Overview

The Apple Spotlight Privacy Policy limits what Spotlight shares with Apple and shows from the internet on managed Macs. You can:

turn off internet results and related content in Spotlight search
stop Macs from sending Spotlight search queries to Apple to help improve search

Important: Both settings are off by default. When you assign a new policy, Spotlight stops showing internet results and related content, and the Mac stops sharing search queries with Apple. Users can still search their Mac and local apps as usual. Turn a setting on if users need it.

Supported platforms and requirements

Item	Details
Platform	macOS
Minimum OS	macOS 15 (Show Related Content works on macOS 10.11 and later)
Device ownership	Company-owned devices
Supervision	Not required. Apple has deprecated Show Related Content on unsupervised Macs (see below).
User Enrollment (BYOD)	Not supported

Settings reference

Setting	What it does when turned off	Default	Minimum OS
Show Related Content	Spotlight doesn't show internet results or related content, such as suggestions from the web. Searches return results from the Mac only.	Off	macOS 10.11
Help Apple Improve Search	The Mac doesn't send Spotlight search queries to Apple. This is the Help Apple Improve Search option in Spotlight settings.	Off	macOS 15

Turn a setting on to allow the feature again.

Unsupervised Macs: Apple has deprecated support for the Show Related Content restriction on unsupervised devices. It still works on Macs enrolled without Automated Device Enrollment, but Apple may require supervision in a future macOS release. Help Apple Improve Search isn't affected.

What doesn't change

Users can still find files, apps, settings, and email on their Mac with Spotlight.
Safari has its own search and suggestion settings. To manage Safari, use the Apple Safari Policy (see the List of Apple Policies).
They don't turn Siri on or off. To manage Siri, use Allow Siri in the Apple Application and Service Control Policy.

Why turn these off

Privacy: Spotlight queries can contain file names, project names, or other sensitive words.
Compliance: security baselines such as the DISA STIG for macOS require Macs to stop sending Spotlight search data to Apple.
Fewer distractions: without internet suggestions, Spotlight results show only local content.

Before you start

Check macOS versions. Macs before macOS 15 ignore Help Apple Improve Search.
Decide whether users need web suggestions in Spotlight.

Create the policy

In Swif, go to Device Management > Policies, then select Create new policy > Configure a Policy.
Select Apple Spotlight Privacy Policy.
Enter a clear name, such as Spotlight – Private.
Review both settings. They're off by default.
Save the policy.
Assign it to a device group of Macs.
Test on a few Macs before a wider rollout.

Example configurations

Example 1: Company Macs meeting a security baseline

Setting	Value
Show Related Content	Off
Help Apple Improve Search	Off

Spotlight searches stay on the Mac, and no search data is sent to Apple.

Example 2: Keep web suggestions, stop sharing queries

Setting	Value
Show Related Content	On
Help Apple Improve Search	Off

Users still see web suggestions, but the Mac doesn't share search queries with Apple to improve search.

Verify the policy

Open System Settings > General > Device Management and open the Swif profile. Confirm that it includes the Spotlight settings.
Open System Settings > Spotlight and check that the options match the policy.
Search for a general term, such as a city name, in Spotlight. With Show Related Content off, no web suggestions should appear.

To check Help Apple Improve Search, run this in Terminal. It returns 2 when the setting is off, and 1 when it's on:

/usr/bin/osascript -l JavaScript << EOS $.NSUserDefaults.alloc.initWithSuiteName('com.apple.assistant.support')\ .objectForKey('Search Queries Data Sharing Status').js EOS

In Swif, open the device and confirm that the policy shows as applied.

Troubleshooting

Spotlight still shows web suggestions

Check that Show Related Content is off.
Check that the policy shows as applied on the device.

Help Apple Improve Search is still on

Check that the Mac runs macOS 15 or later.

Users can't find web results in Spotlight

This is expected when Show Related Content is off, which is the default. Turn it on if users need web suggestions.

Nothing applies on a personal Mac

User Enrollment doesn't support these settings.

Related resources

Swif

Apple and security baselines