Does "Copy of my data" (from privacy.apple.com) contain Significant Locations details?
My wife and I own several iOS devices, all of which are older than 12 months, so we can't get any support from Apple. As a result, I have to seek help here, on the community forums. We have several problems/questions regarding Apple products and services, so I'll post them sequentially in respective topics on this forum.
This post is about the "Get a copy of your data" option on privacy.apple.com. It's supposed to help you obtain a copy of all the data associated with your Apple ID that Apple stores.
As many of you know, there is a "Significant Locations" option in iPhone and some other devices, which main purpose is to collect information about the places you've been to with your iPhone. Previously, there were no issues as you could either disable the feature or view the information when needed (it's very helpful sometimes).
However, after the iOS 15 release, it's a well-known issue, that Apple disabled users' ability to see their own Significant Locations details. Now, you can only access a "summary" that shows just one the most frequently visited location. This renders the feature quite useless since most people already know where they spend the most time. Starting with iOS 15, only Apple and possibly governments can see the detailed "Significant Locations" history. You, as a user, can no longer access it on your iPhone where the data was collected (note: You might still have the option to view this data on a Mac, but it's worth mentioning that it's not possible on a Windows PC. I'm uncertain if it's still available on a Mac or if Apple removed it there too, just like they did on the iPhone).
Fortunately, there are laws that protect users and require companies like Apple to grant access to any data they collect. Apple provides this ability on the privacy.apple.com website. Last week, I requested my data using the "Get a copy of your data" service. Today, I downloaded the prepared data on my PC and started searching for the Significant Locations data related to my iPhone's feature (which I've had enabled for years). Unfortunately, despite numerous attempts, I couldn't locate the "Significant Locations" data.
Consequently, I'm here with a question:
Should the "copy of your data" downloaded from privacy.apple.com include the data from the "Significant Locations" feature, which stores the history of your physical locations visited with your iPhone? If it is included, where should I look for it within the archives that Apple provides?
Or did Apple eliminate any possibility for its customers to access this sensitive privacy-related information? If so, what is the reason behind these actions (that seem disrespectful toward users)? Also, does it comply with GDPR in this case?
iPhone 12 Pro Max
