Apple released iOS 18.4 on March 31, and that update brought bug fixes, new emoji and a new recipes section to Apple News. But when Apple released iOS 18 in September, one feature included in the update sends photo data from your iPhone to Apple’s servers in an effort to help you better find pictures in your photo library. Apple calls this feature Enhanced Visual Search, and it’s turned on by default. But you can turn the feature off in a few easy steps if you’re concerend about privacy.
Read more: Everything You Need to Know About iOS 18
Here’s what you need to know about Enhanced Visual Search.
Apple’s Enhanced Visual Search privacy measures
“Enhanced Visual Search in Photos allows you to search for photos using landmarks or points of interest,” Apple wrote online. “Your device privately matches places in your photos to a global index Apple maintains on our servers.”
According to an Apple research post, parts of a photo that might contain a landmark are encrypted and sent to Apple’s servers, so the whole picture is not sent. Your encrypted data is also one point amongst other pieces of junk data that aren’t associated with any of your, or anyone else’s, images.
Once the data arrives at the Apple server, the server doesn’t decrypt the data. It only works with the encrypted data. If the server establishes whether or not the encrypted photo data contains a corresponding landmark, the server then sends your device an encrypted response, which your device then decrypts.
The company also wrote in the post it uses a third-party-operated Oblivious HTTP relay to hide your data’s IP address. And each time your iPhone sends photo data to a server the data is given a new IP address.
But some people have questioned if this is enough to protect your data. “If my computer sends data to the manufacturer of the computer, then it’s not private, or at least not entirely private,” developer Jeff Johnson wrote online. “A software bug would be sufficient to make users vulnerable, and Apple can’t guarantee that their software includes no bugs.”
If you are concerned about Enhanced Visual Search sending your photo data to Apple’s servers, here’s how to turn the feature off. It’s important to note that if you have an iCloud account to store photos or backup your iPhone data, your photos are still going to Apple’s servers. Turning this feature off won’t stop that.
How to disable Enhanced Visual Search
1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap Photos.
4. Tap the toggle next to Enhanced Visual Search.
Now, your iPhone won’t send encrypted photo data to Apple’s servers to help you find photos on your iPhone. That also means searching for pictures on your iPhone will likely suffer. If you want to turn the feature back on, follow the steps above.
For more on iOS 18, here’s what to know about iOS 18.4 and iOS 18.3. You can also check out our iOS 18 cheat sheet.
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