I recently looked at my iPhone‘s traffic and was painfully reminded at how it sends every keystroke you type into the home screen search to Apples servers by default.
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@NikTheDusky So it's basically like Windows' Search, but with geolocation included?
@SteffoSpieler @NikTheDusky i would not at all ve surprised if windows/google(android) did the geolocation thing as well.
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I recently looked at my iPhone‘s traffic and was painfully reminded at how it sends every keystroke you type into the home screen search to Apples servers by default.
Every. Single. Keystroke. Instantly.
Just searching for a contact, an appointment or a local file? Doesn’t matter, it gets sent to Apple anyways.
You probably want to turn this off!
Go to Settings -> Search and disable „show related content“.
This disables web search in the launcher, but what do we have browsers for?
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I recently looked at my iPhone‘s traffic and was painfully reminded at how it sends every keystroke you type into the home screen search to Apples servers by default.
Every. Single. Keystroke. Instantly.
Just searching for a contact, an appointment or a local file? Doesn’t matter, it gets sent to Apple anyways.
You probably want to turn this off!
Go to Settings -> Search and disable „show related content“.
This disables web search in the launcher, but what do we have browsers for?
@NikTheDusky Ah yes, that privacy Apple loudly advertised
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I recently looked at my iPhone‘s traffic and was painfully reminded at how it sends every keystroke you type into the home screen search to Apples servers by default.
Every. Single. Keystroke. Instantly.
Just searching for a contact, an appointment or a local file? Doesn’t matter, it gets sent to Apple anyways.
You probably want to turn this off!
Go to Settings -> Search and disable „show related content“.
This disables web search in the launcher, but what do we have browsers for?
@NikTheDusky
It’s encrypted and non-identifiable as per the privacy statement link in the screenshot there.“To Make Search Results More Relevant, Some Information Is Sent to Apple and Not Associated with You
When you use Look Up or Visual Look Up, when you type in Search, Safari search, #images search in Messages, or when you invoke Spotlight, limited information will be sent to Apple to provide up-to-date suggestions. Any information sent to Apple does not identify you, and is associated with a 15-minute random, rotating device-generated identifier. This information may include location, topics of interest (for example, cooking or basketball), your search queries, including visual search queries, contextual information related to your search queries, suggestions you have selected, apps you use, and related device usage data. This information does not include search results that show files or content on your device. If you subscribe to music or video subscription services, the names of these services and the type of subscription may be sent to Apple. Your account name, number, and password will not be sent to Apple.
You can also search using Siri, such as by asking Siri to look up general knowledge or do things like get directions. When you use Siri, the transcript of your request and other data may be sent to Apple to process your request and may be stored. You can learn more about how Siri handles your data by going to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri.
Information sent to Apple related to your searches is used to process your request and to develop and improve search results, such as by using your search queries to fine-tune Search models. It is not linked to your Apple Account or email address.
Aggregated information may be used to improve other Apple products and services. Apple may also send a limited, randomly sampled set of search queries to search tools for the purpose of evaluating and improving the performance and quality of Search.
Search Engine Suggestions in Safari
Safari has a single field for searches and web addresses so you can browse the web from one convenient place. When Search Engine Suggestions are enabled, Safari will ask your selected search engine for suggestions based on what you’ve typed.
Preload Top Hit in Safari
With Preload Top Hit enabled, as soon as Safari determines a Top Hit based on your bookmarks and browsing history, Safari will begin loading the webpage in the background. If you disable this option, the page will load normally.
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R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
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I recently looked at my iPhone‘s traffic and was painfully reminded at how it sends every keystroke you type into the home screen search to Apples servers by default.
Every. Single. Keystroke. Instantly.
Just searching for a contact, an appointment or a local file? Doesn’t matter, it gets sent to Apple anyways.
You probably want to turn this off!
Go to Settings -> Search and disable „show related content“.
This disables web search in the launcher, but what do we have browsers for?
@NikTheDusky turn on lockdown mode. It turns off so much of that shit.
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@tsia_ @NikTheDusky I wish it offered startpage as a search engine as well, but Ecosia works for me.
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just to emphasize how _crazy_ this is: they literally know how many steps you took between typing different letters, as the location information sent is as accurate as it gets. what the fuck.
Yes yes, okay, one more post in this series. As the "About Search & Privacy" document linked in the settings says, you can disable the location collection just for the search thingamajig.
Also, the data does not have a unique identifier per se, it rotates every 15 minutes, _but_ Apple doesn't say anything about deleting the data at some point.
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@NikTheDusky
It’s encrypted and non-identifiable as per the privacy statement link in the screenshot there.“To Make Search Results More Relevant, Some Information Is Sent to Apple and Not Associated with You
When you use Look Up or Visual Look Up, when you type in Search, Safari search, #images search in Messages, or when you invoke Spotlight, limited information will be sent to Apple to provide up-to-date suggestions. Any information sent to Apple does not identify you, and is associated with a 15-minute random, rotating device-generated identifier. This information may include location, topics of interest (for example, cooking or basketball), your search queries, including visual search queries, contextual information related to your search queries, suggestions you have selected, apps you use, and related device usage data. This information does not include search results that show files or content on your device. If you subscribe to music or video subscription services, the names of these services and the type of subscription may be sent to Apple. Your account name, number, and password will not be sent to Apple.
You can also search using Siri, such as by asking Siri to look up general knowledge or do things like get directions. When you use Siri, the transcript of your request and other data may be sent to Apple to process your request and may be stored. You can learn more about how Siri handles your data by going to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri.
Information sent to Apple related to your searches is used to process your request and to develop and improve search results, such as by using your search queries to fine-tune Search models. It is not linked to your Apple Account or email address.
Aggregated information may be used to improve other Apple products and services. Apple may also send a limited, randomly sampled set of search queries to search tools for the purpose of evaluating and improving the performance and quality of Search.
Search Engine Suggestions in Safari
Safari has a single field for searches and web addresses so you can browse the web from one convenient place. When Search Engine Suggestions are enabled, Safari will ask your selected search engine for suggestions based on what you’ve typed.
Preload Top Hit in Safari
With Preload Top Hit enabled, as soon as Safari determines a Top Hit based on your bookmarks and browsing history, Safari will begin loading the webpage in the background. If you disable this option, the page will load normally.
@chris Thank you! I added a clarification post and updated the initial posts. I just have to correct you in one point, the data isn't encrypted. It can't be, because if it was, they wouldn't be able to send the queries to search providers to get their recommendations / completions in return. It's just the transport that's encrypted, but this should be the bare minimum anyways.
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@NikTheDusky no worries, and ya transport is encrypted you're right not the information
the most important part for me is that it is not identifiable by apple or anyone else, not even your apple ID is exposed. There are a lot of problems with Apple these days but it does bring some comfort that they are not identifying me to their servers or their "partners in crime" -
I recently looked at my iPhone‘s traffic and was painfully reminded at how it sends every keystroke you type into the home screen search to Apples servers by default.
Every. Single. Keystroke. Instantly.
Just searching for a contact, an appointment or a local file? Doesn’t matter, it gets sent to Apple anyways.
You probably want to turn this off!
Go to Settings -> Search and disable „show related content“.
This disables web search in the launcher, but what do we have browsers for?
@NikTheDusky
People have reported iPhone Safari ads changing on things never typed in search but spoken aloud. -
I recently looked at my iPhone‘s traffic and was painfully reminded at how it sends every keystroke you type into the home screen search to Apples servers by default.
Every. Single. Keystroke. Instantly.
Just searching for a contact, an appointment or a local file? Doesn’t matter, it gets sent to Apple anyways.
You probably want to turn this off!
Go to Settings -> Search and disable „show related content“.
This disables web search in the launcher, but what do we have browsers for?
@NikTheDusky Apple is like: we care about your user experience, so we installed a keylogger on your device
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just to emphasize how _crazy_ this is: they literally know how many steps you took between typing different letters, as the location information sent is as accurate as it gets. what the fuck.
@NikTheDusky The only reasonable response to learning this is to get in the car and have your passenger repeatedly type ‘A’ as you drive as fast as you can down the highway
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@SteffoSpieler I mean, you have to do this if you want autocomplete for web searches. If this would be a field exclusively for web searches, I'd be fine with that. But the home screen search throws local data and web searches together and that's really bad in this case. I still can't get over how it actually sends your accurate geolocation every request.
@NikTheDusky honestly i (accidentally) dont have search autocomplete in my browser (not apple) and when i WANT autocomplete i just go to the home page of the search engine i use
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@NikTheDusky
It’s encrypted and non-identifiable as per the privacy statement link in the screenshot there.“To Make Search Results More Relevant, Some Information Is Sent to Apple and Not Associated with You
When you use Look Up or Visual Look Up, when you type in Search, Safari search, #images search in Messages, or when you invoke Spotlight, limited information will be sent to Apple to provide up-to-date suggestions. Any information sent to Apple does not identify you, and is associated with a 15-minute random, rotating device-generated identifier. This information may include location, topics of interest (for example, cooking or basketball), your search queries, including visual search queries, contextual information related to your search queries, suggestions you have selected, apps you use, and related device usage data. This information does not include search results that show files or content on your device. If you subscribe to music or video subscription services, the names of these services and the type of subscription may be sent to Apple. Your account name, number, and password will not be sent to Apple.
You can also search using Siri, such as by asking Siri to look up general knowledge or do things like get directions. When you use Siri, the transcript of your request and other data may be sent to Apple to process your request and may be stored. You can learn more about how Siri handles your data by going to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri.
Information sent to Apple related to your searches is used to process your request and to develop and improve search results, such as by using your search queries to fine-tune Search models. It is not linked to your Apple Account or email address.
Aggregated information may be used to improve other Apple products and services. Apple may also send a limited, randomly sampled set of search queries to search tools for the purpose of evaluating and improving the performance and quality of Search.
Search Engine Suggestions in Safari
Safari has a single field for searches and web addresses so you can browse the web from one convenient place. When Search Engine Suggestions are enabled, Safari will ask your selected search engine for suggestions based on what you’ve typed.
Preload Top Hit in Safari
With Preload Top Hit enabled, as soon as Safari determines a Top Hit based on your bookmarks and browsing history, Safari will begin loading the webpage in the background. If you disable this option, the page will load normally.
@chris your post, the one im replying to right now, is also "encrypted and non-identifiable" in the exact same way the apple nonsense is, course that doesnt mean i cant read it and reply to it, or even know who sent it
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@sylvie i believe you are incorrect.
my post is very obviously identifiable including my name and any information. Nothing on Mastodon is encrypted, during transport or otherwise.
by contrast, information sent to Apple is encrypted in transport and “Any information sent to Apple does not identify you, and is associated with a 15-minute random, rotating device-generated identifier.”
"This information does not include search results that show files or content on your device.”
"Your account name, number, and password will not be sent to Apple.”
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@sylvie i believe you are incorrect.
my post is very obviously identifiable including my name and any information. Nothing on Mastodon is encrypted, during transport or otherwise.
by contrast, information sent to Apple is encrypted in transport and “Any information sent to Apple does not identify you, and is associated with a 15-minute random, rotating device-generated identifier.”
"This information does not include search results that show files or content on your device.”
"Your account name, number, and password will not be sent to Apple.”
@chris you are using a web browser, right? HTTPS is encrypted and the only identifiable information exchanged is your IP address (which isnt actually your IP address, we ran out of those years ago, and some sort of an IP address is needed to use the internet in the first place so its impossible not to send one), anyone viewing the encrypted traffic will not be able to idenify you from it, they can only idenify you from seeing your post, which is not the traffic which is encrypted, this is what apple encrypts, the traffic, the underlying request gets decrypted when it reaches apple
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It's even worse than I thought, it even transmits your current (accurate!) geolocation. Can't even show this to you because I'd dox myself without editing the video.

@NikTheDusky damn yeah it IS buried deep in privacy and security -> location service -> system service -> suggestion and search. Somehow i have all the related options turned off already. I guess my habit of fully exploring the settings before using a device is paying off
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@NikTheDusky Apple is like: we care about your user experience, so we installed a keylogger on your device
@schratze @NikTheDusky
I'm pretty sure @ashleygjovik already posted a lot on that topic. -
I recently looked at my iPhone‘s traffic and was painfully reminded at how it sends every keystroke you type into the home screen search to Apples servers by default.
Every. Single. Keystroke. Instantly.
Just searching for a contact, an appointment or a local file? Doesn’t matter, it gets sent to Apple anyways.
You probably want to turn this off!
Go to Settings -> Search and disable „show related content“.
This disables web search in the launcher, but what do we have browsers for?
@NikTheDusky I’m somewhat remembering having agreed to something that might be this very feature. Are you sure that it is enabled by default?
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I recently looked at my iPhone‘s traffic and was painfully reminded at how it sends every keystroke you type into the home screen search to Apples servers by default.
Every. Single. Keystroke. Instantly.
Just searching for a contact, an appointment or a local file? Doesn’t matter, it gets sent to Apple anyways.
You probably want to turn this off!
Go to Settings -> Search and disable „show related content“.
This disables web search in the launcher, but what do we have browsers for?
@NikTheDusky Does it doe this for other keyboards that can be installed?
Can the Network permissions be disabled for the Home app or the keyboard?
