With the arrival of iOS 18, there is something that many people have not realized. Following the introduction of the new feature called Enhanced Visual Search, which is activated by default, our data is at stake. We tell you what you should do to deactivate it and why it is so important.
This new function allows you to identify and search for information about emblematic places present in your images. However, the negative part of all this is that it requires sharing certain data with Apple.
How Enhanced Visual Search works
The feature expands the capabilities of Visual Look Up, introduced in iOS 15, which identifies plants, animals or symbols in your photos. Enhanced Visual Search now allows locate monuments and points of interest by simply swiping up on an image and selecting “Find Place.” For example, a photo of the Puerta de Alcalá could show you its name and all the relevant details in a matter of seconds.
However, this feature requires sending Apple a fragment of image data, which would be a feature vector generated by a machine learning model, to compare against a global database of points of interest. According to Apple, this process is encrypted and designed to protect privacy of the user, although the fact that it is activated by default has raised criticism.
Apple ensures that it uses advanced techniques to ensure that data is treated privately. The pieces of information sent are anonymous and are designed not to include details that could identify the user. However, privacy experts, such as developer Jeff Johnson, point out that the lack of transparency in how this feature is enabled is one of the keys to the amount of doubt it is generating.
Unlike other options like analytics data sharing or Siri recordings, this tool does not require explicit consent of the user. This means that many may not realize they are sharing information until they discover it in the settings of the Photos app.
How to disable the feature
If you’re not comfortable with your photos sharing data, you can turn off Enhanced Visual Search. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Photos and look for the button corresponding to this function, and you can disable it. On a Mac, open the Photos app, go to Preferences > Settings and disable the function there.
The main focus of criticism of Apple is that this feature is activated by default. Although encryption and anonymity are steps in the direction of protecting privacy, many users believe that Apple should have adopted something that would allow the user to consciously accept such authorization.
Apple has yet to officially respond to concerns about this feature, but the debate highlights tensions between technological convenience and personal privacy. The new functionality has quite interesting power, but Apple, you should not play with people’s data, or at least not do it without their explicit consent.
