How to turn off little-known iPhone setting that lets Apple see all your photos

When it comes to our smartphones, we think we have everything under control.

But technology is a lot more advanced than we know, so there'll be some features that may take us by surprise. Well, a relatively obscure iPhone setting may cause some alarm for users who like their privacy.

Many iPhone users don't realize their phone has this setting (Pixabay)

This new feature, introduced with iOS 18, will share users' photos and photo data with Apple by default.

It's called 'Enhanced Visual Search', and it keeps photos stored in a 'global index' maintained by the tech company.

This setting would supposedly make the Photos app more efficient - allowing for people to search for photos based on landmarks featured within them.

But developer Jeff Johnson has raised some concerns about breaches of privacy.

In a recent entry on his blog, Johnson said: "From my own perspective, computing privacy is simple: if something happens entirely on my computer, then it’s private, whereas if my computer sends data to the manufacturer of the computer, then it’s not private, or at least not entirely private.

"Thus, the only way to guarantee computing privacy is to not send data off the device."

This is why he deemed the 'Enhanced Visual Search' to be a non-consensual violation of privacy.

He continued: "It ought to be up to the individual user to decide their own tolerance for the risk of privacy violations.

This setting has been highlighted by a developer on his blog (Pixabay)

Alarmingly, he also believes that malicious actors could take advantage of the setting. So, how do you turn off the setting on your own phone?

Head over to the Settings menu, scroll down to the Apps section and access Photos. From there, you'll find it at the bottom of the page. If you're on a Mac, simply open the Photos app, head over to Settings and then General.

This isn't the first time that iPhone users have been issued a warning.

There is a way to turn the setting off on your devices (Pixabay)

A viral TikTok urged people to clear the history on their calculator app.

That might sound a little extreme at first - what possible privacy issues could arise from that? Well, let's just say, it could be a bit embarrassing if another person looks at your calculator app and sees you've used it for some very basic multiplications.

TikTok users were soon left divulging their most mortifying maths queries.

One person took to the comments to write: "As a math major, having 100x2 in my calculator history is just embarrassing."

Another commented: "I just checked mine and the last one was 15x2. Why am I like this?"

"Damn mine really said 18-3," shared a third.