Wired
Apple has faced competition in recent years and has tried to use privacy as a key factor distinguishing it from other companies. Apple CEO Tim Cook also declared privacy as a “basic human right” last year. Smart phones are becoming more and more irreplaceable in people’s lives, and almost all personal information is covered in mobile phones.
Since the release of iOS 14, a series of privacy features have been introduced to allow iPhone users to better control their personal information. These protective measures will restrict application developers, online service providers and advertisers, because these people often break the boundaries of acceptable data collection.
To this end, the foreign media arstechnica reporter tested this new system and gave some initial impressions:
Camera and microphone access notification
For a long time, iOS allows users to control which applications can use the camera and microphone. Now, Apple has taken another step forward. In iOS 14, users will be notified in real time when an app captures audio or video from the phone. It also provides a list of applications that recently accessed the microphone or camera.
Under normal circumstances, real-time notifications are easily overlooked, which may be exactly what Apple wants. The image below shows the main screen when the iPhone SE guitar tuner turns on the microphone. The only indicator is the orange dot to the left of the battery indicator.
However, the reporter pointed out that the notifications of applications that have recently accessed the microphone are not as useful as he thought. According to his introduction, this list can only have one application at most, so even if he recently opened two or more accessible applications, he can only see the last one opened. There is another problem: if the application enters the control center more than 30 seconds before entering the control center, the list will be empty. These post-event notifications will appear at the top of the control center.
These restrictions greatly reduce the value of control center notifications because it requires users to visit the control center as early as possible and often. This function would be more useful if the list can be refreshed every two to six hours and display all applications that have accessed the microphone or camera during this time.
More detailed control over stored photos
Before iOS 14, users had two choices: either allow the app to access all stored photos or prohibit it. Now users have a new option-allow the application to access one or more specific photos, while other photos are still prohibited. I believe this is an unexpected feature for many users.
Want to access the application control of the local network
For example, smart home supporting applications have substantial reasons to access the local network, interact with the smart TV and use Bluetooth to detect whether the phone is nearby. However, in many cases, some applications that do not need to access the local network will still try to access your local network. In iOS 14, users can well prohibit such applications from accessing the local network.
More detailed control of location access
In the past, iOS users could grant or deny app location access permissions, and the location could be accurate to the physical address. Now location access permissions have also added new options. This is useful for a stargazing application, which may require a rough location but not an exact location.
Copy and paste notification
Whenever the app accesses the clipboard, iOS will provide a notification. This feature is very useful because the clipboard usually stores passwords, cryptocurrency wallet credentials and other highly sensitive information.
Notification of compromised password
In iOS 14, the system will remind the user of the leaked password in the password keychain and remind the user to modify it. Apple said that these are done in a secure and private way and will not even reveal the user’s password to Apple. The company did not specify how to do this. In this regard, Wired’s explanation is that this may be similar to the clever encryption technology behind Apple’s FindMy application.
New information disclosure requirements for software developers
After iOS 14 takes effect, app developers must disclose privacy protection measures to Apple. The detailed information required includes any location, contact information, purchase status, browsing history, personal financial status, and collection of unique identifiers.
Enjoy better privacy when using Wi-Fi
In 2014, with the launch of iOS 8, Apple increased MAC randomization, but researchers and users soon discovered that this method has a key limitation, that is, only when the device is probed to find a previously connected network This method is effective.
But Apple eventually resolved this restriction. By default, iOS 14 will use a “private address”, Apple refers to a randomly generated unique MAC for a specific network. To disable this function, users need to turn off Private Address in the SSID settings.
Ideally, it will periodically change the MAC address or allow users to change it manually, so a single Wi-Fi network cannot track users for a long time. According to the reporter’s short test, the random address seems to be permanently bound to a given SSID, even if you tell iOS to forget the network and log in again.
Website privacy report
Safari now provides a privacy report, which summarizes the trackers users have encountered in the past 30 days. Click the two letters on the left side of the address bar to access.
Anti-tracking delay means rejection of anti-tracking
One of the most anticipated privacy features is that application developers must obtain user consent before tracking user activities on third-party applications and websites. Unfortunately, after application developers, especially those of Facebook’s Instagram, have complained strongly, Apple has postponed the implementation of this feature until next year at the earliest.