How do I delete all of the data from the health app and clear any storage?

I shut down all the "health" stuff the minute I turned this phone on when it was new. (after I disabled all the more obvious privacy-violating stuff, that is). "Health" is currently taking up 3MB of storage on my phone, even though I don't use any of that stuff. I guess eventually my phone will be filled up with unnecessary personal data I didn't ask it to gather?

Where did I say it didn't? Obviously, it increased from zero to 3MB at some point...

But when I first went through the phone turning off all the "opt-out" privacy violations that Apple seems to think must be forced on us out of the box (Find my iPhone, Location Services, iCloud Photo, etc), the amount was below 100KB. I seem to recall being able to swipe delete that in Storage management, but somewhere between iOS8.x and iOS9.3.5, my phone lost that ability. I can delete ANYTHING else in Storage management except Health data. Regardless, its at 3MB now. I can't even view that data to see what it is.

Chuck Gray wrote:

Where did I say it didn't? Obviously, it increased from zero to 3MB at some point...

It may always have been that amount. It's quite possible that some amount of default information is stored. If it doesn't increase beyond 3 megabytes, that's probably the case. Howe long have you had the phone? If you've had the phone since iOS 9, then you've had it for months. Keep an eye on it and see what happens.

Again, 3 megabytes is unlikely to cause you to run out of storage space. And, if you have a passcode on your phone, all the data is encrypted so any data on it is inaccessible to anyone without the password.

It is clear that the iPhone or any smartphone (or, for that matter, any cell phone) is not the right product for you. All cell phones collect the sort of data you describe and send it to your carrier, who then shares it with your government. Your location is tracked by all cell phones, because the carrier needs to know where your phone is when you get an incoming call. By law the phone must send its location if you call an emergency number.

As the tracking information is already being shared, you might want to take advantage of it rather than throw it away. If you turn off everything then it's only you who won't know your location (or where your lost phone is); anyone government agency who wants will know it.

That's why criminals and terrorists buy "burner" phones that can be thrown away every couple of weeks and replaced, so, while the phone is being tracked, it can't be traced to the individual.

If you back your phone up to your computer using iTunes then restore it from the back up, as long as the back up was not encrypted, the Health app data won't be saved.

Note that there is no way to turn off the motion co-processor. It's what counts your steps, stairs, cycling. The Health app is just the repository for the data.

3 megabytes of data? That's a trivial amount. I wouldn't worry about it.

Thats not a helpful answer. I don't want the phone gathering this data, and I don't want it stored.

If the data amount never increases, the phone is most likely not gathering anything.