What is Apple Safety Check and what does an Emergency Reset do?

While at WWDC in June 2022, Apple announced a new privacy feature, called Safety Check, which is intended to help you quickly turn off others' access to your location and information. The company pitched it as a safety tool for users trying to escape abusive relationships.

Here's what you need to know about Safety Check.

What is Apple Safety Check?

Apple has loaded iOS, the operating system powering the iPhone, with several privacy features in recent years, and the latest is a new tool - Safety Check - coming with the iOS 16 software update. Safety Check will help you to easily and quickly disable your location sharing, among other things, in an emergency situation. Many people share passwords and access to their devices with their partners. But in abusive relationships, as Apple noted at WWDC 2022, this can threaten your safety and make it harder for you to get help.

Apple has been working with US organisations that support victims of domestic and intimate partner violence, like the National Network to End Domestic Violence, the National Center for Victims of Crime, and WESNET (The Women's Services Network). The result of those conversations is Safety Check, a new section in the Settings app where you can quickly review and reset the access you've granted others. "This lets people in abusive situations quickly revoke abusers' access to their data and location", Apple said.

Safety Check's key features:

• Stops sharing location with others via Find My app
• Resets system privacy permission for all apps 
• Signs you out of iCloud on all your other devices

How does Apple Safety Check work?

You will be able to access Safety Check in the Settings app. When you open Safety Check, you will see two options:

• Emergency Reset: Immediately reset access for all people and apps, and review your account security.
• Manage Sharing and Access: Customise which people and apps can access your information, and review your account security.

Select the first option, Emergency Reset, if you're in an emergency situation and want to quickly revoke others' access to your information, including your location. The second option, Manage Sharing and Access, is for when you have time to review who you've given access to, and you can audit which permissions you've granted to certain apps. 

What happens if you hit Emergency Reset?

If you select Emergency Reset in Safety Check, Apple won't notify anyone you've stopped sharing with them, but they may notice the sharing has stopped. Apple will warn you that you will stop sharing with all people, and it will revoke sharing access from all apps. It will also change your Apple ID password and push you to review your account security.

Can Safety Check stop others from seeing your messages?

Yes. Safety Check protects access to your Messages by helping you sign out of iCloud on all your other devices, and it restricts Messages and FaceTime to the device in your hand.

When will Safety Check be available?

Safety Check is a new feature in iOS 16, a free update coming to the iPhone this autumn. The public beta for iOS 16 will arrive this summer for anyone to test. 

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