In its new advertisement campaign, Apple draws focus on the latest updates in iPhone and related Apple devices to provide better data and privacy control to users.
The ad highlights how the tech giant brings more transparency with features such as App Privacy Report and Safari Privacy Report, wherein apart from denying access to installed apps from using their data, users are able to track what data the apps are sharing and with which domains.
Informing the user
Data brokers harvest online and offline data to build profiles of consumers. For instance, one data broker collects data of almost 700 million consumers across the world and create profiles for up to 5,000 characteristics, Apple said, adding the privacy report features in the app settings will provide users an overview of how their privacy is treated.
Users can see how often apps uses permissions to access locations, photos, camera, microphone, contacts and more during the last seven days. The Safari Privacy Report will further inform the user about the trackers it has prevented from following the user through their browsing journey on web.
Gaining back control
The advertisement opens with a girl named Ellie entering an auction, where her phone’s data is on sale. This includes her emails, contacts, purchases, locations and more. Apple has been working on each of these aspects to give back the control to the user, the company claims.
For instance, Apple Mail protects the user from email senders gathering data about what emails they check and write. It’s called Mail Privacy Protection. This helps the user takeback control over their IP addresses which can be tracked through emails to reveal their online behaviours and habits.
Apple Pay is also designed around privacy. The payments app doesn’t track the details of what the user buys, from which stores and for how much, thus leaving no trace of the user’s purchase history in its app.
Periodic notifications are also sent to understand how apps are tracking the user’s location in the background. Apple has now introduced a powerful update for location access, by replacing precise location details with area/region details of upto 10 sq miles. This approximate location, the company said, should be enough to identify nearby places and get news of that area.
Apple also lets users revoke access of any app in the device meaning to gather data whenever they want.
Published on
May 18, 2022
