What is the purpose of the ‘Significant Locations’ reports?

While you might not see a list of your frequently visited places on your iPhone, your device is cleverly learning your routines behind the scenes. This feature is called Significant Locations. It uses anonymized location data to understand where you spend the most time, like your home, workplace, or favorite gym.

But How Does It Help?

Even though you can't directly view your Significant Locations, this information is used to personalize your iPhone experience in several ways:

• Maps: Get a heads-up about traffic delays on your regular commute or receive suggestions for nearby restaurants based on your lunchtime location.
• Calendar: See estimated travel times when adding event locations, making scheduling appointments a breeze.
• Photos: Enhance your memories with automatic location tags, helping you remember exactly where that picture-perfect moment happened.

Taking Control

While Significant Locations are a convenient feature, you always have the option to disable it or clear the data entirely. This will reset the personalized features that rely on this information.

Here's how to access Significant Locations:

1. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security.
2. Tap Location Services.
3. Select System Services.
4. Choose Significant Locations.

From there, you can review the feature or choose to turn it off completely.

I was curious if I could use my iPhone location services feature to determine how many hours I’ve spent over a six month period at a specific work location

No, but you might be able to see locations that you have visited in the last day or so.

Otherwise, you cannot access the other records. You can delete them though, if you want.

jackderwindt wrote:

”Can anyone explain in layman’s terms the purpose of tracking and storing my visited locations in a way that supposedly no entity can access it, and while you’re at it what or who exactly is on either end of the encryption protecting my privacy from me?

The reason is because that data is subject to abuse.

Disclosure of significant locations data to an abuser might well lead to injuries or worse for the device user and their associates and their support network, for instance.