
There are free ways, but we also tested paid ones. So, you’re in the right place if you want to know how to track your child’s phone without them knowing (because you know what kids think about this). With so many lurking dangers on the internet, it’s your fundamental duty to protect your children from potential harm. Once your kids start using smartphones, you’re concerned about what they may encounter online. So let's change that.Parental monitoring is not snooping. These are all "end-to-end encrypted," which means the information is scrambled on your phone, and "cannot be read by Apple," according to the settings page.īut most of my colleagues who saw this for the first time didn't like it, even if Apple does keep the location data private, largely because they didn't know this area existed. It can also improve your results in Maps, Calendar and other apps. Apple uses this information for some legitimate purposes, too, like improving "Photo memories" so it can send you recaps of pictures you've taken in certain places. More importantly, there's an entire section called "Significant Locations" where Apple stores the places you go frequently - like work, home, or anywhere you've traveled. It can use your location for "Location-Based alerts," or to let you know about merchants where you used Apple Pay to buy something.

Apple tracks your location for "Location-Based Apple Ads," for example. Another setting can be turned on to share your location with other people, like in the "Find My" app.īut there are a few places where you might not want your iPhone to track you at all. There's also a setting to set the time zone automatically based on your location, or to make sure it's searching for the right cellular networks.


Your iPhone uses your location for HomeKit to identify if you're away or near home - one way it can automatically turn on your lights when you get home or turn them off when you leave, for example. It does so for a variety of legitimate reasons, but most people probably don't know this page even exists. For example, there's a System Services page in iOS that shows 20 different ways your iPhone tracks your location.
