When you think about data privacy on the iPhone, the focus is usually on ad tracking companies and other third-parties that might be siphoning off your personal information without you knowing about it. Unfortunately, it's time to start paying attention to the data that Apple itself collects, too. Although Apple has continually repeated its commitment to privacy, the company hasn't always followed through on those promises. In a recent development, indie app developer Jeff Johnson noticed that a Photos feature called Enhanced Visual Search is enabled by default and shares photos data with Apple in the background.
In iOS 18.1 and macOS 15.1, Apple introduced Enhanced Visual Search to let you "privately match places in your photos with a global index maintained by Apple." This, Apple says, allows you to use search in the Photos app to look for landmarks and points of interest, making it easier to locate specific pictures. This feature is similar to Visual Look Up, which lets you identify plants and animals using your iPhone.
Enhanced Visual Search is definitely useful, but enabling it by default does raise concerns. Even though Apple says its implementation privately matches your photos with its database, I'd rather opt-in before having my data sent over.
If, like me, you're uncomfortable with this new feature, you can disable it quite easily. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Apps > Photos and scroll to the bottom of the page. You can disable Enhanced Visual Search here. On your Mac, open the Photos app and click the Photos button in the menu bar up top. Go to Settings > General to disable Enhanced Visual Search.
On a related note, iOS 18 also lets you automatically remove location data from photos when you're sharing them with others, which will help further secure your privacy.
