Apple privacy warning after new feature introduced without telling users
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Privacy experts have sounded the alarm about a new Apple feature which was introduced allegedly without informing or asking users. The Enhanced Visual Search feature allows users to search for landmarks and points of interest in their photos but requires sending some photo data to Apple’s servers.
Mac and iPhone customers discovered this feature enabled by default just days after Christmas, with some software and privacy experts immediately switching off the tool. Enhanced Visual Search enables Apple to capture, encrypt and then centrally analyse parts of users’ photos, allowing key landmarks to be identified and then searchable.
![[A man takes a picture of Apple's latest iPhone 16 billboard at Master Arts Shop in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, on September 26, 2024. According to Apple Inc, the new iPhone 16 features Apple Intelligence, the new platform for artificial intelligence (AI) capability, larger display sizes, new creative capabilities, and an innovative camera. (Photo by Firdous Nazir/NurPhoto via Getty Images)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_235056445-a999.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Although commentators have noted that the feature’s encryption of the photos and image data means that user privacy is not being violated, others have raised concerns about its implications for privacy and the secretive way it was introduced. Software developer Jeff Johnson said: ‘This choice was made by Apple, silently, without my consent.
‘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.’. Matthew Green, a privacy expert and cryptography professor at John Hopkins University, said: ‘It’s very frustrating when you learn about a service two days before New Year and you find that it’s already been enabled on your phone.’.
