You can make it a lot more difficult for companies that are monitoring you by increasing the privacy on your iPhone. This is how you do it!
More privacy on your iPhone in a few steps
When you go online, companies can track you. If you don’t want that at all, it’s better to stay offline. But if you increase the privacy on your iPhone, you will certainly make things a lot more difficult for those companies! We have listed five effective adjustments for you.
1. Disable ‘personalized advertising’
Although Apple promises that you will not be tracked for personal advertising, the company can still use your search and download history in the App Store for this purpose. That’s why it’s still a good idea to disable the ‘Personalized advertising’ option. You do this as follows:
- Open the Settings app;
- Tap ‘Privacy & security’;
- Scroll down and tap ‘Apple advertising’;
- Disable the ‘Personalised advertising’ option.
2. Limit your location for certain apps
Some apps need your exact location to function properly, such as navigation apps. But there are also many apps that can do without it while still having access to your location. You can put a stop to that.
You have two options: you can adjust the setting per app you have installed, you can also temporarily hide your location from all apps. We’ll show you how it works:
- Open the Settings app;
- Tap ‘Privacy & security’;
- Tap the ‘Location Services’ heading.
To temporarily hide your location from all apps, turn off the Location Services option. For the other option, go through all the apps and set the value of the apps that you want to deny access to ‘Never’. This way you can quickly increase the privacy on your iPhone significantly.
3. Turn off ‘Ad Tracking’
Since iOS 14.5, apps have to ask permission before they can track you. It is best to set it to refuse this by default. This prevents apps from asking your permission again and again. This is how you set it:
- Open the Settings app;
- Tap ‘Privacy & Security’ and then ‘Tracking’;
- Turn off ‘Allow tracking requests from apps’.
4. Surf with more privacy on your iPhone
Because websites place cookies, they keep track of which websites you visit. Safari partially protects you against this, but not completely. If you want more privacy while surfing on your iPhone, it is a good idea to use the browser DuckDuckGo to use.
If you prefer to stick to Safari, delete the cookies more often and surf in private mode so that you leave fewer traces.
5. App with more privacy on your iPhone
There is a good chance that you, like almost everyone in the Netherlands, use WhatsApp to text. This service is from Meta, just like Facebook and Instagram, and that is not the most reliable company when it comes to privacy on your iPhone. You can find an alternative like Signal use it, but then your contacts must do the same.
If you stay with WhatsApp, be sure to check all the privacy settings at the following location:
- Open WhatsApp;
- Tap ‘Settings’ at the bottom;
- Tap ‘Privacy’.
More tips for your iPhone?
Did you like these tips and want more? On iPhoned you can read useful tips and tricks for your iPhone every week!
Download the iPhoned app
