iPhone tips: 10 smart Apple features to protect your privacy

If you use an iPhone, your privacy is automatically danger. That is why in these iPhone tips 10 smart Apple features that protect your privacy.

Iphone tips: 10x Protect your privacy

You get more privacy if you lock or hide certain apps, or by hiding your e-mail address. In this week’s iPhone tips we show how you can use these and other smart Apple features to protect your privacy.

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1. Lock or hide an app

By locking and hiding apps, you are sure that others will not see any personal information when you show your screen to someone or lend your iPhone. If you hide an app, it remains invisible. If you lock an app, Face ID, Touch ID or an access code is needed to use the app. You can lock an app as follows:

If you also want to hide an app, then choose ‘Hide and require face ID’ in the second step. If you want to remove the extra security, it works in almost the same way. In the second step, only choose ‘Requile Facer ID’.

2. Share a specific contact person with an app

With the improved access rights for contact persons in iOS 18 you can indicate exactly to which contact persons an app has access. That way you don’t have to give apps access to all your contacts. You set it as follows:

• Open the app settings;
• Tap ‘privacy and security’ and then on ‘contacts’;
• Choose an app in the list and select ‘None’, ‘limited access’ or ‘full access’;

3. Lock private windows in Safari automatically

When you use private windows in Safari, Safari does not remember which pages you have visited. Your searches are also not stored. You can also automatically lock private windows, so that you do not necessarily have to close your tabs. If you need them again, just unlock them with Face ID, Touch ID or your access code. This is how you set it:

• Open the app settings;
• Scroll down and tap ‘Apps’;
• Scroll down and tap ‘Safari’;
• Call in the ‘Face ID required to lock private mode’.

4. Use the private mode against tracking

Sometimes additional information is added to web links so that websites can follow you. This information is automatically deleted from links that you share in messages and mail, while the links themselves continue to work. In Safari’s private mode, this information is also removed from the links. So preferably use Safari and switch on the private mode. You do the latter like that:

• Open safari on your iPhone;
• Press the tab icon for a long time at the bottom right;
• In the shortcut menu, tap ‘New private tab’.

5. Take advantage of the safety control

If you are worried about your personal safety, you can quickly stop sharing information through safety control. Via safety control you can check with whom you share information, limit access to messages and Facetime on your iPhone, change your access code and much more.

Safety control is only available on an iPhone with iOS 16 or newer. To use safety control, you need an Apple account for which two-factor authentication is used. You start safety control as follows:

• Open the app settings;
• Tap ‘privacy and security’;
• Scroll down and tap ‘security control’.

6. Use the report on Privacy of Apps

The report on Privacy of Apps indicates how apps use the granted permission to access your data. If you enable the report, you can see exactly how often apps require access to your data, for example your location, your camera or your microphone.

The report on Apps privacy only starts with collecting information after you have hired it. As a result, it can take a while before details are displayed. You can switch on:

• Open the app settings;
• Tap ‘privacy and security’;
• Choose ‘Apps privacy report’
• Tap ‘Switch on privacy report’.

7. Hide your e-mail address

With ‘Hide my e-mail address’ (part of an iCloud+subscription) you can create unique, random e-mail addresses for use in apps and on websites. This way your personal e-mail address remains private, regardless of whether you are creating a new account in an app, sign up online for a newsletter, or make a purchase via Apple Pay. You can create addresses for ‘hide my e -mail address’ as follows:

• Open the app settings;
• Tap your name and then on ‘iCloud’;
• Tap ‘Hide my e-mail address’.

You see all the addresses you have already used there. If you want to create a new one, tap ‘+ Create new e-mail address’.

8. Only share an estimate of your location

At the location facilities you can indicate whether apps will see your exact location, or an estimate (within an area of ​​approximately 25 km²). For example, you can search for a restaurant nearby or view the local weather forecast without giving up exactly where you are. You disable the option ‘Exact location’ as follows:

• Open the app settings;
• Tap ‘privacy and security’;
• Now tap ‘location facilities’;

Choose an app whose setting you want to change. You then switch off the ‘Exact location’ option.

9. Get to know recording indicators

An indicator appears on your iPhone when an app uses the microphone or camera. An orange dot indicates that the microphone is used. If you see a green dot, the camera is used (or both the camera and the microphone). That way you always know exactly what is happening.

Apple has one overview page On which you are depicted all the indicators that can appear on your iPhone, including their meaning. It is a good idea to go through that page.

10. Use private passage in iCloud

‘Private passage in iCloud’ (part of an iCloud+subscription) protects your privacy by ensuring that nobody-not even Apple-can see who you are and which websites you view when you use Safari. Set private passage in iCloud on your iPhone you do this:

• Open the app settings;
• Tap your name and then on ‘iCloud’;
• Now tap ‘private passage’ and call in ‘private passage’;

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