Apple once again lead the digital evolution with their new announcement of further privacy changes to give users more privacy controls over their apps and therefore the data apps are able to use.

The new privacy features are released in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, and watchOS 8. These represent Apple’s latest developments in user privacy and will very likely encourage change across the industry with new features such as App Tracking Transparency and Privacy Nutrition Labels on the App Store. Below we list the key updates:

Mail Privacy Protection
This stops email senders collecting information about the user in Apple Mail. Prevents senders from knowing when the recipient has opened an email and masks their IP address so it can’t be linked to other online activity or to determine the location of the receiver.

Intelligent Tracking Prevention
This helps protect Safari web browser users from unwanted tracking. Hides the user’s IP address from trackers, meaning that it cannot be used as a unique identifier to connect activity across websites and build a targeting profile about them.

App Privacy Report
Users can see how often apps have accessed their location, photos, camera, microphone, and contacts during the past seven days.

Process Audio of Siri Requests on Device
The audio of users’ requests to Apple’s digital assistant, Siri, is processed on their iPhone or iPad by default, and can be requested at any time. This is instead of the audio being sent to a remote service where it can be analysed and kept for other purposes such as marketing – which happens with all of Amazon’s Alexa devices.

Enhance Internet Privacy with iCloud+
iCloud+ now includes new premium features such as Private Relay, Hide My Email, and expanded HomeKit Secure Video support.

• Private Relay is a new internet privacy service built into iCloud which ensures all traffic leaving a user’s device is encrypted, so no one between the user and the website they are visiting can access and read it, not even Apple.
• Hide My Email lets users share unique, random email addresses that forward to their personal inbox anytime they wish to keep their personal email address private. Hide My Email also enables users to create and delete as many addresses as needed at any time.
• HomeKit Secure Video has been updated so that users can connect more cameras in the Home app, while giving them end-to-end encrypted storage for home security video footage that will not count against their storage capacity.

Security is an on-going concern, with constant advances in technology the tactics of hackers also increase. The need for proactive security, secure methods of transferring data and elevated privacy measures are at an all-time high – and Apple’s new features highlight that more really can be done to keep users’ information safe.

For more information read Apple’s announcement or contact us to discuss best practices to keep your information safe.