Be careful when downloading Siri Shortcuts. Without you noticing, they can get away with your personal data. iPhone explains how to recognize these shortcuts and what to do about them.
Recognize unsafe Siri Shortcuts
Siri Shortcuts make your life easier, but you have to be careful when downloading shortcuts. It turns out to be childishly simple for a developer to run off with your personal data.
That says the maker of Codea, an app with which you can program. He was pointed out by an observant Twitter user of a shortcut that claims to speed up your iPhone, but actually forwards you contacts, addresses, and files.
Since Siri Shortcuts has only been around since iOS 12, many people still have to get used to the feature. According to the developer, this is where the danger lies. “You can’t expect an average user to understand what he agrees with when downloading.”
Also read: Siri Shortcuts in iOS 12: How to make Siri smarter and more useful to you
You can do this against it
He has shared the information with Apple, but the company has not yet responded. Until then, it’s important to use common sense before downloading a Siri Shortcut. For example, check beforehand whether the developer is in good standing.
On the Sharecuts website you can, for example, see who created the shortcut, and enter this name on Google. You can also try checking the developer on Twitter.
After downloading it is important to check what the Shortcut does exactly. To do this, tap ‘Show tasks’ and check each task. Is it all okay? Only then press ‘Retrieve order’.
Again, it is important to use common sense. If a shortcut says to automatically download wallpapers, it is not necessary to view your contact list.
About Siri Shortcuts
Siri Shortcuts automates certain apps and actions and works with the Shortcuts app. The feature was added in iOS 12 and is therefore not yet known to the general public. Do you want to get started yourself? Check out our Siri Shortcuts examples for inspiration, or watch the video below to get started: