Apple Intelligence’s latest privacy scare is much ado about nothing, but here’s how to stop your phone from Enhanced Visual Search (if you really want to)
Have you noticed stories popping up in your Facebook feed (assuming you’re old enough?) to still use it) about preventing Apple from automatically opting you in to have all your photos analyzed by AI?
Well, I did. It kind of reminds me of the popular scam trend that had a resurgence in 2024 where people posted a statement that Facebook denies the right of access their photos. Usually it says something along the lines of: “I do not give META, Facebook, or any entity associated with Facebook permission to use my photos, information, posts, or messages, past or future.”
Needless to say, like all good conspiracy theories, it contains some truth: there are legitimate concerns about the safety of our photos on social media. However, the whole thing is a hoax, and copying and pasting the text as a Facebook post will do absolutely nothing for your privacy concerns.
A grain of truth
In the case of Apple there is again a grain of truth in it. Apple does indeed send your iPhone photos to be analyzed by AI, and the feature is enabled by default, but it’s really nothing to worry about. The feature in question is called Enhanced Visual Search. What this feature does is match places in your photos with known locations and landmarks stored in a global index maintained by Apple. That way it could work if you’re standing next to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or if you’re at Stonehenge, and automatically tag the location, while Apple won’t see your photos. Apple released a policy document in November 2024 stating:
“Enhanced Visual Search in Photos lets you search for photos using landmarks or places of interest. Your device privately links places in your photos to a global index that Apple maintains on our servers. We apply homomorphic encryption and differential privacy, and use an OHTTP relay that hides the IP address. This prevents Apple from learning the information in your photos.”
It seems disproportionate to me to worry about this because it is a threat to security. However, if you really want to disable this feature, go to Settings on your iPhone and then Apps. Find Photos and then scroll to the bottom of the settings. At the very bottom you’ll see a slider for Enhanced Visual Search, which you can turn off. On a Mac, open the Photos app and go to Settings/General.
The battle for privacy
These are strange times for Apple right now. Recently, the company was forced to deny that Siri ever sold its customers’ data for marketing purposes after settling a $95 million class action lawsuit targeting its Siri assistant. Apple recently released a statement about privacy and Siri, stating unequivocally that:
“Apple has never used Siri data to build marketing profiles, never made it available for advertising, or never sold it to anyone for any purpose. We are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more personal and will continue to do so.”
Despite statements like this, I often hear my friends say things like, “I swear my phone is listening to me and sending me ads based on what I was discussing.” I never thought these things were true, but rather simple cases of coincidence and… confirmation biasbut urban myths like these never seem to really go away, despite statements from Apple.
Perhaps the recent settlement and Apple’s statement on the matter will fuel the fire for even more conspiracy theories, but at least I won’t be turning off Enhanced Visual Search anytime soon, or worrying about my iPhone spying on me.