Apple’s iPhone is known for its privacy data. “Privacy. It’s Apple,” reads one of the iPhone manufacturer’s advertising slogans.
So it might come as a surprise that privacy researchers have issued a new warning, after discovering that the iPhone isn’t as private as it seems. According to researchers at Finland’s Aalto University, keeping your iPhone, MacBook and iPad personal information hidden from Apple is “almost impossible”.
Despite Apple’s focus on privacy, your iPhone may not be as private as you think, according to a new … [+]
While everyone knows the risks posed by third-party apps — and Apple offers its app tracking transparency features to counter it — the data collected by the iPhone maker’s own apps is a problem, Finnish researchers say.
These are Apple’s own apps that come preloaded. They are “pretty much inevitable on a new device, whether it’s a computer, tablet or mobile phone,” the researchers said in a statement.
Apple apps studied by privacy researchers
The researchers studied eight apps available on iPhone, iPad and Mac: Safari, Siri, Family Sharing, iMessage, FaceTime, Location Services, Find My and Touch ID. First, they collected all publicly available privacy-related information about these applications, including technical documentation and privacy policies and user manuals.
The selected apps are “an integral part of the platform and the ecosystem” that are “glued to the platform”—and “getting rid of them is almost impossible,” said Associate Professor Janne Lindqvist, head of the computer science department at Aalto.
The researchers said they were surprised by the “fragility” of Apple’s privacy protections. To make matters worse, the user interface was designed to confuse Apple users, the researchers said.
For example, the user is given the option to enable Siri, but “enabling” only applies if you’re using Siri voice control. “Siri collects data in the background from other apps you use, regardless of your choices, unless you understand how to go into settings and specifically change that,” Lindqvist said.
In fact, according to the researchers, you can’t simply stop data sharing in any of the iPhone apps studied. “In practice, protecting privacy on an Apple device requires persistent and expert clicking on each app individually. Apple’s help is lacking.”
Amel Bourdoucen, a doctoral researcher at Aalto, calls Apple’s online instructions for restricting access to data “complex and confusing,” noting that the necessary steps are “scattered in different places.”
Where does the data collected by Apple go?
Although it is only one study, the research results are certainly worrying As the researchers ask, what does Apple do with all this data?
While they caution that it’s impossible to know for sure, Lindqvist suggests that the data will be used to “train the AI systems behind Siri and to provide personalized user experiences, among other things.”
Apple has neither confirmed nor denied this. I’ve reached out to the iPhone manufacturer for comment and will update this article if the company responds.
What to do now about iPhone privacy
The question of privacy versus functionality is an old problem. Of course you want your iPhone to work efficiently and integrate with the rest of the Apple ecosystem. Why else would you buy only Apple devices?
But researchers think Apple could inform users much more clearly than it does today. They also say you can get around Apple’s data collection problem by choosing third-party apps that are easy to manage, like Firefox instead of Safari.
The research raises some interesting points, but it’s important to note first that it doesn’t cover Google’s Android at all, which I expect is much worse compared to Apple.
At the same time, while researchers have found limiting data collection difficult, Apple has introduced a number of privacy settings and controls that make the iPhone a device worth having.
You can very easily go through your iPhone’s settings and make sure you lock everything you can. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security and scroll down the list to restrict permissions for third-party and Apple apps—making sure not to share analytics with the iPhone manufacturer. Even this is a good start.