You know you can Google it but I believe you haven't tried it yourself to do exactly what the goal of the question is, otherwise you would not answer with a plain Google query. I know as I've actually spent the time to experiment. And I'm still not at the point where I can answer it exactly. I don't want "disable everything" I don't want "disable this what's written but I'm not sure if what I type is still transferred" I want the exact information based on the network traffic analysis confirmation. I even know how I could do this but I don't have the time and the motivation and I know the sites that come up on the Google queries didn't do their actual homework, just "generated the content." SEO rules and stuff.
I've hoped somebody would have given an exact link to some competent and exact analysis. Google query it ain't.
I've got by Googling:
"turn off 'Spotlight suggestions' and 'Bing Web Results'." Did both. Did that. Still got the web "suggestions" in my search results. I don't know it they are "Spotlight" "bing" or "Safari" but they are there, some server must have been involved as the results can't come from my phone. Clicked around a little more. Now looks better. Or not. I try to avoid the search page. I don't know what turns off what actually. And still don't know who reliably documented it.
It seems that other stuff can send the web queries as the result of what I type. Which stuff is that, what's going on, somebody will still have to find out and explain. Apple still haven't. Or I'm missing something and I'd be glad to learn.
>You know you can Google it but I believe you haven't tried it yourself to do exactly what the goal of the question is, otherwise you would not answer with a plain Google query.
And you'd be wrong. In fact when I did it, I did it with a similar Google query, checked the first 2-3 results, settled on one site with instructions (it's a very simple setting anyway, it's not like you're hacking anything) and went on with my life.
Doesn't really address iOS 9 which changed things around a bit, and to even find anything about iOS at all you have to start looking at the 4th or 5th result on some random domain. And - even then - there are multiple odd places in the settings you need to check and verify, some of which are hidden in a long list of other apps.
It's detailed in the help page, the link to which is on the same settings screen that contains the switches to turn off.
Likewise on MacOS, there's a 'About Spotlight Suggestions & Privacy' button on the Spotlight settings page. Again, it's on the same screen that contains the switches to turn off the feature.
You don't need internet access to find these options, and I can't think of a better place to put the help. Knowing that these options exist in the first place is another problem though...
In iOS9, there's at least "Siri Suggestions" at the top, then intermixed with all your apps there's "Bing Suggestions" and "Spotlight Suggestions", then there's a "Suggested Apps" in the separate "Handoff & Suggested Apps" settings screen, then there is "Suggested Apps" in the "App and iTunes Store" settings screen, then there is "Safari Suggestions" and "Search Engine Suggestions" in the "Safari" settings screen. I have no idea what half of these actually do though. Very confusing.
Confusing, definitely. But in the context of your initial question, bringing up the Siri settings seems a little strange. By definition, if you are using Siri, you are using a remote query... Likewise, if you have hand-off enabled, it's going to be talking over the internet, how else can it work?
And "Siri suggestions" appears on the spotlight search screen to the left / when dragging downwards, so it is not at all obvious what the difference between "siri" and "spotlight" is. Yes, even when I want to do a local spotlight search.
In iOS, you need to turn off 'Spotlight suggestions' and 'Bing Web Results'.
This is documented in the 'About Spotlight Suggestions & Privacy' link at the bottom of the Settings->General->Spotlight Search panel. It's a shame that there's no switch in the actual Privacy panel though.
