The Silent Cartographer
Deep within the iOS privacy settings, Apple includes a feature called “Significant Locations.” This hidden engine uses your iPhone’s GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular triangulation to silently map exactly where you go every single day. Over time, it builds an encrypted, highly detailed database of your daily routine: where you sleep, where you work, which coffee shop you visit on Tuesdays, and how long you stay at each location. Apple uses this data to provide predictive routing in Apple Maps and context-aware Siri suggestions. However, many privacy advocates are deeply uncomfortable with their smartphone maintaining a permanent, historical record of their physical movements. If you want to protect your physical privacy, you must delete this database and disable the tracker.
How to Turn Off Significant Locations
You can locate and destroy this tracking history via the System Services menu.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and tap on Privacy & Security.
- Tap on Location Services at the very top of the screen.
- Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the long list of apps and tap on System Services.
- Scroll down again and tap on Significant Locations. (You will be prompted to authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID).
- At the bottom of the screen, tap Clear History to permanently delete the existing map data.
- At the top of the screen, toggle the master Significant Locations switch to the Off position (the green background will disappear).
The Privacy Trade-off
Once disabled, your iPhone will completely stop logging your daily habits. Your past history is permanently erased. The only downside is that the Apple Maps application will no longer be able to proactively guess that you are driving home from work and automatically provide you with the fastest route; you will simply have to type your home address in manually.