With the launch of iOS 15.2 which was produced recently and officially for the iPhone and the iPad (in the case of iPadOS 15.2), we received a series of news and features that we talked about a few months ago that don’t focus only on the device optimization.
One of the most anticipated features is the iOS 15.2 privacy report and we are going to teach you everything you need to know to be in control of your data. This way, you will easily know which apps and websites are capturing this information and where they are directing it.
Obviously, in order to take advantage of the new features of the privacy report, your iOS or iPadOS device must be updated to version 15.2. For that, you will only have to Head to the Settings app and navigate the menu via General> Software Update. This is the fastest way to install the update, known as OTA (Over The Air), however, there is also the option to perform a “clean” install of iOS 15.2 like us. This has already been said to you here on several occasions. Once you’ve made sure you have iOS 15.2, you’ll be able to run the new privacy report features.
What is the privacy report?
It should be noted that users do not have the privacy report enabled natively in iOS 15.2, by this I mean you will have to go to activate it, for this you have to follow the route Settings> Privacy> Privacy report and enable this new feature, at least that is the case if you have updated your current version of iOS 15.2 from a longer version.
In short, the Apple Privacy Report for apps was designed to give us a comprehensive view of how the apps we regularly use treat our personal data. In the report we will find information about how often apps use the permissions we have granted them, as well as access to the device’s sensors. Likewise, the network activity of every app and website we visited through Safari (or other browsers) will be broken down in a schematic and easy-to-understand way. This way, we will know if the apps are taking advantage of the permissions we have granted to share our information with third parties.
- Settings> Privacy> App privacy report
There is a lot of information that he shows us, however, Apple launched this tool not to actively protect itself, but to become aware of how our data is handled. In this way, we can take control and decide whether or not we want this data processing to take place.
The different sections of the privacy report
To show us this information, Apple has decided to differentiate itself in each of the most important sectors, and to bring this information together in an accessible and schematic way. How could it be otherwise, we have different sections or sections for this:
- Access to data and sensors: This section will show us not only when, but also precisely how many times an app has accessed different data, sensors and specific hardware sections of our device, including: camera, contacts, location, media library, microphone, photo library or screen recording. We will see a summary of the applications that have accessed these items during the last week (we can click on “show all” to see all apps) and if we click on a specific app we will see what information it accessed and how many times it accessed it.
- Application network activity: In this section, we’ll be made aware of which domains are contacting an app (and vice versa), as well as the exact date and time that contact took place. This can be the most worrying, you will see for example how Instagram regularly contacts Facebook’s servers to send our information, process it and thus focus ads in a personalized way. It is not always dangerous, sometimes contacting the domains is necessary for some functionality of the application, although its main task is to manage the advertising shown to us.
- Website network activity:
Is the app privacy report safe?
The information displayed in the privacy report is stored locally on our device and is not even shared with Apple. In fact, if we turn off the feature, the data will be deleted directly from the device and we will not be able to see it again, as it would happen if we uninstalled an app, which would cause the information related to it to disappear.
However, if we want to analyze this data in a massive way or using more complex tools, we can press the “share” button that appears in the upper right corner, that way, we can use the main messaging apps as well as email to send us the report and analyze it as we see fit.
As we have already said, Apple intends to be transparent in the management of our privacy. We are used to granting permissions, but companies do not inform us about the actual treatment that is given to our data, You might think they are accessing contacts so that we can send them a WhatsApp, but the reality is that they take advantage of having access to all this information to create more accurate ad profiles, or for less ethical purposes, like this has been demonstrated on numerous occasions. It’s up to you to keep your privacy, now Apple makes it easy for you.