The latest version of the operating system iPhone, iOS 18hit the market last September, accompanying the launch of the iPhone 16. The most commented thing about this generation of iOS These are the new artificial intelligence functions that began to be deployed with the version 18.1 in the United States and other countries, although They have not arrived in Europe and are not expected before next spring. The reason, the restrictions imposed by the Digital Markets Law in various matters, including privacy. And it is this aspect that is being questioned with a new iOS feature, also present in MacOS: the Improved visual search.
This new feature automatically shares data from the user’s gallery photos with Apple to help identify places of interest in them. The company ensures that user privacy is maintained with this function, but there are users of the brand who do not agree. Mainly, because the option It is activated by default without the user knowingunless you dedicate yourself to reviewing the mobile settings.
The notice has been given by the developer Jeff Johnsonwho has found this option, about which Apple has not given much information, in the settings of your iPhone. This function uses both local processing and cloud processing to help locate photos taken anywhere in the world and provide added information.
When the user takes a photo that may show a monument or place of interest, the iPhone generates ‘vector keys’ that it sends to Apple. These are compared with a company-maintained database of landmarks and potential matches returned to the device. In this way, the user can search for monuments in their photos and also consult other aspects about the identified place. This function is on the same line as the visual search engine for iOS, which uses machine learning to identify plants or animals in the user’s photo library.
For Johnson, Enhanced Visual Search poses problems. ‘From my own perspective, computer privacy is simple: if something happens entirely on my computer then it is private, while if my computer sends data to the computer manufacturer then it is not privateor at least it is not completely private,’ he wrote on his blog. ‘Therefore, the only way to guarantee computer privacy is do not send data outside the device‘, something that Apple, which usually boasts of having privacy as its flag, does not do in this case.
The developer also adds that the decision to activate this feature by default ‘was made by Apple, quietly, without my consent‘ and that ‘it should be up to the individual user to decide their own tolerance for the risk of privacy violations.’
After pointing out several of the security and privacy failures that Apple has had in recent years, Johnson argues that ‘a software bug would be enough to make users vulnerable and Apple cannot guarantee that its software is bug-free’ that can be exploited by malicious actors.
According to Apple’s support page, the data used for Enhanced Visual Search are encrypted and the users’ IP address is anonymized. If you’re using iOS 18 or macOS 15 and want to prevent Apple from receiving data about your photos, you can turn off Enhanced Visual Search manually. In it iPhone either iPadis located in Settings > Apps > Photos. In macOSthe option is in the app Photos in the section Configuration.