What’s Your iPrivacy?

Category

Awareness

Risk Level

Apple introduced its native Screen Time application in the fall of 2018 to track and report your application and screen usage.  Its goal was simple: give users insight into just how much time they spend interacting with their device. The idea was to help people step away from their devices and be more present in the moment.  While this seems well intentioned, have you ever stopped to consider just how Apple captures that data? Your device counts every time you pick it up, set it down, and pick it back up. It knows every app you click on and how long you stay in it. So what else does it know?

It’s become a passing joke that we hold more computing power in the palm of our hand than it took to land Americans on the moon.  But all too often, we overlook why all that power is needed in a communication device. Don’t be naive, it’s communicating whether or not you’re clicking the buttons.

“Do I pull out the tin foil now?”

Yes and no.  At the extreme end, you can choose to ditch your device and thereby eliminate the source of collection.  Maybe you could dig out your old Nokia from your bottom drawer, with its battery likely only down to 73% after 17 years, and use a mobile phone as only a mobile phone. Ok, and maybe a game of snake.  Or, more realistically, you should build a practice of privacy diligence on your current device.

“Alas, this phone is all I have. So where do I start?”

Step one is easy: make sure your device is up to date (and stays up to date).  We’ve talked about the importance of software updates before.

Step two: Search or navigate to the Settings app and scroll down to Privacy.  From here, you can go through the dozen plus information inputs and control which apps have access to each item.  We’ve highlighted a few we believe are critical, but strongly suggest you go through each item and every submenu so you know what information your phone is using.  If you’re thinking “I don’t have time for that,” this will only take a few minutes and can be done on your morning commute (as long as you’re not driving), on a plane, or even while watching TV:

LOCATION SERVICES

• Check to see which apps are requesting access to your location.  Some are no-brainers that need access to work, like Waze navigation.  Others are harder to justify, such as Paypal’s need to know where you are.  

• If you’re unsure if location is critical to an apps functionality, disable it and see if your experience is diminished the next time you use the app; reenabling is as simple as a tap.

• Buried way at the bottom of this menu is the System Services.  Here you can limit items like location based ads, but the real goldmine is the Significant Locations.  We strongly suggest disabling this feature, which by its one description allows your iPhone and iCloud connected devices to learn places significant to you.  We also recommend clearing the history too.

CONTACTS 

• Scroll through and see what apps you’ve given access to in your contact list. Why does my crossword app need to know my friend’s email? Hint: it doesn’t

CALENDARS

• Be cognizant of what apps you share your schedule with.  Why, for example, does IMDB need to know when my dentist appointment is?  Does Formula 1 care if my 2:30 conference call slid into first practice?

MICROPHONE

• We’ve all heard the sensationalized stories of Alexa eavesdropping, but we often don’t realize we walk around with a mic listening in our pockets.  Take a look at what has access to determine if it should.  

• My favorite example here is the notorious third-party calculator app (no longer on the app store) that would enable your microphone every time it opened.

OTHER IMPORTANT ITEMS

You should check these too, but they that are pretty self explanatory:

• Photos

• Bluetooth

• Camera

• Motion and Fitness

The bottom line is easy: ask yourself every time why an app needs access to your information and if you don’t immediately know, turn it off.

“I’ve finished and I checked everything”

A note of congratulations in mastering your toggle swipes.  We applaud your extreme adaptation to limit data access, but unfortunately the game has just begun. You now have the task of ensuring every device meets your newfound expectation.  Worse yet, every new app will fight for its access to your sensors and must be appropriately held at bay. For example, if you do an app update, check in to make sure settings weren’t defaulted back to on.  Be careful, you can’t just set it and forget it.

Get in the habit of (eaves)dropping in at least monthly to the privacy section and skim through the toggles.  Is something enabled that shouldn’t be?

The price of free (and sometimes even paid)

The sad reality of today is that when something is free, you’re either the source (i.e., collecting information) or outlet (i.e., targeted ads) of its profit.  Be diligent with how your information is used and always err on the side of restriction. The old saying goes that “you shouldn’t say anything that you wouldn’t repeat in front of your grandmother.”  Well, I guess the 2021 version would have to go something like “if you won’t share it with grandma, then why would you share it with strangers?”

Long gone are the days of explicate privacy consent; in today’s world we live in an ever evolving quagmire of privacy restriction.

If you’re worried about third-party applications or even your native applications have access to your company’s most sensitive information, let’s chat about our Assessments.  These include all of our cybersecurity assessments to see where your organization may be at risk.  We’ll show you how to fix things and keep you doing what you do best. If this sounds like you, click the button below to start the conversation.

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