Despite Apple’s claims that your iPhone is private, the firm collects a lot of information about you. There is a privacy setting on iPhones that is designed to disable this tracking.
However, a recent study by unaffiliated researchers claims that Apple still collects extensive data on you using its own apps even if you off tracking, which appears to be in direct opposition to Apple’s own explanation of how the privacy protection functions.
The iPhone Analytics setting expressly promises something. If you turn it off, Apple says it will ” disable the sharing of Device Analytics altogether.” However, the data gathered by a variety of Apple iPhone apps-the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, Books, and Stocks-was examined by Tommy Mysk and Talal Haj Bakry, two app developers and security experts at the software firm Mysk.
They discovered that the analytics control and other privacy settings had no discernible impact on Apple’s data collecting; regardless of whether iPhone Analytics was turned on or off, the tracking remained the same.
The information is still being stored and tracked
Every action you took on the App Store seemed to be recorded in real time, including what you clicked on, which apps you searched for, what advertisements you saw, how long you spent looking at a particular app, and how you discovered it.
The software also transmitted information about you and your device, such as ID numbers, the type of phone you’re using, your screen resolution, your keyboard languages, and how you connect to the internet-notably, the kind of data that is frequently used for device fingerprinting.
“Opting-out or switching the personalization options off did not reduce the amount of detailed analytics that the app was sending,” Mysk said. “I switched all the possible options off, namely personalized ads, personalized recommendations, and sharing usage data and analytics.”
According to Gizmodo, Apple has yet to comment on this.
