The news was reported on Twitter/X by Mysk, a duo of developers and occasional security researchers. Apparently, some users who upgraded to iOS 17 noticed that critical location and iPhone analytics were turned on again without warning or asking for permission.
9to5Mac points out that both settings have not changed for the majority of users, but it's still worth checking to make sure your privacy settings remain where you left them. Go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Location Services > System Services.
Scroll down until you see both Significant Locations and iPhone Analytics options. Significant Locations requires identification by Face ID or passcode, while Analytics can be toggled off on the fly.
Apple seems to downplay the seriousness of turning on both settings, claiming that critical location information is encrypted end-to-end and cannot be read by Apple; Mysk says that this data is stored locally on your phone, but they do not know if you visited Note that they record some pretty detailed information about the places you visit.
The two also point out that having this information in analytics can have serious privacy implications, even if it is supposed to be non-personally identifiable. mysk notes that security experts have already advised users to turn off both settings. to turn off both settings, he noted.
The real issue here is that in some cases, both settings have been turned back on as a result of upgrading to iOS 17. Therefore, an investigation has been promised by Apple to reduce the likelihood of this happening again in future updates.
So if you have just upgraded to iOS 17, be sure to go into the settings menu and make sure your privacy settings are still on. Or simply switch them off altogether, no matter what the previous settings may have been. Also, if you just received a new iPhone 15 or iPhone 15 Pro, it's worth checking both settings. Because you can never be too cautious.
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