Apple's Privacy Team Does Deep Dive Into iOS 18 Privacy Features

Apple's User Privacy Engineering Manager Katie Skinner and Privacy Product Marketing Lead Sandy Parakilas recently sat down with YouTuber Andru Edwards for a wide-ranging discussion on Apple's privacy policies.


Topics covered include Apple's approach to privacy, the ways Apple contends with privacy laws in different countries, and how Apple deals with government requests, plus there's a good deal of information on the new features in iOS 18.

Some of what's discussed covers privacy information that Apple has reiterated over and over again, but there are some interesting tidbits on Apple's adoption of ChatGPT, Maps privacy, the Passwords app, and accessory pairing in iOS 18.

It's a long discussion at almost 45 minutes, but worth it for those who want a bit more insight into Apple's philosophy on privacy.

Popular Stories

top stories 2025 12 20

Top Stories: iOS 26.3 Beta, Major Apple Leaks, and More

Saturday December 20, 2025 6:00 am PST by
You'd think things would be slowing down heading into the holidays, but this week saw a whirlwind of Apple leaks and rumors while Apple started its next cycle of betas following last week's release of iOS 26.2 and related updates. This week also saw the release of a new Apple Music integration with ChatGPT, so read on below for all the details on this week's biggest stories! Top Stories i...
maxresdefault

Where's the New Apple TV?

Monday December 22, 2025 11:30 am PST by
Apple hasn't updated the Apple TV 4K since 2022, and 2025 was supposed to be the year that we got a refresh. There were rumors suggesting Apple would release the new Apple TV before the end of 2025, but it looks like that's not going to happen now. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said several times across 2024 and 2025 that Apple would...
iPhone Top Left Hole Punch Face ID Feature Purple

iPhone 18 Pro Features Leaked in New Report, Including Under-Screen Face ID

Tuesday December 16, 2025 8:44 am PST by
Next year's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will be equipped with under-screen Face ID, and the front camera will be moved to the top-left corner of the screen, according to a new report from The Information's Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu. As a result of these changes, the report said the iPhone 18 Pro models will not have a pill-shaped Dynamic Island cutout at the top of the screen....
ios 18 security update

Don't Want to Upgrade to iOS 26? Here's How to Stay on iOS 18 [Update: Now Unavailable]

Friday December 19, 2025 10:37 am PST by
Since the beginning of December, Apple has been pushing iPhone users who opted to stay on iOS 18 to install iOS 26 instead. Apple started by making the iOS 18 upgrades less visible, and has now transitioned to making new iOS 18 updates unavailable on any device capable of running iOS 26. If you have an iPhone 11 or later, Apple is no longer offering new versions of iOS 18, even though there...
iPhone Chips

Apple Clings to Samsung as RAM Prices Soar

Monday December 22, 2025 6:17 am PST by
Apple is significantly increasing its reliance on Samsung for iPhone memory as component prices surge, according to The Korea Economic Daily. Apple is said to be expanding the share of iPhone memory it sources from Samsung due to rapidly rising memory prices. The shift is expected to result in Samsung supplying roughly 60% to 70% of the low-power DRAM used in the iPhone 17, compared with a...
apple beta 26 lineup

Apple's 2026 and 2027 Product Roadmap: Foldable iPhone, iPhone 18 Pro, M5 Macs, and More

Tuesday December 16, 2025 4:42 pm PST by
There has been a whirlwind of rumors over the last few days, sourced from leaked internal software designed for the iPhone and the Mac, and news sites like The Information. Below, we have a quick recap of everything we've heard this week, which serves as a guide to Apple's product plans in 2026 and beyond. We've organized the info by likely release date, though there are some products that...
generic tracking prompt orange

Apple Hit With Supersized Fine in Italy Over an iPhone Privacy Feature

Monday December 22, 2025 7:47 am PST by
Italy's Competition Authority (AGCM) has imposed a €98.6 million ($116 million) fine on Apple over its App Tracking Transparency feature. Since the release of iOS 14.5 in April 2021, Apple has required apps to ask for permission before tracking a user's activity across other apps and websites for personalized advertising, as part of a feature named App Tracking Transparency. If a user...

Top Rated Comments

joeblough Avatar
19 months ago
i'll never understand this. installing almost any ad blocker will show you just how many known tracking servers your apps are contacting. maybe safari blocks them but let's face it, that's much less than half the battle now.

i mean heck, almost every app's "privacy label" shows that so much of your data is collected and linked to you. so how exactly is apple/iphone promoting your privacy?
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple_Robert Avatar
19 months ago
If you bother to watch the video, you will quickly see, that the Apple employees don’t actually answer a lot (if not most) of the questions asked.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
antiprotest Avatar
19 months ago

If you bother to watch the video, you will quickly see, that the Apple employees don’t actually answer a lot (if not most) of the questions asked.
Contrary to the title it's a shallow dip and not a deep dive.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
steve09090 Avatar
19 months ago

All PR spin to counter their move to use AI. Everybody knows Apple collects your data (and uses it for their own purposes) but they also allow apps to collect data. Of course Apple aren't the bad guys though because they allow you to "turn it off" through privacy settings. So wholesome. Thank you for protecting us, Tim!
So you haven’t watched it then?
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
steve09090 Avatar
19 months ago

Bragging about privacy when putting chatgpt on your devices is a joke.
I guess if you actually looked at how it is being implemented, and watched the video, you would understand that every single time you use ChatGPT, you have to physically press the OK button to allow ChatGPT to steal, I mean harvest, I mean use your data. There are 4 points to privacy and security and knowing when and allowing data to be used is one of them. They have been 100% transparent. But saying or acknowledging that doesn’t suit the agenda of people who refuse to do the research.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
icanhazmac Avatar
19 months ago

i mean heck, almost every app's "privacy label" shows that so much of your data is collected and linked to you. so how exactly is apple/iphone promoting your privacy?
The way I look at the Privacy Labels is at least you are being told, and on the rare occasion you find an app that doesn't collect info you can give that app a little extra weight in your decision.

Consumers in the EU will start to lose those with the advent of alt-stores. I am very sure Epic will not force devs to declare the data they hoover as I am sure Epic will be hoovering with the best of them.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)