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

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. The phone can use Bluetooth to detect the number of devices nearby that are in your contacts. It doesn’t store which of these specific contacts were around but instead may use this as context to improve and prioritize journaling suggestions, the spokeswoman said.

Here’s an example provided by Apple: Say, you hosted a dinner party at your house, with friends who are in your contacts. The system might prioritize that in the suggestions, as it knows from the head count that there was something different about that event. It wasn’t just your average night at home with your family.

If you do turn on Journaling Suggestions, you’ll see another setting called “Prefer Suggestions with Others.” This will prioritize those kinds of prompts. But the app won’t dare name which “others” it’s referring to. What it can’t do is give you the ability to track other people or devices, or let other people track you. (That’s already what Find My does anyway.)

Even if this all makes sense to avid journalers (I haven’t met any), why does Apple have “discoverable” on by default? Why not just ask me when I turn on Journaling Suggestions?

The spokeswoman said this is done so users get this benefit, regardless of whether their friends and people around them are using the Journal app or not. Basically, Apple knows this new app isn’t likely to be used by the masses right away, so it turned on this service to give its earliest users a journaling boost.

If you don’t want your device to be included in that tally of nearby contacts for others, you can toggle it off. Just remember that leaving it on won’t tell your friends—or Apple—anything about you personally. And if you want more info on this, see this Apple support page. Or maybe just take my journaling suggestion and buy a nice Moleskine notebook.

Write to Joanna Stern at [email protected]