Privacy – Tech Savvy Life

How to View the Private Info Your iPhone Apps Are Accessing

While using apps on your iPhone, these apps are often busy behind the scenes, using sensors and contacting internet domains without your knowledge. With iOS 15.2 or later, you can see a detailed report of these activities with the App Privacy Report.

RAYMOND OGLESBY @RaymondOglesby2
January 12, 2022

This is for the iPhone running iOS 15.2 or higher

Dilbert and Feature — *Copyright Scott Adams, Inc./Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS*

First, open Settings by tapping the grey gear icon. Refer to the below image:

Next, on the Settings screen, tap Privacy. See the below image:

Now, in the Privacy settings, scroll down to the very bottom and tap App Privacy Report. See the following image:

Info 3 — Accessing App Privacy Report option

If you have not enabled Record App Activity, tap Turn On App Privacy Report link. Refer to the below image:

If you just enabled App Privacy Report, you will need to use your iPhone for a few days and let the App Privacy Report feature gather data. After that time (or if you have been using the Record App Activity feature in earlier versions of iOS 15), you will see a detailed report about Data & Sensor Access, App Network Activity, Website Network Activity, and Most Contacted Domains. Here’s what each section means:

Data & Sensor Access: This shows how many times an app accessed your iPhone’s sensors (and when), such as camera, location, contacts, screen recording, media library, photo library, or microphone.
App Network Activity: This shows how many internet domains an app has contacted and when each contact took place. It includes domains contacted directly by the app and those referenced by content within the app, such as websites that might pull in content from other domains.
Website Network Activity: This section shows the internet domains that have been contacted by websites you visited through a web browser within an app.
Most Contacted Domains: This shows a ranking of the internet domains that have been contacted the most by your apps. On the internal App Privacy Report details page in iOS 15.2 or higher, Apple notes that high-ranking domains on this list might be used by multiple apps to build a profile of you across different apps or services.

See the below image:

Next, at any time, you can tap any entry on the list to see more details. Tap Show All at the bottom of each privacy report section to get a complete list. See the following image:

App Privacy Report Can Be a Risk

Enabling App Privacy Report on your iPhone will keep a detailed record of your internet activities on your iPhone (that is stored on your device). If you allow another person to access your iPhone, they can get a very detailed look at what you have been doing with your iPhone on the

Settings > Privacy > App Privacy

report page. If that’s the case, you might want to make sure that App Privacy Report is disabled.

Turn Off App Privacy Report

To disable App Privacy Report, navigate to

Settings > Privacy > App Privacy

then scroll down to the bottom of the page and tap Turn Off App Privacy Report. Refer to the below image:

After that, click OK in the pop-up message, and all existing privacy report activity will be deleted.

If your iPhone is locked down and never shared, App Privacy Report is a great tool to keep an eye on what apps have been doing behind the scenes.

Quote For the Day

Fear may come true that which one is afraid of.
Viktor E Frankl

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The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong Vietnam: Events and Aftermath

How to Check Privacy Polices of Your iPhone Apps

Apple recently introduced new “nutrition labels” for privacy in the iPhone App Store. With the help of these labels, you can quickly learn how an app can track you or use your personal information.

Apple recently introduced new “nutrition labels” for privacy in the iPhone App Store. With the help of these labels, you can quickly learn how an app can track you or use your personal information. Let’s explore how to view the privacy policies of apps you already have on your device.

This is for the iPhone

Dilbert and Stock — *Copyright Scott Adams, Inc./Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS*

First, open the App Store on your iPhone. Next, tap your profile image in the upper-right corner of your screen. Refer to below image:

Now, in your Profile, tap Purchased. See below image:

Privacy 2 — Selecting your Purchased apps

Next, select My Purchases. See following image:

Next, you will see a list of every app you have purchased or downloaded to your iPhone. Scroll through the list and tap the icon of the one whose privacy policies you would like to check. Refer to below image:

Privacy 4 — Selecting an app to check its Privacy policy

Now, you will be taken to the App Store page for that particular app. Scroll down the page until you see the App Privacy section. Here, you will see summaries of how the app tracks you or uses your data in sections like Data Used to Track You and Data Linked to You. See below image:

Privacy 5 — Selecting your App Privacy option

To see more details about the app Privacy, tap on the See Details link. See following image:

Here, you will get a detailed rundown about what information the app stores and how it is used. Refer to below image:

Privacy 7 — View the details about your app Privacy

Once you are done, tap Back twice and return to the list of purchased apps. To check another app, tap its icon and repeat the process above. If you do not like what you see, you can always delete the app.

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Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Just send an email to contact@techsavvy.life. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help us out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong: Events and Aftermath

How to View Privacy and Other Features in Safari for iPhone and iPad

Apple’s default web browser on iPhone or iPad is Safari, but have you ever taken the time to investigate its many hidden features and settings? We are going to concentrate on three features regarding security, privacy and the new start page. You may be amazed at what you find, at least we were.

Apple’s default web browser on iPhone or iPad is Safari, but have you ever taken the time to investigate its many hidden features and settings? We are going to concentrate on three features regarding security, privacy and the new start page. You may be amazed at what you find, at least we were.

With iOS or iPadOS 14 and higher, Safari has a few new tricks up its sleeve, including privacy reports, and password monitoring. Let’s explore three hidden features.

This is for the iPhone and iPad

Dilbert and Fedex — *Copyright Scott Adams, Inc./Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS*

Your Privacy Report

Cross-site trackers monitor your web-based activities as you surf from one site to another, an activity that can certainly raise privacy concerns. Safari blocks such trackers from profiling you by default, and now allows you to see which sites and trackers are blocked.

First, to check your Privacy Report, tap the aA icon in upper left-hand corner of a website. Next, tap Privacy Report. Refer to below image:

Now, your report will open. See below image:

In my Privacy Report, I have 164 trackers with 78% of visited websites with trackers.

Next, click the Show More link to learn more about the cross-site tracking and how Apple blocks them and to read about trackers. The window reveals how many trackers were prevented from profiling you and how many sites contacted such trackers. See following image:

Let’s go back one screen and tap the Show Less link. Now, scroll down till you see two tabs. Websites and Trackers tabs. Refer to below image:

Next, tap on a Website to see which trackers were blocked. See below image:

Safari 5 — Selecting a website for tracking info

In my example, I selected Microsoft.com. Yes, even Microsoft has trackers. You may be alarmed at the number and percentage of trackers wanting to profile you, especially if you access Safari a lot. Your device is blocking them.

You may tap on the Trackers link to see a list of trackers. See following image:

My son works for a cyber security firm. He helps recover “hacked” devices. If a person wants to “hack” your device, with the proper tools, they can. The best you can do, is to “protect” your device. by using security features on your device and apps, having strong passwords, using multi factor authentication, and the like.

Your iCloud Passwords

On your iPhone or iPad, you can now see any passwords saved in the iCloud Keychain that has been leaked in a data breach, are being reused for multiple login credentials, or are considered weak.

First, launch Settings (the gear icon). Refer to below image:

Now, scroll down to the Passwords option and tap it. See below image:

Safari 2 — Accessing the Passwords option

Next, tap the Security Recommendations option. See following image:

Safari 3 — Accessing Security Recommendations option

Now, you can tap a specific entry to delete or change the password. You may be surprised by passwords you have forgotten. Apple has provided a link to access the website for updating these passwords. In my example, I have one High Priority password that I need to change; one that I had forgotten about. The password for PayPal website has been erased for privacy purposes. Refer to below image:

Your New Start Page

Safari debuted a new Start page with the release of iOS/iPadOS 13. Open a new tab by taping the plus “+” button at the bottom of your screen. See below image:

Now, you will see your bookmarks, frequently visited sites, and Siri suggested sites. Tap the Show More or Show Less link in the upper right to see more or fewer icons. See following image:

Using SpeedTest

Althrough not a feature of privacy in Safari, you may want to know about the speed of your ISP for downloads and uploads. This tool is best used for a PC or Mac. Simply, head over to SpeedTest in your browser for your ISP speeds. Next, click the big round GO button. When it is finished, you will see your results like the image below:

Safari 13 — Results of running SpeedTest

You can click the GO button again to rerun the test. Your results will differ depending on the time of day and Internet traffic. The firm, Ookla, has specific apps for your operating system that you can download and use.

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Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help us out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong: Events and Aftermath