Interesting security features of iOS 14


iOS 14 and of course also iPadOS 14 have various new security features. They ensure, among other things, that your privacy is guaranteed a little more.

Literally the most eye-catching new security features (if you can call them that) of Apple’s latest mobile OS are the microphone and camera usage indicators. As soon as the microphone becomes active, an orange ball appears in the top right of the status bar. If the camera is actively used, you will see a green ball. If you are sure that one or both activities are not explicitly necessary for the use of an app, you should be very suspicious. For example, are you tapping into a word processing app and your camera is continuously active? That is more than suspicious!

Maybe it’s time to switch to another app and get rid of the very curious word processor as soon as possible. If the app really comes from a reliable source, reporting to the app maker may help. It may be a bug or the camera activity is really necessary (although that seems strong to us in this example). In short: keep an eye on the dots in the status bar.

Paste with citation

Another trick is that iOS 14 (and iPadOS 14 of course, but in the rest of this article we also mean the tablet OS when we write iOS 14) indicates from which app you paste something. In the past there were sometimes apps that put something unsolicited and secretly on the internal clipboard of iOS. Consider, for example, a link to an advertising or even rogue website. Or just another annoying text. From now on you can see from which app is pasting while pasting. For example, if that is a background app or a recently played game and you are sure that you wanted to paste something completely different, then it is wise to simply remove the sneaky source app. Which solved the problem.

iOS 14 shows exactly from which app you paste.  You see something unexpected that you are not waiting for?  Then you now know which app is at fault and can delete it.
iOS 14 shows exactly from which app you paste. You see something unexpected that you are not waiting for? Then you now know which app is at fault and can delete it.

Cloud geographic location

Then there are the apps that always want to know exactly where you are, geographically. Obviously not an unnecessary luxury for something like a navigation app. But should a social media app such as Facebook, for example, always know that? In fact, for those kinds of apps that collect non-essential precise location data, this is not necessary for anything. iOS 14 offers the option to provide an ‘approximately’ location instead of the exact position. Also quite a nice thought.

To turn that option on, launch the Settings app. Scroll down to your list of apps. Tap an app that you don’t want to be unnecessarily wise, such as that mentioned again Facebook. Then tap Location. You can now – as was always the case – opt for Never. This may lead to problems and errors for some apps. In that case, choose When using app and then turn on the switch at the back Exact location from. The app is satisfied and you know that you can never be traced exactly, let alone that your entire daily stay pattern is channeled down to the last detail.

Don't make apps like Facebook wiser than necessary, your exact location is only a commodity, for example.
Don’t make apps like Facebook wiser than necessary, your exact location is only a commodity, for example.

Get rid of WiFi tracking

Very nice is the option to prevent WiFi tracking. Normally your iPhone or iPad has a fixed Mac address. That is different from an IP address. The mac address is embedded in the hardware of a network chip. And with that, every user can be recognized flawlessly. In other words: have you been to a McDonalds once and have you used WiFi there? Then McDonalds can recognize you as a customer all over the world thanks to that mac address. Unless you use an iPhone or iPad with iOS 14. In it, a different MAC address is presented on public WiFi networks to WiFi networks to which you link.

Normally this feature works quietly in the background and does not cause any problems. And is therefore also on by default after the upgrade. However, if you suddenly can no longer connect to your own home network after the update to iOS 14, you can check whether turning off the option offers a solution. To do this, launch the Settings app and tap Wifi. Then tap the blue circled (and equally blue) i behind the network you want to connect to. Then put the switch behind Private adress from and see if you can connect now. You can turn this option on or off per WiFi network; so it’s not a drama if he’s out on your home network.

An automatically changing MAC address makes it impossible or at least a lot more difficult to follow you via WiFi hotspots
An automatically changing MAC address makes it impossible or at least a lot more difficult to follow you via WiFi hotspots

Block ad tracking, ff still waiting

One of the most acclaimed (user) features of iOS 14 is the ability to block ad tracking. Unfortunately, protests from Facebook, among others, have led Apple to postpone this option until later. The idea was and is simple: no longer give advertisers the opportunity to follow you everywhere online via advertising IDs and thus compile an extensive user profile. Such profiles are worth gold money in the marketing industry. But they also pose a major threat to your privacy. If all goes well, however, no cancellation will come from the given delay. Only more time is given to developers to find alternative sources of income. It is not known exactly when the option will be rolled out. Say between now and ‘somewhere’ next year.

iOS 14 requires more

Bottom line, you can say that iOS 14 asks for more and reports more. Do not push away security questions – however tempting at times – but think carefully about the answer. For example, you regularly see the question whether an app may access network locations. Makes sense in the case of something like a file manager, music player and network tools in general. Much less logical in the case of a fun game. If the question appears there, it is time to delete the game in question if not giving permission causes the game to stop working.

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