Apple’s iPhone is known for its privacy credentials. “Privacy. That’s Apple,” reads one of the iPhone maker’s advertising slogans.
It may therefore come as a surprise that privacy researchers have issued a new warning, after finding the iPhone is not as private as it seems. According to researchers at Finland’s Aalto University, keeping your iPhone, MacBook and iPad personal data hidden from Apple is “virtually impossible.”
While everyone knows about the risks posed by third party apps—and Apple offers its App Tracking Transparency features to counter this—the data collected by the iPhone maker’s own apps is a problem, the Finnish researchers say.
These are Apple’s own apps that come pre-loaded. They are “pretty much unavoidable on a new device, be it a computer, tablet or mobile phone,” the researchers said in a statement.
The Apple Apps Studied By The Privacy Researchers
The researchers studied eight apps available on iPhones, iPads and Macs: Safari, Siri, Family Sharing, iMessage, FaceTime, Location Services, Find My and Touch ID. First, they collected all publicly available privacy-related information on these apps, including technical documentation and privacy policies and user manuals.
The apps chosen “are an integral part of the platform and ecosystem” that are “glued to the platform”—and “getting rid of them is virtually impossible,” associate professor Janne Lindqvist, head of the computer science department at Aalto said.
The researchers said they were surprised “by the fragility” of Apple’s privacy protections. Making things worse, the user interface is designed to be confusing for Apple users, the researchers said.
For example, the user is given the option to enable Siri, but “enabling” only refers to whether you use Siri’s voice control. “Siri collects data in the background from other apps you use, regardless of your choice, unless you understand how to go into the settings and specifically change that,” said Lindqvist.
In fact, you can’t easily stop data sharing in any of the iPhone apps studied, according to the researchers. “In practice, protecting privacy on an Apple device requires persistent and expert clicking on each app individually. Apple’s help falls short.”
Amel Bourdoucen, a doctoral researcher at Aalto, calls Apple’s online instructions for restricting data access “complex and confusing,” pointing out that the steps required are “scattered in different places.”
Where The Data Collected By Apple Goes
While it’s only one study, the findings of the research are certainly a concern and as the researchers ask, what does Apple do with all that data?
While they caveat that it’s impossible to know for sure, Lindqvist suggests the data will be used to “train the artificial intelligence system behind Siri and to provide personalised user experiences, among other things.”
Apple has not confirmed or denied this. I have contacted the iPhone maker for a comment and will update this article if the firm responds.
What To Do Now About iPhone Privacy
The privacy versus functionality issue is an age-old problem. Of course you want your iPhone to work effectively and integrate with the rest of the Apple ecosystem. Why else would you only buy Apple devices?
But the researchers think Apple could inform users much more clearly than it does today. They also say you can solve the issue of Apple’s data collection by opting for third party apps that are easy to manage, such as Firefox rather than Safari.
The research does raise interesting points, but it’s important to note firstly that it doesn’t cover Google’s Android at all, which I expect is much worse when compared to Apple.
At the same time, while the researchers found limiting data collection was difficult, Apple has introduced numerous privacy settings and controls that make the iPhone a device worth having.
You can quite easily go through your iPhone Settings and ensure you lock down everything that you can. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security and work your way down the list to restrict permissions for third party and Apple apps—ensuring you aren’t sharing analytics with the iPhone maker. Even doing this is a good start.
