Apple's Privacy Website Updated to Reflect Latest Measures Taken in iOS 12 and macOS Mojave

Apple today updated its privacy website to reflect the latest measures it has implemented in iOS 12 and macOS Mojave to protect customers.

apple privacy site
For example, the new page reflects that all apps submitted or updated on the App Store now require a privacy policy, a requirement that went into effect October 3. Apple already required a privacy policy for apps that accessed personal information, but even basic apps that do not share data must have one now.

In iOS 12 and macOS Mojave, Apple's so-called Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature has been improved. Now, when third-party tracking sites attempt to create cookies or store data, they can do so only with your explicit consent.

In macOS Mojave, Apple has made it harder for trackers to create a unique device fingerprint. Meanwhile, automatic strong passwords in Safari on iOS and macOS, which are end-to-end encrypted in iCloud Keychain, make it easier to sign in to sites without using social media logins that can facilitate user tracking.

Apple has also added protections for private data, such as requiring user consent for access to the camera and microphone on macOS Mojave.

Apple has expanded its use of end-to-end encryption to include Group FaceTime and Screen Time on iOS 12, while its use of Differential Privacy now extends to the personalized Memoji features users select to help identify popular features, such as hairstyle, so Apple can expand its choices in the future.

The updated privacy website also indicates that location data sent to nearby emergency services using RapidSOS is deleted after 24 hours.

As always, Apple believes privacy is a "fundamental human right," and aims to "minimize its collection of personal data." Apple says "the customer is not its product," and that its business model "does not depend on collecting personally identifiable information" to help targeted profiles marketed to advertisers.

Apple's privacy page has been updated a week before Apple CEO Tim Cook is set to speak at the 2018 International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners next Wednesday, October 24 in Brussels.

Popular Stories

election results 2024 live activities

Track 2024 U.S. Election Results Live on Your iPhone Lock Screen

Tuesday November 5, 2024 5:02 am PST by
Apple News is providing Live Activities support for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, allowing iPhone and iPad users to track electoral results in real time directly from their Lock Screen. The feature is rolling out for U.S. users over the course of Election Day, November 5, providing continuous updates of the electoral count. So if you're interested, you don't need to repeatedly check...
ios 18 2 chatgpt plus

iOS 18.2 Beta 2 Shows Siri ChatGPT Limit, Offers 'Plus' Upgrade Option

Monday November 4, 2024 10:54 am PST by
With the second beta of iOS 18.2 that's available for developers today, Apple has further fleshed out the ChatGPT integration that's available with Siri. In the Settings app, there's now a section that shows the ChatGPT daily limit, and offers an option to upgrade to the paid ChatGPT Plus plan. The beta includes an Advanced Capabilities section with a "Daily Limit" reading that shows up as...
New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

10 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Thursday October 31, 2024 9:42 am PDT by
Apple is set to release iOS 18.2 in December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. There are a handful of new non-AI related feature controls incoming as well. ...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.2 Beta 2

Monday November 4, 2024 12:34 pm PST by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 updates to developers, and Apple is continuing to refine the Apple Intelligence capabilities. There are also a handful of smaller features that are worth knowing about. Find My Find My has a new option to Share Item Location with an "airline or trusted person" that can help you locate something that you've misplaced....
best early black friday deals

The Best Early Black Friday Apple Deals

Friday November 1, 2024 8:21 am PDT by
We're officially in the month of Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 29 in 2024. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment,...
M4 M4 Pro vs M4 Max Feature

When to Expect New M4 MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro Models

Monday November 4, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Apple's fall 2024 Mac announcements have included new iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro models, all of which debuted with variants of Apple's M4 chip. Apple intends to update the rest of its Mac lineup with M4 series processors over the next 12 months, which will make it the first time that Apple has used the same chip generation across all of its Macs. This means we can expect new M4...
M4 Pro on Blue

M4 Pro Chip Benchmark Results Reveal an Extremely Impressive Performance Feat

Thursday October 31, 2024 7:06 pm PDT by
The first Geekbench 6 benchmark results for the M4 Pro chip surfaced today. Impressively, the results that are available so far show that the highest-end M4 Pro chip is faster than the highest-end M2 Ultra chip in terms of peak multi-core CPU performance. Here is a comparison of the results: Mac mini with M4 Pro (14-core CPU): 22,094 multi-core score (average of 11 results) Mac Studio...

Top Rated Comments

DNichter Avatar
79 months ago
Best out there when it comes to privacy. Huge reason why I continue to buy Apple.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
supremedesigner Avatar
79 months ago
This is the main reason I continue using Apple products and services. I applaud Apple for doing their best at this.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SteveJUAE Avatar
79 months ago
This seems more like backside covering than real protection. Get developers to write some policy even though it may never be certified or policed, but if it goes wrong Apple are covered :rolleyes:

Sounds good in principle but reality may be different IMO and maybe a false sense of security
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Defthand Avatar
79 months ago
Apple is trying to market a disadvantage (data collection and analytics) as a feature (privacy). And they're exploiting people's paranoia to keep people in the walled garden. But there's holes in that garden wall that people voluntarily allow to compromise their "privacy". Apple can't protect you from yourself when you surf the web and use outside services like Facebook.

Look, everyone wanted technology to anticipate their needs and advise them on decisions. That takes data. Compare Apple Maps to Google Maps. Following is Apple's data about a diner. Not much better than an ancient Yellow Pages ad.





(Below) Look what's achievable when you allow a service like Google to aggregate people's public habits. In addition to Apple's tech-less information, Google can suggest what time to visit. That is useful information.




Attachment Image

Attachment Image
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
m0sher Avatar
79 months ago
I like apples privacy protecting their customers from third-party tracking sites so they can do so only with your explicit consent.

There’s been a lot of shifty apps gathering information lately without our knowledge.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DoctorTech Avatar
79 months ago
Apple is trying to market a disadvantage (data collection and analytics) as a feature (privacy). And they're exploiting people's paranoia to keep people in the walled garden. But there's holes in that garden wall that people voluntarily allow to compromise their "privacy". Apple can't protect you from yourself when you surf the web and use outside services like Facebook.

Look, everyone wanted technology to anticipate their needs and advise them on decisions. That takes data. Compare Apple Maps to Google Maps. Following is Apple's data about a diner. Not much better than an ancient Yellow Pages ad.





(Below) Look what's achievable when you allow a service like Google to aggregate people's public habits. In addition to Apple's tech-less information, Google can suggest what time to visit. That is useful information.


Thank you for the comparison. I agree there are benefits to sharing data as you have demonstrated. It really comes down to "what else" are / could a company like Google be doing with my data? In other words, if I trust them to ONLY use my data for purposes like your example, I would not mind sharing my data with them. However, they routinely go beyond those uses for marketing purposes and potentially for even less noble purposes. It is a trade off between privacy and convenience and I still lean toward privacy.
[doublepost=1539794207][/doublepost]
Web browsing privacy on the device itself is a fallacy; if the authorities want to know what you've been looking at they will simply subpoena the network carrier/ISP who have the IP address of everything you’ve ever done with your device.
Unless you are using an offshore VPN that does not maintain logs of activity.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)