You Should Conduct a Privacy Audit on Your IPhone
Apple has made it harder for iPhone apps to collect data about what you do online. However, it’s a good idea to periodically check what privacy permissions each app has access to and revoke the ones you don’t need. Does Instagram really need access to your contacts? Would it be okay for you to ban TikTok from your location data? It takes less than a minute to browse and think about questions like these, but your online presence will thank you.
This is because most people end up giving apps too much access, and it’s not really their fault. Every time you install a new app, it most likely bombards you with pop-ups asking you to access your location, notifications, contacts, camera, photos, etc. venom venom. If you’ve given these permissions without much thought, leaks can accumulate.
It’s no surprise that Facebook-owned apps are particularly egregious in asking for more permissions than they need. For example, Instagram goes out of its way to gain access to your iPhone’s camera, microphone, and entire photo library, even though you can use the app normally without giving it any of those permissions. Other apps like Uber work well even if you don’t give them location access—as long as you’re willing to manually select your location every time you need to be picked up.
While denying apps access to permissions they don’t need is a good idea, you shouldn’t be under the illusion that you’ll somehow magically keep your information free from the influence of the data mining industry. There are plenty of ways for advertisers and service providers to access your data and create a unique profile of what you do online, and you can only control a small part of that machine by revoking those permissions. But it’s still worth doing: your smartphone is loaded with personal data that no one should have access to without your explicit permission. Changing these settings will also have a positive impact on your phone’s battery life, since multiple apps won’t be constantly accessing your location or other sensors.
And here’s how to conduct a privacy audit on your iPhone.
Stop apps from tracking you
Your iPhone allows you to stop apps from tracking you. You can prevent apps from using your device ID, unique advertising ID, or email address to track you both in the app and online.
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking and turn off Allow apps to request tracking . Keep in mind that developers whose business depends on tracking you will likely still find ways to track you, but turning off this permission will force them to work harder at it.
Fastest Way to Revoke Privacy Permissions on iPhone
Sifting through multiple pages of privacy permissions is tedious, even if it is the most reliable way to conduct a privacy check. Luckily, Apple has made this task easier with the Security Check feature. To use it, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Security Check > Manage Sharing & Access . Now follow the on-screen instructions to perform a privacy audit. The first step mainly highlights your shared calendars and notes, so you can skip it for now. The second step allows you to quickly view app permissions, so simply select all the apps that don’t need access to privacy permissions and click Deny apps access . Alternatively, select the Information tab in the second step and tap any of the displayed permissions such as Location, Contacts, etc., and then block apps from accessing that data. After that, click the “Quick Exit” button in the upper right corner to exit the “Security Check”.
Review all the important privacy permissions on your iPhone.
You can also monitor the apps that access personal information by going to Settings > Privacy & Security . Tap each option on this page and check whether the app actually needs access to the sensors and data mentioned here.
Tap Location Services and select any app that appears. This will tell you more about what the application can access. In the Allow location access section, you should change the permission for most apps to While using the app or Never , depending on what the app does with your location data. If you block Instagram from accessing your location, it won’t be able to provide you with quick location tags to add to your stories, but if you don’t need this feature, it’s best to block the app from accessing your location. On the other hand, denying access to location data to Google Maps would render it virtually useless.
Another option to reduce the amount of data you share with apps is to turn off “Precise Location” on the same page. This means your phone will tell apps you’re somewhere in New York City instead of telling them you’re in your apartment.
While here, also check your Contacts , Microphone , Health , and Camera and deny access to apps that don’t need it. Do the same for each setting on this page to ensure you’re not giving apps access to more data than they need.
Limit the amount of data Apple collects
While Apple itself isn’t nearly as blatant a data collector as developers whose business model is to spy on you, the company does collect some data about you. There is a way to limit this, but there is no way to turn off Apple ads in the iOS App Store.
A solution may come in the future, but until then, you can limit the other types of data Apple collects. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security and scroll down. Tap Analytics & Improvements and turn off Share iPhone & Watch Analytics to stop sending Apple diagnostic and usage data. This page is full of settings used to improve Apple products and services, but you are not required to provide them with this information, so feel free to turn off all settings.
Return to your Privacy Settings page and click Apple Ads . Turn off personalized ads here to prevent Apple from using your data to show you relevant ads. Finally, you can also prevent Apple from listening to your Siri commands .
Check which apps are tracking you
Your iPhone has a great feature that gives you a weekly report of which apps have accessed important information about you, such as your location. At the time of writing, this feature is hidden in the iPhone settings, but it will become more accessible in the next update. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > App Privacy Report and turn on App Privacy Report to start logging the data your favorite apps access. Check back in a few hours to see your journal’s progress.
What else can I do to limit tracking?
For most people, the steps mentioned above are good enough. However, if you want to take it a step further, there are a few more things you can do to reduce online tracking. Most privacy experts will advise you to determine what you hope to achieve before choosing the right set of privacy controls for you. For most people, the goal is to stop advertisers and your Internet Service Provider from tracking you, and to do this, there are a few simple measures you can start using right now.
For starters, you can simply stop using apps that track you excessively. If you’re not ready to give them up entirely, try accessing their mobile websites using privacy-friendly apps like DuckDuckGo and Signal so you can use their services with less tracking. You can also follow good privacy practices, such as not using the same email address on every website, using a good password manager for security, and generally reducing your dependence on giant conglomerates like Facebook, Google, and Apple.
Consider switching to an encrypted DNS such as NextDNS to limit your ISP’s ability to track you. Apple provides several other tools, like iCloud Private Relay and Mail Privacy Protection , that limit tracking—turn them on, too.
A reliable VPN app like Mullvad will also allow you to limit trackers’ access to your information as it comes with a built-in tracker blocking feature. Even if you follow all the steps above, you will still be sharing more data with companies and advertisers than you ever imagined. But this is a good start.