Let's talk about Apple

Welcome back to your 5 min daily read of Nosy Eye. We’re that paranoid friend who’s going to tell you everything you need to know about privacy tech.

Here’s what we got for you today:

• The mechanics behind Apple’s privacy policy

• How to strengthen your iPhone’s protection

• Action Tips of the Day: we’ve got 3 for you (takes less than 5 minutes)

Does Apple care about your privacy as much as they'd like for us to believe?

Well…it depends.

They are better than most consumer technology companies about the privacy options they have in place for you. However, you shouldn’t expect or depend on them to care as much as you do. 

Understanding their incentives as a business (which is to make money and maximize shareholder value) will help you stay better prepared than most.

Apple's business model is selling hardware and installed within it is proprietary software designed to collect as much data about you as possible.

This allows them to, yes improve the user experience (which is convenient admittedly), but to also monetize the information about you.

There is no way, as an outsider, to see exactly the type of data Apple is collecting about you.

About iPhones being encrypted

Yes, iPhones are encrypted. But at the behest of government agencies, iCloud backups were not encrypted up until December 2022 (iOS 16.2).

Use Apple’s Private Relays to Strengthen Your Phone

Private Relay is a feature designed to make it harder for internet service providers (ISPs) and other 3rd-party trackers to track what you're doing online or steal your sensitive information.

Your phone sends encrypted internet traffic to Apple's server where it's assigned a temporary IP address.

From there, the traffic is sent to a second relay operated by a trusted 3rd party, where it's assigned a second temporary IP address.

It’s fairly simple to set up on your phone or iPad. You can follow the instructions from the company itself here. 

The Data Apple Collects and Why You Should Care

A few examples of the data they gather:

• Login credentials

• Time and activity experienced within the apps

• Payments—including the amount and location of the transactions (Apple states this stays on your device)

• Location data (if you're using a GPS, you need to let Apple know where you are)

• And much more

Officially, they use all this information to help with troubleshooting, improving product performance and experience…and sell ad space to marketers. Seriously.

Limited Ad Tracking 

The feature of which they ask “do you want this app to track you” is more to their benefit of locking out companies like Facebook and giving them the advantage to sell ads.

We digress. It’s a conversation for another day. Just thought you should know.

The issue with all this data being collected and why you should care

In previous newsletters, you learned about your digital footprint and how to reduce it. Now by using your iPhone, alone, you’ve increased your risk exposure:

• You generate a larger digital profile

• You don't know what the future of this data means

• More data about you lying around at risk of leaks

Action Tip of the Day

Here are three ways to better protect your device and improve your data privacy.

Enable end-to-end iCloud protection

• Go to Settings > iCloud > Advanced data protection

Turn off Personal Advertisements

• Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising

Turn off collection of iPhone and iCloud Analytics data

• Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements

We can’t tell you not to use iPhones and Apple devices as we understand you may enjoy them as a great consumer device.

At the very least, however, you should understand Apple’s incentives and the mechanics behind their privacy policies to better protect yourself.

That's all we have for you today. There's plenty more, of course, but then you'll think we're whack jobs. Not that we care, but it's better that you get this info in bytes so you can actually do something about it.

But if you want more, reply, "I’m ready" and we'll get something over to you.

Anyways, bye for now.

DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is strictly educational. We occasionally inject slight entertainment. Nevertheless, please do not use easily identifiable data online as you do not know who is going to give it away.