Turn off iPhone analytics: each switch and what it sends

Turn it off, step by step

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Privacy & Security, scroll down, and tap Analytics & Improvements.
3. Turn off Share iPhone Analytics. With an Apple Watch paired, the switch is called Share iPhone & Watch Analytics.
4. Turn off Share iCloud Analytics.
5. Turn off Improve Siri & Dictation. On some phones it is called Improve Siri & Apple Intelligence.

Your screen may list a few more switches for other features. Each one has its own short note under it. Read it and decide one at a time.

These steps match Apple’s support article on sharing analytics and its device analytics page.

What each switch sends

The rows come from Apple’s pages on device analytics, app analytics, iCloud analytics and Siri and Dictation.

What Apple says about who it is

Apple’s device analytics page says none of that data identifies you personally. Personal data is not logged, is blurred with methods such as differential privacy, or is removed before a report is sent.

The iCloud analytics page goes further than most people expect. It names text snippets from email messages as an example of account data that can be analyzed, after privacy steps. If that is more than you want to share, this is the switch to turn off.

For Siri, Apple says the opt-in lets it store and review audio and text of your requests. That data is tied to a random code that changes several times an hour, not to your Apple Account.

The two switches that live somewhere else

Analytics can include where your phone was, if Location Services is on. A dropped call is one of Apple’s examples. To stop that alone, go to Settings, Privacy & Security, Location Services, System Services, and turn off iPhone Analytics.

Search requests made through Siri are kept to improve Search even with the Siri switch off. Apple’s Siri page says to turn off Help Apple Improve Search under Settings, Search, to stop that.

Read what was already sent

You don’t have to take anyone’s word for it. In Analytics & Improvements, tap Analytics Data. Apple says this is where you can review the information.

The list is long and technical. Most files are crash and performance logs named after an app or a system process. You can open one to see what it holds. Turning analytics off stops new reports from going out; it doesn’t pull back old ones.

Settings worth a look while you’re there

Analytics is a small part of what leaves a phone. The settings that matter more for your pictures are in the same Privacy & Security screen: which apps can read your photo library, and which can use the camera and your location. The privacy settings guide for photos walks through them, and which apps can see your photos shows how to read the Photos list.

Apps also collect their own data, apart from these switches. Each App Store page has an App Privacy section that lists it. Which photo vault apps collect data compares those labels for vault apps.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps because it adds nothing to the pile. Sealed contains no analytics or tracking SDKs, and it collects no data. We run no server, so there is nothing of yours for us to see.

It helps because there is no account for anything to be tied to. Sealed has no account, so there is nothing to sign up for.

It doesn’t change the phone’s own switches. They cover the whole phone, and only you can turn them off in Settings. Your files never leave your iPhone unless you turn on iCloud backup or export them yourself.