A Deep Dive into Advanced Security Measures
Data privacy has been a significant conversation over the last two decades, but it seems to have reached a new level over the last few years. With incidents of cyber breaches increasing to over 5 billion a year, and increased awareness of data brokers tracking and selling user information whenever they are online, users around the world are growing more concerned about how their privacy is protected from the big tech companies.
Thankfully, in 2023, you can opt out of data brokers and take sensitive personal data off the internet, but it shouldn’t solely be up to the user to defend their data – it should be down to the tech corporations too. With 67% of internet users concerned about the way companies are taking and using their data, there is a strong element of distrust between big organisations and their consumers.
The Problem with Apple
In 2022, for instance, it was revealed that Apple collected analytics data from devices even after the ability to do so was turned off by users in the privacy settings. With Apple being the most successful tech company, this is a prime example of where tech industry have to constantly improve how to draw the line between service integration and ethical considerations.
And it becomes even more troublesome considering Apple has built up a privacy policy, indicating their emphasis on user privacy at the center stage over the ecosystem. So, if you are concerned about your data, should you continue using Apple products. Have they got any plans to enhance their security measures in the future even further? Definitely yes.
Diving Into Advanced Security Measures
Nine months on from the data report in 2022, Apple announced new privacy and security innovations. For starters, they have improved Safari private browsing with major updates, with advanced tracking and fingerprinting protections. New tools also give developers more information about data practices of third-party software kits, improving the integrity of the software supply chain.
Lockdown mode is also an innovation that provides more protections for user data, giving them safer wireless connectivity defaults, media sharing defaults, network security optimizations, and more.
Other protections include password and passkeys updates, additional features such as “check in”, “namedrop”, “live voicemail”, sensitive content warnings, line tracking protection, and photo privacy permission improvements.
The Future of Privacy
Despite not exactly adhering to it, Apple has long claimed to be a company that respects and protects user data. These new upgrades and improvements go a long way to achieving that, but there are still issues with the system, namely the risks and vulnerabilities to iCloud – a unknown amount of data is still collected, from detailed logs of contacts, to browsing history, map search history, messages, and device backups.
Apple’s hardware is one of the most secure on the market, but that doesn’t mean every user is completely protected.
If you are concerned about Apple’s privacy policies, you don’t have to stop using Apple devices. But you should become aware of how to control who gets your data. Log into the “privacy” section of Apple’s settings and you can decide which apps are receiving your data.
When it comes to browsing, as mentioned before, there are also ways to opt out of data brokers and delete your information from Google.
Until data privacy becomes the number one concern for companies like Apple, it is still up to the consumer to protect themselves and reclaim ownership of their data.