Christine Romero - Chan / Digital Trends

If you ’ve drop any prison term on Facebook , TikTok , or any other social mass medium web site over the last twosome of days , there ’s a chance you ’ve seen people exact that your iPhone is descry on you — specifically , with a feature film called “ Journaling Suggestions . ”

One post I stumbled across on Facebook made it fathom rather dreaded , admonish me that the lineament share my FULL NAME and EXACTLY where I ’m located to anyone nearby . The Emily Price Post narrate me to go and toggle the setting off now because it was “ Very shivery stuff and nonsense ! ! ”

Apple Journal app on an iPhone 15 Pro.

Christine Romero-Chan / Digital Trends

However , as is often the case with these things , this is n’t incisively honest .

The Journaling Suggestions setting was tot to iPhones last year as part of the iOS 17 update that introducedApple ’s Journal app . you could find it by opening the preferences app , selectingPrivacy & Security > Journaling Suggestions . From here , you ’ll find two on/off switch : favour Suggestions with OthersandDiscoverable by Others . At the top of the page is also a lean of what datum Journaling hint can pull from , include body process , spiritualist , contacts , picture , and significant localization .

Posts on Facebook , TikTok , and other societal media posts exact that these features make your iPhone visible to other people nearby and blatantly deal your name and precise placement with stranger . In reality , that ’s not at all what ’s happening .

On theJournaling Suggestionspage is a hyperlink called “ About Journaling Suggestions & Privacy . ” Tapping on this presents an entire varlet explaining how these have work , including this part :

“ Journaling Suggestions use on - gadget processing to intelligently grouping moments and outcome , so as to provide you with personalized suggestions . Using entropy stack away on your gadget , Journaling Suggestions can commend to you special moment to commend and write about . You control which suggestions are partake with journaling apps that habituate Journaling prompting .

“ Journaling Suggestions uses Bluetooth to observe the number of devices and contacts around you without store which of these specific physical contact were around . This information is used to meliorate and prioritise your suggestion . It is put in on twist , and is not share with Apple . ”

It ’s correct that Journaling prompting does use your contact and fix to power the feature . However , it never partake your name , location , or other information with other people .

There ’s sure no harm in disabling the Journaling Suggestions feature , peculiarly if you do n’t useApple ’s Journal app or another journaling appthat also employ Journaling Suggestions ( such as Day One ) . However , it ’s also not stealing and harvest your personal information the fashion many people online are claiming .

continue dependable and impertinent , folks .