Improve privacy

Turning this off means no app can even ask to follow what you do in other companies' apps and websites, and every app is treated as if you said no.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking

Location Services is the master list of every app that can use your position, and the level of access each one has.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services

Show Previews decides whether the content of a notification appears on a locked screen, only after you unlock, or never.

Settings > Notifications > Show Previews

Calls from numbers not in your contacts, recent outgoing calls or Siri suggestions are silenced and sent to voicemail.

Settings > Apps > Phone > Silence Unknown Callers

iMessage sends over the internet between Apple devices and shows blue, while SMS uses the carrier and shows green, with Send as SMS deciding what happens when iMessage cannot get...

Settings > Apps > Messages

Instead of going black, the Lock Screen dims to a very low refresh rate and keeps showing the time, your wallpaper and your widgets.

Settings > Display & Brightness > Always On Display

AirDrop sends photos and files directly to nearby Apple devices, and the discovery setting decides who can see you.

Settings > General > AirDrop

Apple Intelligence adds writing tools, image and notification summaries and a more capable Siri on models with the required hardware, and it can be switched off entirely.

Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri

A blocked number cannot call, message or FaceTime you, and the same list applies across Phone, Messages and FaceTime.

Settings > Apps > Phone > Blocked Contacts

This list shows every app allowed to use the microphone, and an orange dot appears whenever one is listening.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone

You can share your live location with chosen people indefinitely or for a set period, and stop at any time.

Settings > Apple Account > Find My > Share My Location

Siri can be summoned by voice, by holding the side button, or by typing, and each method can be turned on separately.

Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri

A single list shows every app that has asked for the camera and lets you revoke access from any of them.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Camera

Your iPhone presents a different, randomly generated hardware address to each Wi-Fi network, so networks cannot recognise you across locations.

Settings > Wi-Fi > Network name > Private Wi-Fi Address

Your iPhone uses the TrueDepth camera to check whether you are looking at the screen, and uses that to lower alert volume, keep the screen awake and reveal notifications.

Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Attention Aware Features

Read receipts tell the sender when you opened their iMessage, and they can be turned off globally or for individual conversations.

Settings > Apps > Messages > Send Read Receipts

An app can be given access to your whole photo library, only to photos you pick, or to nothing at all.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Photos

A list of switches decides what is reachable from a locked iPhone, including Control Centre, the notification centre, Siri, the wallet and reply from notifications.

Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Allow Access When Locked

iMessage settings control which addresses receive messages, which one new conversations start from, and whether the service is on at all.

Settings > Apps > Messages > Send & Receive

Hidden photos are moved out of the main library into a Hidden album, which can itself be hidden from the albums list and locked behind Face ID.

Settings > Apps > Photos > Show Hidden Album

Turning Precise Location off for an app gives it an approximate area instead of your exact position.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > App name > Precise Location

Camera location access decides whether each photo carries the coordinates of where it was taken.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Camera

Safety Check reviews who can see your location and data, and can stop all sharing with everyone immediately.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Safety Check

Advanced Data Protection extends end to end encryption to most iCloud categories, including backups and photos, so not even Apple can read them.

Settings > Apple Account > iCloud > Advanced Data Protection

Each app's location access is set individually to Never, Ask Next Time, While Using the App, or Always.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > App name

Put your iPhone on charge on its side and it turns into a full screen clock, photo frame or widget display.

Settings > StandBy

The Dynamic Island turns the camera cutout into a live status area that expands to show calls, timers, directions and Live Activities.

Settings > Notifications > App name > Live Activities

Messages from numbers not in your contacts are moved to a separate list and do not generate a notification.

Settings > Apps > Messages > Unknown & Spam

Safari browsing is sent through two separate relays so no single party, including Apple, can see both who you are and which site you are visiting.

Settings > Apple Account > iCloud > Private Relay

AirPlay streams what is on your iPhone to a compatible television, speaker or Mac on the same network.

Settings > General > AirPlay & Continuity

Hide My Email creates a unique random address that forwards to your real inbox, and you can switch it off at any time.

Settings > Apple Account > iCloud > Hide My Email

Messages can be kept forever, for one year, or for 30 days, after which they are deleted automatically.

Settings > Apps > Messages > Keep Messages

You can add keyboards for other languages, emoji and third party apps, and switch between them with the globe key.

Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards

A VPN sends all your traffic through a server you choose, hiding it from the local network and presenting that server's address to the internet.

Settings > General > VPN & Device Management

Images that may contain nudity are blurred on a child's device with an age appropriate warning, and the detection runs entirely on the phone.

Settings > Screen Time > Communication Safety

A Shared Album lets chosen people view, comment on and optionally add photos, without using your iCloud storage allowance.

Settings > Apps > Photos > Shared Albums

Sign in with Apple creates an account using your Apple Account, optionally with a hidden forwarding email address instead of your real one.

Settings > Apple Account > Sign-In & Security > Sign in with Apple

This decides whether Siri responds and reads information aloud from a locked iPhone.

Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Allow Access When Locked > Siri

The name at the top of About is what appears in AirDrop, Personal Hotspot, Bluetooth pairing and on other people's screens.

Settings > General > About > Name

Known trackers are shown a relayed IP address instead of yours, so they cannot use it to work out your location or link your sessions.

Settings > Wi-Fi > Network name > Limit IP Address Tracking

This controls whether Apple uses what it knows about you to target ads in the App Store, Apple News and Stocks.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising > Personalized Ads

Notifications on the Lock Screen can be shown as a full list, grouped into a stack, or reduced to a single count.

Settings > Notifications > Display As

Every app that touches Health has a per category permission, so an app can be allowed steps without being allowed everything else.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Health

When someone messages you, they can be shown that you have notifications silenced, with the option to notify you anyway.

Settings > Focus > Focus name > Focus Status

Apps need permission to use Bluetooth, because nearby device signals can be used to work out where you are without using location.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Bluetooth

Fitness Tracking controls whether the iPhone counts steps at all, and a list below shows which apps can read that data.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Motion & Fitness

Holding two unlocked iPhones near each other offers to exchange contact cards, and both people must accept before anything is shared.

Settings > General > AirDrop > Bringing Devices Together

Each app can be allowed or blocked from appearing in search, from suggesting content, and from learning how you use it.

Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > App name

This decides whether your iPhone prompts you about nearby networks when no known network is available.

Settings > Wi-Fi > Ask to Join Networks

Images and video that may contain nudity are blurred before display, with the detection running entirely on your iPhone.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Sensitive Content Warning

This decides whether diagnostic and usage data from your iPhone is shared with Apple, and whether it is passed on to app developers.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements

This clears every word the keyboard has learned from your typing, so autocorrect starts again from scratch.

Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Keyboard Dictionary

Apps must ask before scanning the network you are connected to, because the list of devices in your home says a lot about you.

Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network