The places and times you visited in the past are obvious! To check the activity history in iPhone

In early April 2020, Apple and Google announced that they would jointly develop a service or app to notify them of close contact with the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19). If you install this app on your smartphone, you will receive notifications such as "You were near a person infected with the new coronavirus within two weeks."

This app hasn't started yet, but even on the smartphones you normally use, the history of actions such as "when and where you went" is automatically recorded, and you can check it later. Find out how to look back on your behavior history in case an infected person is found in a place you often go to.

Past activity history is recorded on your smartphone

What I want to use to check where I have visited in the past is the history of location information recorded on my smartphone. If you enable "Frequently Used Places" on iOS on iPhone and "Timeline" on Google Maps on Android, you will be able to look back on your activity history of where you went. Even if you forget it yourself, you can see it at a glance by looking at your smartphone.

I'll discuss privacy issues later, but just in case, I'll show you how to record your behavior history on your iPhone (Android will be introduced in the second part).

"Frequently used places" on iPhone where you can see places you visited in the past with a map

iOS on iPhone comes standard with a feature called "Frequently Used Places". It is turned on by default and records the locations you have visited in the last 50 days.

As mentioned above, the "where you went" and "time" are recorded in detail, and the map maps your place. Even if you don't set it, the location you went to is automatically recorded in detail. Those who did not know may be surprised.

If you look at the above screen, you can see that we have been to the TBS area of ​​Akasaka 5-chome many times. In addition, you can get a rough idea of ​​how many minutes you have been there and what your means of transportation is.

Specifically, you can see the following data.

For these data, you can confirm that you can authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID by selecting "Settings" → "Privacy" → "Location services" → "System services" → "Frequently used places" on your iPhone. ..

This data itself is not sent to the outside, but if someone peeks at your smartphone, your privacy will be known. If you're careful about security, you may have turned it off. If you want to turn it on again, enable "Frequently Used Places" by following the above procedure.

Time-series data is not available in "frequently used places". To view the time series data on your iPhone, use the Google Maps timeline introduced in the second part.

You can see the distance traveled by "Healthcare" on iOS

In "Frequently used places", you can see the data for each place, but you cannot know the distance traveled or the route. The health management app "Healthcare" that comes with iOS from the beginning helps you to know the distance traveled.

Healthcare uses your iPhone or Apple Watch to count the number of steps you have taken and the number of stairs you have climbed, which is useful for health management. However, when combined with the "frequently used places" mentioned above, it helps to look back on the movement data in more detail.

For example, the screen below shows health care data for a week. It counts walking and running distances, but if you tap "Show all data", you can see the walking and running distances for each day.

What I would like to pay attention to is that when you click on the daily data, the distances appear in chronological order. For example, you can see the data that you walked 0.3km (300m) at 9:30. This data is quite detailed, so if you combine it with the "frequently used places" mentioned above, you will have some accurate movement data. It's a tedious procedure, but it's a good idea to remember it as a way to use it in case of emergency.

Healthcare is included as a standard iOS app from the beginning, but initial settings are required at the first startup. Surprisingly, however, activity data has been recorded even before the initial setup. Even people who start up for the first time can understand the data since they bought the iPhone.

Secure device lock and iCloud password settings

On the iPhone, you can check the behavior history for about 50 days like this, but since it is data that can be said to be a mass of personal information, is security okay?

According to Apple, the data in "frequently used places" on the iPhone is encrypted end-to-end, and even Apple cannot know it. If someone can see the screen of the terminal directly, it is out, but in other situations, you can think that there is no security concern.

Regarding "healthcare," Apple says, "We may ask you to provide us with analysis, diagnostics, and usage data to help improve the quality of iOS. This information is collected anonymously." increase. With the consent of the user, the health care data will be sent to Apple in a form that cannot be identified by an individual.

This setting can be found in "Settings"-> "Privacy"-> "Analysis and Improvement" (the notation may differ slightly depending on the iOS version). If "Improve" Healthcare "and" Activity "" and "Improve Healthcare Records" are turned off on this screen, no health care information has been sent to Apple. Even if you turn them on and set them to send data, it's announced that they will only be used anonymously to improve iOS, so it shouldn't be a problem.

However, only the security of the device and account must be secure. If someone can see your device or your account is hijacked, you may be able to see your activity history.

Be sure to lock your iPhone and keep your passcode unknown to others. Don't use the same phone number, address, or PIN that you use elsewhere, but make it something that only you can identify. At the same time, it's important to keep your Apple ID password unique and not used elsewhere, and make it as long as possible.

In the second part, "Places visited in the past, you can record on Google Maps on your smartphone", we will show you how to check the behavior history in chronological order by people using iPhone and how to check the behavior history on Android.