Legal - Location Services & Privacy- Apple (original) (raw)

Location Services allows Apple and third-party apps and websites to gather and use information based on the current location of your iPhone or Apple Watch to provide a variety of location-based services. For example, an app might use your location data and location search query to help you find nearby coffee shops or theaters, or your device may set its time zone automatically based on your current location.

To use features such as these, you must enable Location Services on your iPhone and give your permission to each app or website before it can receive location data from Location Services. Apps may request limited access to your location data (only when you are using the app or approximate location) or full access (even when you are not using the app or precise location).

For safety purposes, however, your iPhone’s location information may be used when an emergency call is placed to aid response efforts regardless of whether you enable Location Services.

Location Services uses device sensors, including GPS and Bluetooth (where those are available), along with crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower locations to determine your device’s location.

Your Apple Watch may use the location of your paired iPhone if it is nearby.

By enabling Location Services, location-based system services such as these will also be enabled:

The crowd-sourced location data gathered by Apple does not personally identify you.

You can choose to share your Visited Places and your Preferred Routes and Predicted Destinations with an app (where available). If you choose to share your Visited Places, information about certain places you have recently been, such as restaurants or parks, will be shared with the app. Only data about places you visit after you begin sharing your Visited Places will be shared with the app. If you choose to share your Preferred Routes and Predicted Destinations, information about the routes you take frequently and destinations you are likely to visit will be shared with the app. You must enable Significant Locations & Routes and give the app access to your current location in order to share your Visited Places and your Preferred Routes and Predicted Destinations with the app.

By enabling Location Services for your devices, you agree and consent to the transmission, collection, maintenance, processing, and use of your location data and location search queries by Apple and its partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based and road traffic-based products and services.

You can disable Location Services at any time. To do so, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services, and either tap to turn off global Location Services or turn off the individual location switch of each location-aware app or feature by setting it to Never. You can choose to stop sharing your Visited Places and your Preferred Routes and Predicted Destinations with an app in the app’s location settings. To disable Location Services for all websites, set the Location Services setting for Safari Websites to Never. You can also disable location-based System Services by tapping System Services, then tapping to turn off each location-based System Service. Apps or websites may still use other information, such as the IP address of your internet connection, to attempt to approximate your location, regardless of the state of the Location Services switch.

If you allow apps or websites to use location data from Location Services, you are subject to their terms and privacy policy and practices. You should review the terms, privacy policies, and practices of such apps and websites to understand how they use your location and other information.

At all times, information collected by Apple will be treated in accordance with Apple’s Privacy Policy, which can be found at www.apple.com/privacy.

2026-02-11