. After that, on the next screen, you can choose the “Edit” button that is present in the upper right-hand corner.

Now, you will see a red circle present next to the location. You can tap on the red process and remove the location. In case if you like to turn off all the Significant Locations listed out, you will get an option for that too. You can go to the top of the page and find the list of city locations there. Now, choose the green button. The button will be present on top-right on the same page. Why your phone is tracking you in this manner? As said by Apple, the feature is necessary and helpful. They say

“This feature exists so that our phones can learn the places that are significant to us and, therefore, provide personalized services, like predictive traffic routing and improved Photos Memories.” That being said, people undoubtedly think that it is an invasion of privacy. The majority of them may not be comfortable with it. Now, think about whom else can get a hand on this? According to Apple, no one can reach out to the same. The company said, “The data that goes between your cloud-connected devices is encrypted. Unless someone steals your phone and password, there is nothing they can do to access it.”

So, the data exchanged between the connectors is encrypted; hence it is safe unless someone steals the device along with the password. Without the device or phone and the password, they cannot do anything with it and access the locations. Apart from this, you may get push notifications regarding COVID-19. Now, Google and Apple teamed up for a task, and they will send a push notification for both Android and iOS users in case they are exposed to COVID-19. The news has been announced on Tuesday.

The effort is known as Exposure Notifications Express. The notification is an opt-in like system which lets the users receive information from the local public agency through an alert. The data is regarding potential corona virus exposure, and you will get it through a notice on the user’s smartphone. According to Google and Apple, the notice will also show the guidelines or actions must be taken after the exposure. Two companies worked together previously, and now they created Bluetooth technology.

The technology now is helping the health agencies, and they have developed mobile apps. The apps can identify users who were near with some infected people of corona virus. Even though there are many options to help in the pandemic, the majority of the people are still thinking about the ‘Significant Locations” option. The choice is behind automatically pulling directions as you as you get inside the car. To date, you may have wondered how the phone is guiding you towards the office and giving you useful directions when you start from the office.

Even though there is no way others can pull direct information, in case of theft, there is a chance. If you lost your phone and password, then people can pull everything stored in Significant Locations. But, there is an option to shut it off if you are not comfortable with the same. But, all you need is, understand the setting in your iPhone and shut it off if it is not necessary. Experts have also revealed that some devices are more intrusive when it comes to privacy information compared to others. In some cases, without knowing, users provide unnecessary information while installing an app. While giving access to any app, users must be aware, and they should give out necessary permissions.