Apple Maps Tracks Your Location by Default—Here's How to Turn It Off and Protect Your Privacy

Apple is known for prioritizing user privacy, but with the release of iOS 26, a new feature called Visited Places has raised concerns. Enabled by default, this feature keeps a record of the locations you visit, effectively tracking your movements. While Apple assures that this data is end-to-end encrypted, some users may still feel uneasy about their privacy.

If you want to stop Apple Maps from tracking your locations and clear your location history, follow these simple steps:

Turn Off Visited Places:

Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

Tap Apps and select Maps.

Go to Location.

Scroll down and turn off the Visited Places feature.

Once disabled, Apple Maps will no longer record your visited locations.

Clear Visited Places History:

Open Apple Maps.

Tap on Places and go to Visited Places.

Scroll down and tap Clear History, then confirm by tapping Clear All.

Note: Clearing your history removes stored location data, ensuring that apps cannot access your past location information and enhancing your privacy.