To help the iPhone user with suggestions and mapping data, iOS and iPadOS ‘secretly’ keeps a thorough record of your location data. For example, Siri can give you suggestions and apps can also request your location, so that you can, for example, switch on the lights when you get home.
This registration is not new, since iOS 7 Apple has been busy adding these kinds of extra smart functions to iOS and iPadOS. This allows the operating system to take the user into account based on collected information. For example, your favorite applications are automatically updated in the background, data is synchronized via iCloud, you get Siri suggestions and more.
User’s known locations
If you have an iPhone 4s or newer and an iPad 3 or newer, the locations you visit are saved. This way, iOS and iPadOS can give you suggestions and information based on these locations. An example of this is: how far you are from home or it is ‘so many minutes’ drive to a certain location. In addition, this history is also used for important functions such as anti-theft measures and Find My devices.
View and delete frequently visited locations
- Open ‘Settings’
- Navigate to ‘Privacy’
- Select the ‘Location Services’ option
- Scroll down and tap ‘System’
- Open ‘Important locations’ here
If you still have iOS 10 or earlier, the ‘Important locations’ option is called differently, namely: Frequently visited locations
In the overview you can see how many ‘files’, and therefore locations, have been collected in recent weeks. Tap a location to view it in detail.
Since iOS 15 is history not more insightful. However, you can view the recently registered data to a limited extent. You can delete all stored data at once via the ‘Clear history’ option.
Key locations and privacy
It’s good to know that frequently visited locations are stored locally and encrypted on your iPhone or iPad not are shared with Apple. In addition, the data is end-to-end encrypted and synced with iCloud, but it remains on your device and is not stored online.
Only you can consult them and Apple only uses them for its own apps and functions. If you want to disable this behavior, you can do so by disabling the ‘Important/frequently visited locations’ option. Functions, such as extra protection for stolen devices, may no longer work properly.