Apple Privacy Control

Control is yours.

Privacy is built in from the beginning, from the moment you open your new device to every time you use an app. Here are a few things to know so you can be even more secure.

Learn about privacy settings and controls.

Settings have been carefully designed to put you in control of your data. You can adjust what information is shared, where you share it and when it is backed up. And starting with iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5, you’re more in control of how apps use your personal data to track you.

View A Day in the Life of Your Data (PDF)
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Privacy and Security settings

Privacy and Security settings help you manage how much information you share across apps. Each data type shows how many apps are accessing that data, making it easier for you to find out and control how much information you’re sharing.

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Passwords app

Safely store all your credentials, including passwords, verification codes and security alerts, with end-to-end encryption in the Passwords app — and sync them all seamlessly across your devices.

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Accessory Setup Kit

Accessory Setup Kit allows app developers to offer an intuitive way to pair accessories while protecting information about your nearby Bluetooth® devices. This lets you seamlessly pair Bluetooth accessories with greater privacy.

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Locked and hidden apps

Help protect sensitive apps and the information inside them. Lock an app to require Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode for access. Information from the app doesn’t appear in other places across the system, including search results and notifications, to help prevent others from inadvertently seeing your sensitive information. And you can easily hide an app, which moves it into a hidden and locked apps folder.

Safety Check

This section in iOS Settings helps you disconnect your iPhone from people, apps and devices you no longer want to be connected to.

Learn more about personal safety with Apple devices

Sensitive Content Warning

Sensitive Content Warning helps you avoid seeing unwanted images and videos that may contain nudity by initially blurring them. It works in Messages, with AirDrop files, in FaceTime video messages, and in the Phone app when receiving a Contact Poster. This feature is optional and you can turn it on in Privacy & Security settings. All image and video processing occurs on your device, meaning that neither Apple nor any third party gets access to the content.

Privacy Nutrition Labels

Product pages on the App Store feature a section that provides developers’ self‑reported summaries of some of their privacy practices in a simple, easy‑to‑read label. This shows how developers are collecting and using your data, including information like your location, browsing history and contacts. This is part of ongoing work to increase transparency and control over your data, and Apple will continue to update this feature and work with developers to ensure that users can make informed choices.

Learn more about Privacy Nutrition Labels See how apps from Apple handle your data

App Tracking Transparency

Your devices carry the story of your life. We believe you should have a choice in how apps track and share your data with other companies for advertising or with data brokers.

Starting with iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5, apps are required to ask your permission when they want to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies. You can change your preference for any app or prevent apps from asking for permission entirely in Settings.

App Privacy Report

See at a glance what your apps have been up to when you turn on App Privacy Report. A section in Settings shows how often your location, photos, camera, microphone and contacts have been accessed during the last seven days. It also reveals which domains apps have contacted. Together with Privacy Nutrition Labels, this feature gives you a more complete picture of how the apps you use treat your privacy.

Pasteboard permission

Apps need to get your permission before accessing the pasteboard to paste content from another app.

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Third-party apps and permissions

Apple gives you transparency and control over the data you share with apps. Apps may request access to things such as your location, contacts, calendars or photos. You’ll receive a prompt with an explanation the first time a third-party app wants to use this data, so you can make an informed decision about granting permission. Even if you grant access once, you can always change it later in Settings. iOS and iPadOS require developers to get your permission before tracking you or your device across apps and websites owned by other companies for targeted ads or ad measurement purposes, or to share your data with data brokers.

No app can access the microphone or camera without your permission. In iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 or later, when an app uses the microphone or camera, your device displays an indicator to let you know they are being used — whether you are in the app, in another app or on the Home Screen. And Control Centre shows you when an app has recently used the microphone or camera. In iOS and iPadOS, access to the camera is disabled for an app when it is in the background.

Sometimes apps need to know what other devices are on your local network, like when you’re trying to connect to a smart TV or printer. Starting with iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, apps need to ask your permission before scanning your local network.

iOS and iPadOS also let you know when an app accesses your Clipboard, so you can confirm that it receives access to only the items you expect.

Data and privacy information

Data and privacy information screens make it easy to understand how Apple will use your personal information before you sign in or start using new features. When you see the Data and Privacy icon, you’ll find helpful information on what personal data may be shared and how it will be used to improve your experience.

Location data

Sometimes it’s useful for your device to know your location, like when you’re setting up meetings in Calendar or getting directions. Location Services on your device uses a combination of GPS, Bluetooth®, and crowd-sourced Wi‑Fi hotspots and mobile towers to figure out where you are. Apple gives you control over the collection and use of this location data on all your devices. Starting with iOS 14, iPadOS 14 and watchOS 7, you can choose whether apps have access to your approximate location — an area of about 26 square kilometres — rather than your precise location. Location Services is not on by default. You can enable it when you first set up your device, and you can always turn it off if you change your mind.

View the Location Services Privacy white paper (PDF)

Data and Privacy page

To give you more control over your personal information, we provide a set of dedicated privacy management tools on your Data and Privacy page. These tools give you the ability to get a copy of your data, request a correction to your data, deactivate your account or delete your account.

Learn more about taking control of your data Visit your Data and Privacy page

Analytics

If you choose to opt in, your iOS and iPadOS devices can collect analytics about your device and any paired Apple Watch, and send it to Apple for analysis. This analysis helps Apple improve products and reduce problems like apps crashing. The collected information does not identify you personally and can be sent to Apple only with your explicit consent. Analytics may include details about hardware and operating system specifications, performance statistics, and data about how you use your devices and applications. When it’s collected, personal data is either not logged at all, removed from reports before they’re sent to Apple, or protected by techniques such as Differential Privacy.

The information we gather using Differential Privacy helps us improve our services without compromising individual privacy. For example, this technology improves QuickType and emoji suggestions, as well as Look Up hints in Notes.

We identify commonly used data types in the Health app and web domains in Safari that cause performance issues. This information allows us to work with developers to improve your experience without revealing anything about your individual behaviour.

If you give your explicit consent to share iCloud Analytics, Apple can improve Siri and other intelligent features by analysing how you use iCloud data from your account, such as text snippets from email messages. Analysis happens only after the data has gone through privacy-enhancing techniques like Differential Privacy so that it cannot be associated with you or your account.

Advertising

Apple is committed to delivering advertising in a way that respects your privacy. Apple-delivered ads may appear on the App Store and Stocks. The Apple advertising platform does not track you, nor does it buy or share your personal information with other companies. Your Apple Pay transactions, Health app data and HomeKit app data are not used by the Apple advertising platform to deliver ads. Your App Store search and download history may be used to serve you relevant ads. You can view the information Apple uses to deliver relevant ads to you in Settings.

You can also turn off Personalised Ads at any time in Settings to stop receiving targeted ads on the App Store and Stocks. Turning off Personalised Ads will limit Apple’s ability to deliver relevant ads to you but may not reduce the number of ads you receive. The Apple advertising platform doesn’t serve ads to children under 13 years old and Managed Apple Accounts. In addition, Apple has strong guidelines for apps in the Kids category of the App Store, including prohibiting apps in the category from allowing third-party analytics or third-party advertising.

Secure your devices.

Prevent anyone except you from using your devices and accessing your information.

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Stolen Device Protection

Stolen Device Protection for iPhone enhances security when your device is away from familiar locations like home or work. It requires Face ID or Touch ID — with no passcode alternative or fallback — so that only you can access sensitive features such as stored passwords or credit cards. A security delay helps prevent immediate changes to critical settings if the device is stolen. This protection is available on iOS 17.3 or later and must be enabled in Settings.

Learn more about Stolen Device Protection

Lockdown Mode

Lockdown Mode helps defend against highly targeted spyware by providing optional protection for a specific group of users who face sophisticated digital attacks, such as those from private companies developing state-sponsored mercenary spyware. Lockdown Mode in iOS 16 or later, iPadOS 16 or later, macOS Ventura or later, and Apple Watch hardens device defenses and limits certain functionalities, sharply reducing the effectiveness of these spyware attacks.

Six-digit passcodes

Setting a passcode is the most important thing you can do to safeguard your device. The passcode on your Touch ID– or Face ID–enabled device is automatically set to six digits, creating a million possible combinations. You can also enable Erase Data in Settings to have your device wipe itself clean after 10 incorrect guesses.

Learn more about protecting your device with a passcode

Find My

Enabling Find My for iPhone, iPad and Mac helps keep you connected to your device even if it’s lost or stolen. Find My is built in a way that protects your privacy. It’s enabled automatically when you sign in to iCloud on a new device. You can see where your device is on a map — and where it has been — so you improve your chances of recovering it. If you’re unable to get your device back, you can remotely erase the personal data on it. Apple receives this location information only when you locate your device, turn on Lost Mode or enable Send Last Location. Location data is only retained for 24 hours so we can display the last known location of your device. Find My also automatically turns on Activation Lock, which requires your Apple Account to be entered before anyone can erase or reactivate your device.

The Find My network harnesses hundreds of millions of Apple devices with Bluetooth technology. It helps you detect missing devices or items near other Apple devices and reports their approximate location back to you. This entire process is end-to-end encrypted so your missing device’s location and information remains protected from Apple and third-party manufacturers.

Touch ID and Face ID

Touch ID and Face ID provide intuitive and secure authentication with the touch of a finger or a simple glance. Your fingerprint or face data is converted into a mathematical representation that is encrypted and used only by the Secure Enclave in your Mac, iPad or iPhone. Since fingerprint and face data is so personal, your device takes extraordinary measures to protect it. This data can’t be accessed by the operating system on your device or by any applications running on it. And it is never stored on Apple servers, or backed up to iCloud or anywhere else.

Learn more about Apple Platform Security

Two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication is the best way to keep your information safe because it adds a second layer of security to your Apple Account. It’s designed to ensure that even someone who knows your password can’t access your account. When you sign in on a new device or from the web, a verification code will be displayed automatically on all your trusted devices. Enter this code along with your password and you’ll be signed in. Anyone who can’t provide both your password and the verification code will be kept out. Once signed in, you won’t be asked for a verification code on that device again unless you sign out completely, erase the device, or need to change your password for security reasons.

Learn how to set up two-factor authentication

AirTag alerts

iPhone will inform you of an AirTag that doesn’t belong to you but is detected to be travelling with you. Once it has been discovered, you can get instructions on how to disable it. To further guard against unwanted tracking, an AirTag separated from its owner for an extended period of time will play a sound to draw attention to it.

Learn more about AirTag and alerts

More ways to keep your data safe.

Keep an eye out for fraudulent attempts to acquire your personal information.

Pay attention to notifications.

When you sign in for the first time on a new device, update your payment method, change your password or make other changes to your account, Apple notifies you with an email or a push notification. So if you receive a notification from us about a change that you don’t remember making, it could mean that someone has wrongfully accessed your account. If that happens, go to “Manage your Apple Account” to change your password immediately. If you need additional help, contact Apple Support for assistance.

Change your Apple Account password Contact Apple Account Support

Beware of phishing.

‘Phishing’ refers to fraudulent attempts to get personal information from you, such as your Apple Account password or credit card information, usually through an email or text message. The request may appear to be from a legitimate company or individual, but it’s not. Turning on two-factor authentication is the best way to protect yourself against phishing schemes designed to trick you into revealing your Apple Account credentials. Never provide your password, verification codes or any other sensitive account information over email or text messages. If you receive what you believe to be a phishing email purporting to be from Apple, send it to [email protected].

Learn more about protecting yourself from phishing

Learn more about privacy at Apple.

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