A built-in feature in iOS constantly tracks your movements and stores, on your iPhone, a detailed history of the locations you visit.
The feature, called Significant Locations, is described by Apple as follows:
“It allows your iPhone to learn locations that are important to you, in order to provide you with useful related information in Maps, Calendar, Photos, and more. The Significant Locations feature is encrypted and cannot be read by Apple.”.
Some people may not care. Others, however, may consider it an invasion of their privacy.
So how can you find out what information this feature has collected about you?
This feature is located at: Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Significant Locations. Note that you have to scroll to the bottom of the Location Services list to find System Services, while Significant Locations is also at the bottom of the list.
In order to access this data, you will need to authenticate yourself using your iPhone passcode or using Touch ID or Face ID, so this information is not available to anyone who has access to your iPhone.
If you go to the Significant Locations screen, you'll see a list of places you've visited, which are then broken down into more detailed locations. There's even a list of the dates you were at each place. Tapping on any of the entries brings up a map showing the exact location, along with the times you were there.
To delete data that has already been collected, you have two options:
The first option is to selectively delete the data, by going to each entry, tapping "Edit" in the top right corner of the screen, and removing the entries one at a time.
The second option is to bulk delete the data by going to the Significant Locations page and clicking Clear History.
You can also disable this feature entirely. This prevents new data from being collected, but it's important to note that it doesn't delete data that has already been collected and stored.
