Apple’s iOS 18.4 adds new privacy option for iPhone location services

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The latest iPhone software update, iOS 18.4, brings splashy features like Priority Notifications, fresh emoji, and Sketch in Image Playgrounds, but it also packs some quieter tweaks. As Mysk pointed out via Threads, a new “Improve Location Accuracy” option has slipped into Location Services settings—turned on by default for some users—offering a subtle boost to privacy control.

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You can find this new setting by going to Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Location Services -> System Services and scrolling down to the ‘Product Improvement’ section. The ‘Improve Location Accuracy’ toggle joins the existing ‘iPhone Analytics’, ‘Routing & Traffic’, and ‘Improve Maps’.

Apple’s documentation for this new setting reads:
Your iPhone will periodically send the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and mobile phone masts (where supported by a device) in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple, to be used for augmenting this crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and mobile phone mast locations.

urning off ‘Improve Location Accuracy’ does not mean your device cannot benefit from the crowd-sourced database. Rather, it seems to provide a way for you to opt-out of participating in it.

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