You Should Run a Privacy Audit on Your iPhone

Apple has made it harder for iPhone apps to get away with collecting data about what you do on the internet. Still, it's good practice to occasionally review what kinds of privacy permissions each app has access to and revoke unnecessary ones. Does Instagram really need access to your contacts? Could you do just fine if you deny TikTok your location data? It takes less than a minute to review and reflect on questions like this, but your online footprint will thank you.

That's because most people end up giving apps way too much access, and it's not really their fault. Each time you install a new app, it likely bombards you with permission pop-ups requesting to access your location, notifications, contacts, camera, photos, yada yada yada. If you've been granting these permissions without much thinking much, the leaks can add up.

Unsurprisingly, Facebook-owned apps are particularly egregious when it comes to asking for more permissions than they need. For instance, Instagram tries its best to gain access to your iPhone's camera, microphone, and the entire photo library, even though you can use the app just fine without giving it any of those permissions. Other apps, like Uber, work well even if you don't grant them location access-as long as you're willing to manually select your location each time you need picked up.

While it's a good idea to deny apps access to permissions they don't need, you shouldn't be under the illusion that will somehow magically keep your information out of the clutches of the data mining industry. Advertisers and service providers have tons of ways to access your data and create a unique profile of what you do on the internet, and you can only control a small part of this machine by revoking these permissions. But it's still worth doing-your smartphone is loaded with private data no one should access without your explicit permission. Changing these settings will also have a positive impact on your phone's battery life, as multiple apps won't constantly be accessing your location or other sensors.

And with that, here's how to give your iPhone a privacy audit.

Stop apps from tracking you Credit: Pranay Parab

Your iPhone lets you stop apps from tracking you. You can refuse to allow apps to use your device ID, a unique advertising identifier, or your email address track you across both the app and on the web.

Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking and disable Allow Apps to Request to Track. Be aware that developers whose business depends on tracking you will probably find ways to track you anyway, but disabling this permission will make them have to work harder at it.

The fastest way to revoke privacy permissions on iPhone Credit: Pranay Parab

Going through multiple pages of privacy permissions is tedious, even if it's the most foolproof way to do a privacy audit. Fortunately, Apple has made this easier via a feature called Safety Check. To use it, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Safety Check > Manage Sharing & Access. Now, go trough the on-screen instructions to conduct the privacy audit. The first step mostly highlights your shared calendars and notes, so you can skip this for now. The second step allows you to quickly review app permissions, so just select all the apps that don't need access to privacy permissions, and tap Stop App Access. Alternatively, select the Information tab in the second step and tap any of the displayed permissions such as Location, Contacts, etc., and then stop apps from accessing that data. Afterwards, tap the Quick Exit button in the top-right corner to exit Safety Check.

Review all important privacy permissions on your iPhone Credit: Pranay Parab

You can also track the apps that access private information by going to Settings > Privacy & Security. Tap each option on this page and review if a given app really needs access to the sensors and data mentioned here.

Tap Location Services and select any app that shows up. This will tell you more about what the app can access. Under Allow Location Access, 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 deny Instagram access to your location, it won't be able to give you quick location tags to add to your stories, but if you don't need that feature, it's best to deny location access to the app. Denying location access to Google Maps, on the other hand, will render it largely useless.

Another option to reduce the data you give to apps is to disable Precise Location on the same page. Doing so means your phone will tell apps that you're approximately somewhere in New York, instead of telling them that you're inside your apartment.

While here, also review your Contacts, Microphone, Health, and Camera, and deny access to the apps that don't need it. Do the same thing for every option on this page to ensure you're not giving apps access to more data than they need.

Limit the amount of data Apple collects Credit: Pranay Parab

Although Apple itself is nowhere near as egregious with its data collection as developers whose business model is to spy on you, the company does collect some data about you. There's a way to limit this, though there is no way to disable Apple's ads on the iOS App Store.

A solution may arrive in the future, but until then, you can limit the other types of data that Apple collects. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security and scroll to the bottom of the page. Tap Analytics & Improvements and disable Share iPhone & Watch Analytics to stop sending Apple diagnostics and usage data. This page is full of settings used to improve Apple products and services, but you're under no obligation to give them this information, so feel free to disable all options.

Go back to the privacy settings page and tap Apple Advertising. Here, disable Personalized Ads to stop Apple from using your data to deliver relevant ads to you. Finally, you can stop Apple from listening to your Siri commands, too.

Check which apps have been tracking you Credit: Pranay Parab

Your iPhone includes a nice 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 iPhone settings, but it'll be more available in an upcoming update. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > App Privacy Report and enable App Privacy Report to start logging the data your favorite apps access. Come back after a few hours to see your log's progress.

What else can I do to limit tracking? Credit: Pranay Parab

For most people, the steps mentioned above are good enough. However, if you want to go a step further, there are a few other things you can do to reduce tracking on the internet. Most privacy experts will tell you to determine what you hope to accomplish before deciding the right set of privacy measures for you. For most people, the goal is stopping advertisers and your internet provider from tracking you, and for that, there are some simple measures that you can begin using right now.

For starters, you might simply stop using apps that track you excessively. If you're not totally ready to abandon them entirely, try opening their mobile websites using privacy-friendly apps like DuckDuckGo and Signal so you can use their services with reduced 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 such as Facebook, Google, and Apple.

Consider switching to an encrypted DNS such as NextDNS to limit how much your ISP can track you. Apple provides a few other tools, such as iCloud Private Relay and Mail Privacy Protection, that limit tracking-enable those, too.

A strong VPN app such as Mullvad will also allow you to restrict trackers from accessing your information, because it comes with a built-in tracker blocking feature. Even if you follow every step above, you'll still be sharing more data with companies and advertisers than you'll likely ever know. But it's a good start.