Apple turned on a buried iPhone setting. You might want it off.

livemint.com:

Apple’s newest iPhone software has a switch turned on by default: “Discoverable by Others." This creepy-sounding setting is leading people to think their name and location are being shared without their knowledge or consent. That’s not the case, says Apple, but you might want to turn it off anyway. Last year, as a part of iOS 17.2, Apple released the Journal app.

You can use it to jot down personal notes about your day, your life, what inspires you. You know, journal-y things. You can turn on Journaling Suggestions.

This recommends topics to write about based on things your phone (but not Apple) knows about you—music you’ve listened to, people you’ve called or messaged, photos you’ve recently taken, places you’ve visited, etc. You decide if you want to turn this on. When you first launch the Journal app, it will prompt you to do that.

Those suggestions aren’t ever shared with Apple. Here’s where it gets weird. When you go into Settings > Privacy & Security > Journaling Suggestions, you’ll see that Discoverable by Others is enabled by default—even if you never turned on suggestions.

Under the setting it says, “Allow others to detect you are nearby to help prioritize their suggestions." Uh. Why is this on by default when the suggestions setting is off by default? Is the iPhone automatically reminding my nearby contacts that I am around? And encouraging them to journal about what we are doing together? Recently, I’ve heard from people who had similar worries, so I asked Apple what’s up. A company spokeswoman said claims on social media that Apple is sharing your name and location with others are inaccurate.