How to Check (and Change) the Health Data Your IPhone Tracks
If you have an iPhone, then you also have Apple’s Health app pre-installed on it. This app is designed to serve as a central hub for all your health and fitness data, from the steps you take to the foods you eat.
Some of you may look at this app every day and maybe even use it with your Apple Watch. Or you can never open the app at all. But whether you’re a frequent Health app user or not, it’s worth checking out the data it collects, as well as the various apps and devices it shares and shares that data with.
For example, the Health app may well count your steps every day, even if you never specifically asked for it. Here’s how to check the health information being collected and what devices and apps are involved.
Your data in the Health app
Apple says the Health app automatically counts your steps, as well as your walking and running distances. If you’ve connected Apple Watch to your iPhone, other types of exercises and movements will also be recorded. The app also has a health profile where you can add details such as blood type and date of birth.
By default, all information stored in the Health app is also stored in iCloud. If you’ve enabled two-factor authentication on your account (and you should), this data will be completely encrypted—even Apple won’t be able to see it. If you’d rather just keep this data on your iPhone, open Settings and tap your name at the top: choose iCloud , Show All , then Health to turn off iCloud syncing. All health data stored on your iPhone is encrypted with your passcode or Face ID when the phone is locked.
Note that simply deleting the Health app from your phone doesn’t delete the data the app previously collected—it remains on your iPhone so other apps can access it when needed. If you want to delete your data and also delete the Health app, you first need to erase your records through the app before deleting it from your iPhone.
You can delete everything stored in the Health app manually by tapping on categories and registered entries. On the page for each specific data type, you should see a “Show all data” link – on the next screen, click Edit and you’ll have the option to remove some or all of the data collected.
How to check what your Health app is tracking
By opening the Health app on your iPhone and viewing the Summary screen, you’ll get a good idea of what data the app is already tracking. If you go to the Overview tab, you can see all the types of data the app can log, from your medications to your sleep: just tap on a data category to see if there are records.
On each data type screen, you will see a Data Sources and Access link. Click on this to see where the Health app gets its information from. For example, you might see your iPhone and Apple Watch listed, as well as any third-party apps that you’ve allowed to interact with your health data (either to report or access it, or both).
Stop your iPhone from tracking health data
From here, you can delete entries as described above, but to actually stop tracking, you need to go to the main iOS Settings screen. Select Health and you’ll see a list of apps connected to that app. Selecting any of them allows you to delete the data they recorded and disable them.
To prevent iPhone from tracking your activity (including steps), choose Privacy & Security then Motion & Fitness from the iOS Settings screen. Turn off the Fitness Tracking switch, and data from the iPhone itself will no longer be recorded. If you have third-party tracking apps installed, you can optionally allow some of them to log activity but not others.
Stop Apple Watch from Tracking Your Health Data
If you have an Apple Watch, you can also stop recording activity on it: In the Watch app on iPhone, open the My Watch tab, then select Privacy to find the Fitness Tracking toggle switch. However, this does not delete data that the watch has already registered (to do this, go to the Health app as described above).
Check who you share your health data with
Finally, it’s worth double-checking who else can see your health data—though there probably won’t be any surprises here since you’ve specifically set up these connections with family members or fitness friends. In the Health app, tap the Sharing tab and you can see your current connections, choose the types of data you’re sharing, and turn off any connections you no longer want to use.