What do I need to know about Apple’s Privacy settings and making changes?
Privacy is at the heart of location sharing. When setting parental controls, parents are advised to review which apps have access to their child’s location.
From Kids iPhone/iPad:, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services
Make adjustments as needed. If you can’t make changes, then this means that Location Sharing settings are locked. To unlock, just follow the instructions below…
Locking Location Sharing settings blocks your child from:
Disclosing their location to third party apps without your review
Turning off location sharing with you and other family members if you’ve set this up through Family Sharing
Sharing location with contacts via Messages and Find My
To lock Location Sharing settings, you must do this from your child’s device:
Settings > Screen Time > tap Content and Privacy Restrictions. Next tap Locations Services, and select Don’t Allow Changes
From Kids iPhone/iPad:
To Unlock, just select Allow Changes above
If Family Sharing has been set up, every family member is automatically sharing their device’s location with every other family member.
Making adjustments must be done from an individual’s phone. For example, if you don’t want your kids to see where you are in Find My, then from your phone, go to:
Settings > Your Profile >Family Sharing >Location Sharing
Once you see your family listed, tap the family member you wish to stop sharing location with. Scroll all the way down and tap Stop Sharing My Location
In-built to Messages and the Find My app is the ability to share your location with anyone with whom you text.
This is accessed under the person’s profile and by tapping ‘i’. When location sharing settings are locked, this functionality is blocked.
You can also initiate sharing your location in Find My:
Most parents don’t know that Apple’s inbuilt tracking records almost every move your child makes outside your home. It’s buried deep within the privacy setting, and the accuracy of the data is fairly good, although not 100% exact. Not only can it reveal where you child went, but for how long, and whether he or she arrived by walking or driving. The data is stored for years.
Apple’s states that its purposeis to “Allow your iPhone and iCloud connected devices to learn places significant to you in order to provide useful location-related information in Maps, Calendar, Photos, and more. Significant Locations are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be read by Apple.
While this may allay some parents concerns, here’s how you can turn Significant Locations off.
Conversely, some parents may have their reasons for keeping Significant Locations on.