Don’t know if this is something I unwittingly opted into, but proof and pudding:
Just typed in a text message “XYZ’s phone number is” and the number popped up. Thought - “clever, eh?!”
Then I typed “My address is” and my work and approximate GPS home location came up as choices. The former was right, the latter was wrong.
But the thing is tracking me and has been programmed to identify the difference between 9-5 and nighttime.
I do not like. It’s a phone, surveilling me.
It’s an IOS 11 thing. How to turn it off:
Mfkrs.
FApple maps on iOS has been doing this for a while. It took three months to start telling me how long it would take to get to work or home when I moved house as soon as I got in the car. And by “telling me”, I mean it was a home screen notification.
Although it does think I live at a place that rents hot tubs (a neighbour) and work at the “International Skills Recognition Authority”* (I’m in a large building). Close enough.
*or words to that effect.
Yes, and these estimates are absolute rubish for someone who does not use a car to move around.
Obviously. All smartphones spy on you. Android is markedly worse that iOS, unless you install a google free version.
It’s amazing how these tech geeks sit in isolation and fulfil action plans without any relevance to the real world beyond their personal experience.
But wonderful - because like all bureaucracies, they’re opening up massive vulnerabilities in the fortress, and it’s time for the new generation to move in.
No better for those of us in cars. I’ve been stunned by the regular downgrades in usefulness in navigation. Not to mention the time Maps told me to take the next right, onto a highway 20 feet under me in a tunnel.
That’s an old feature. Frequent locations was introduced when? iOS 8 at least.
I’m pretty sure that it is mentioned in the setup process where you decide what to activate and wha nor. You do read those, yes?
Since Im going to set up a new iPhone in the next days, I’ll check, though. Some of the stuff you can turn off isn’t well explained during the setup.
Some?? Most!
I am constantly having to go in and turn off ‘useful’ features. The barrage of interrupting yes/no boxes that literally began the month after Steve passed away has got to the point that I’ve gone back to a brick phone.
Can you give an example of something that’s activated, even though you took the hard stance at setup?
And I assume the “literally” was used metaphorically. Because iOS 5.0 was released literally one week after his death, on October 12th, 2011, and received only minor updates until 5.1 was released im March. The Golden Master of 5.10. got released on October 4th, literally one day before Steve Jobs’ death.
Any feature rolled out in an update is opt-out, in my experience. I’ve had to turn location services off after an update which caused it to be turned on.
No, Literally the first time i was ever interrupted by a dialog box on an iPhone WHILE DIALING was while sitting in a pizza place, watching the news of his passing. You can take ‘literally’ to mean ‘anecdotally’ if you like?
It was the first time my iPhone had ever interrupted me with a ‘pay attention to this now instead’ dialog. Now that’s standard procedure.
It really depends on what you call the “hard stance”. If you don’t active the iCloud system, you get to decide a few things more. If you do, some of the settings will be carried over from your other devices. If these are not the same between user A and user B, one user will get notifications that the other won’t. Some settings are country dependent, that may count as well.
Generally speaking, however, it is relatively easy to limit the number of notifications on Apple systems (iOS and OSX), provided one is a bit coumputer litterate. Which is a bit of a problem, considering that Smartphones are sold in billions (Apple and Android) and that we are far to have a billion of computer litterate users on this planet.
If you are thinking that the fact that your phone spies on you is the product of a tech geek without any experience of the real world, I have a painful news for you. Because it can spy the general public, there wereabouts, what they buy and what sites they visit, google took 240$ from your wallet last year. And from anyone else in the USA as well.
I think they have a pretty good experience of the real world, one where the average human is gullible beyond reason.
? How’s that? Insightful, I just don’t know - do you mean that’s the average revenue generated by their advertising per head of population?
Which side of that average are you and I on?
Cory, is that you?
heh 
Bingo, that’s it.
Saying no to everything regarding location data, sharing data, etc.
I’ve been using iPhone non-stop since the first model, changing models every two years. iPad since its first release, I’m on my 5th model right now (except for one I sold I know that the others are still in use) and helped with some in our family.
So I’m reasonably familiar with the setup process, I’d think. 
Thing is, most of the annoying stuff is opt-in, in my experience. People just do not bother to read neither the setup texts nor the updates text.
Location services and what both iPhone and iCloud do with that data are two different things. Also, after a major update, you get a list of steps to complete, as the iPhone needs to get reactivated. I just did the for in iPad I updated to 11.
What dialog box? iOS itself has only a few ones that pop up in a while. Like re-authentication with your app store password, though that’s rare.
The only other I’m aware of are the access permission, which get triggered when an app wants to access data where they may be privacy concerns. Like accessing the camera roll, location data, contacts. It all started with location data, the other came later. You need to answer those dialogs only once or twice. They appear when the apps are on the screen and active, so not while you are dialing. The only exception for these app-triggered dialogs I’m aware of is the background location tracking.
That one didn’t even exist in iOS 5, AFAIR. Came later with 7 or 8. When an app uses location tracking while in a background, iOS would notify you 24 hours later or so, when you using the device, so to remind you to check if you really want this. That dialog comes once per app.
What does happen more is annoying non-Apple app send you timed reminders to buy loot boxes, make your journal entry, etc, what basically amounts to “hey! I’m here! Notice me! Use me!". More apps, more services, more notifications. You get a dialog from iOS allowing or disallowing those once, though. So disabling them right on the start is quite possible.
I thought you went back to a brick phone?
