Stop Apps From Spying on You With This Simple iPhone Setting
Stop Apps From Spying on You With This Simple iPhone Setting
Publish Date: 2026-05-13 09:01:00
Source Domain: www.cnet.com
The apps on your iPhone are doing more than you hired them to do. While you’re using one app, others may be quietly collecting data about your habits, interests and behavior — then sharing it with advertisers that use it to track you across the internet with targeted ads. This isn’t a glitch or some hidden exploit; it’s how most free apps make money, and it’s happening by default on every iPhone. The good news is that Apple made the fix easy to find and it only takes a few seconds.
Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature gives Apple users a simple choice: to allow apps to track their activity or not. If you choose to opt out, Apple will prevent the app from accessing identifiers that link your device with your activity on an app, usually shared with advertisers to create targeted ads. Unless you give an app explicit permission to track you (including apps made by Apple), it can’t use your data for targeted ads, including sharing your location data, advertising ID or any other identifiers with advertisers or third parties.
This story is part of 12 Days of Tips, helping you make the most of your tech, home and health during the holiday season.
The feature was first unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in 2020 and was subsequently rolled out to users later that year in iOS 14.5. Since then, Apple has built on these efforts to increase transparency and privacy. In the iOS 17, Apple made a change that lets users select their default search engine when in private browsing mode, giving them the option to choose a search engine other than Google while in a private Safari tab, and added a feature that makes it harder for thieves to access sensitive information on stolen devices. The phone-maker continued to add robust anti-tracking features with each new iteration of the OS, ensuring users. are always the ones in control of their data.
The impact of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature has been wide-reaching across…
