The Medical ID feature in iOS is designed to provide first responders with critical health information (such as blood type, severe allergies, current medications, and emergency contacts) without requiring them to unlock your iPhone. This information is accessible directly from the Emergency SOS dialer on the Lock Screen. While this is a potentially life-saving feature, it inherently exposes highly sensitive Personal Health Information (PHI) to anyone who picks up your device. In situations where physical privacy is prioritized over emergency medical access—or if the device belongs to a corporate fleet where medical profiling is prohibited—exposing this data on a locked screen is an unacceptable privacy risk.
This guide explains how to completely disable Medical ID access on the iPhone Lock Screen, ensuring your health information remains strictly encrypted and inaccessible without biometric authentication.
Disable Medical ID on the Lock Screen
To enforce a strict privacy boundary that prevents anyone from viewing your health data via the Emergency dialer, we must configure the Health app’s privacy settings to revoke Lock Screen permissions.
- Unlock your iPhone and open the main Settings app.
- Scroll down and tap on Health.
- Under the “Medical Details” section, tap on Medical ID.
- In the top right corner of the Medical ID screen, tap Edit.
- Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the editing page until you find the “Emergency Access” section.
- Locate the toggle switch labeled Show When Locked.
- Toggle this switch to the Off (grey) position.
- Tap Done in the top right corner to save your changes.
Verify the Configuration Lockdown
By toggling this switch, iOS instantly severs the link between the secure Health enclave and the unauthenticated Lock Screen environment. Your Medical ID profile still exists within the Health app, but it is no longer externally facing.
To verify the lockdown is active, lock your iPhone by pressing the side button. Wake the screen (without using Face ID to unlock it) and press and hold the side button and either volume button to bring up the power off screen. You will see the slider for “Emergency SOS,” but the slider for “Medical ID” will be entirely absent. Alternatively, swipe up on the Lock Screen to bring up the passcode entry, tap “Emergency” in the bottom left, and observe that the “* Medical ID” button is no longer present. Your health data is now securely locked behind your passcode.