Today, user privacy has become the utmost concern for anyone who spends a lot of time online. Whether it¡¯s the kind of user data that is collected by a particular social media or whether it¡¯s the security one needs to keep their usage private, away from the eyes of many, it is definitely the need of the hour for many.?
And iPhones have often claimed to offer that layer of privacy and security for their users. In fact, it¡¯s been one of their main USPs. However, while it might sound like a marketing gimmick to many, in my experience with the iPhone 14 Pro, it has truly lived up to the claims.?
Whenever we share our personal IDs anywhere online -- whether signing up for a free app trial or just as contact information -- we subject our inbox to a ton of spam and unwanted emails, especially while using options like ¡®Login using FB¡¯ or ¡®Login using Gmail¡¯.?
These convenient single-sign-on options eventually track and use every piece of information to target more ads based on your usage. Websites where you¡¯re logging into could also get access to your birthday, your profile image and other data that other sign-in options are willing to share.
However, in the case of Sign In using Apple ID, all of this changes. Firstly, Apple claims that it shares as little information as possible with the website you¡¯re signing into -- mainly just username and email address, and makes sure that it doesn¡¯t track your activity in an app or website.
Alternatively, it creates a random email ID for you which gets shared with the service. Emails you receive on that ID get forwarded to the actual ID that¡¯s linked with the Apple ID. In case you don¡¯t want emails from that particular email to be forwarded, you can disable it too.
In case you¡¯re someone who can¡¯t stop scrolling on Instagram but at the same time hate the app learning so much about you, this feature clearly is for that. This feature gives users the ability to stop tracking their data so they cannot learn and target ads to them.?
What¡¯s amazing is that every app, the moment you install it, will ask you if you¡¯d like to allow apps to track your user data, giving you complete control of what you want to or don¡¯t want to share.?
This feature won¡¯t stop ads from coming on your newsfeed, they¡¯ll still survive, but at least it won¡¯t be targeted based on your browsing history.?
Using Apple¡¯s mail client (the mail app with the blue envelope icon) might not be as user-friendly at first, but it comes with a neat trick up its sleeve that can help you take your privacy to a whole new level.?
Dubbed Mail Privacy, hidden under Settings>Mail> Privacy Protection, the feature makes it extremely difficult for senders to learn more about. The feature essentially hides your IP address so senders can¡¯t link it to your other forms of online activity or get to know your exact location. Moreover, it also prevents senders from seeing if you¡¯ve opened the email they sent you. How cool is that?
Our images aren¡¯t just our memories. With the advent of smartphones, these images also include private metadata, such as location and depth information. Allowing access to all images to third party apps allows the apps to also look at this private information and then target ads based on the places you visit.
However, the iPhone offers you the ability to limit the number of images an app can access in your Photos. You can only select a couple of photos within the app from your camera roll -- photos that you might want to upload or edit and keep removing or adding new ones.
The moment you try uploading your photos for the first time, it will ask you if you wish to grant the app full access or limited access. This feature can also be configured later on from Settings>Privacy>Photos, where you can see the app and the kind of access it has -- Selected Photos, All Photos or None.?
iPhone offers its users the ability to browse the web without being tracked using cookies using its Safari browser. Sure, there are several other browsers that claim to do so, but with Safari preinstalled, you eliminate the need to install another app.
Basically, when you¡¯re browsing on the web, certain webpages can know it's you based on the information your browser is willing to share with the site.?
This includes the kind of system you¡¯re using, the kind of sites you visit etc. Safari on the other hand makes your system look like a generic phone, removing all the identifiers, making you less interesting for such sites to track and extract ad-relevant information.?
The browser also claims to be extremely energy-efficient, which should come in extremely handy if you¡¯re someone who is always browsing on the web. It also supports synced browsing, so whatever you¡¯re browsing on your iPhone, you can pick up on your Mac or iPad, along with bookmarks.
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