When you're using devices that are always connected to the internet, it's difficult to completely protect your privacy. Luckily, there are plenty of great privacy hacks for your iPhone, which you can use to make it harder for trackers and spies to collect your data and snoop on your business. From built-in solutions, like adjusting app permissions, to purchasing privacy screen protectors, here are 10 hacks every iPhone user should consider to protect their privacy.
iPhone 17 (256GB) $724.68 at Amazon $790.41 Save $65.73 Shop Now Shop Now $724.68 at Amazon $790.41 Save $65.73These screen protectors can make it easier to use your phone in public spaces without worrying about who's looking at its screen. That said, there are a few potential dealbreakers. These screen protectors are rather plasticky, and don't feel as nice or smooth as your iPhone's touchscreen. These products also lower your screen's brightness. I don't mind, but it can be a problem if you're trying to use your phone in bright lighting. If you can live with these cons though, this is a cheap privacy hack that's definitely worth considering.
Stop Apple from collecting your data (as much as you can)
Credit: Pranay ParabPrivacy & Security on your iPhone. On that page, you can navigate to these pages to disable quite a bit of tracking:
Apple Advertising
System Services
I used to allow all permissions an app requested when I first opened it. Over time, I realized that this led to a lot of notification spam, unnecessary data collection, and significant battery drain if the app was tracking my location. That's why I developed a new strategy: deny all permissions unless an app absolutely needs it. In general, I almost always deny permissions for the following: notifications, access to contacts, location, camera, microphone, and photos.
Privacy & Security in case you missed them while setting up an app.
Consider deleting apps known to track you
While the App Tracking Transparency option on your iPhone does reduce data collection from many apps, it's far from foolproof. In general, apps have access to far more data than their web versions, so try switching from apps to mobile websites wherever possible. If you delete apps such as Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, and switch to logging in via Safari, you'll give away much less data, and some of the data you would otherwise give to the web apps will be blocked or spiked by Safari's privacy features, further protecting your data. As an added bonus, since web apps are generally a worse experience than dedicated apps, you're also far less likely to fall into a doomscrolling trap. I've used this fairly effectively with social media apps, but you can't always delete apps, like WhatsApp.
Install an adblocker (or use a better DNS)
Credit: Justin PotA good VPN protects your web browsing by routing your traffic through an encrypted network, in the process hiding your device's IP address. As such, it's much easier to surf the web anonymously, and much harder for websites and internet service providers to track your activity.
If you're subscribed to Apple's iCloud plans, you should also consider enabling iCloud Private Relay to add a layer of privacy to your activity on Safari. iCloud Private Relay doesn't work with traffic from any other app, which makes it less useful than a VPN app, but if you only want to reduce browser data tracking from advertisers and your internet provider, it's good enough.
Safety Check is a must-have
Privacy & Security > Safety Check > Manage Sharing & Access. You can go through the prompts to review app permissions, and set up an emergency contact, which ensures that your data (and you) are safe. While you can manually access all these options in the Settings app, the Safety Check prompt lets you find all features without combing through multiple pages, which will save you a lot of time.
There are many ways to generate an email alias, but few are as easy as using Apple's Hide My Email feature. This feature is available to anyone who's paying for iCloud. On your iPhone, head over to Settings > [YOUR NAME] > iCloud > Hide My Email to create a new alias. When you're creating an account on various websites or apps, you'll also see a prompt to use Hide My Email above the keyboard, letting you generate an email alias with a single tap.
A password manager is a great privacy tool
Credit: LifehackerEven better, these apps can manage passkeys to help you log in to your online accounts. Passkeys eliminate the need to remember passwords, and are far more resistant to phishing attacks that could compromise your accounts. For more information on passkeys, check out our full guide here.
Back up your data outside of the cloud for extra security
You should always have at least two backups of your data. If iCloud is down, or if Apple decides to lock you out of your account for any reason, there's nothing you can do to recover anything stored on the company's servers. However, having an encrypted offline backup of your data allows you to access it even when you don't have a working internet connection. You will need a laptop or a desktop computer running Windows or macOS for this step.
This isn't necessarily an iPhone privacy tip as much as it is a general privacy hack, but it's worth mentioning. These days, trackers and hackers effectively use social media posts, photos, and videos to profile you. While there are plenty of steps you can take to limit the data you share on social media, you might not know you can remove identifying data from photos you post online. "Exif" data includes a host of stats about the hardware that took the image, including your camera make and model, shutter speed, focal length, and, perhaps most importantly, location. You don't have to avoid sharing photos to protect this data, however: just remove the exif data before posting.
Use encrypted messaging apps to protect your conversations
Credit: Pranay ParabWhen you're letting someone else use your iPhone for a bit, you should enable Guided Access to prevent them from snooping. Guided Access prevents users from leaving the app you currently have on screen, so if you let someone use the Google app on your phone, they won't be able to go through your messages or photos instead. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access and enable the feature. You can use a passcode or Face ID to toggle a Guided Access session.
Use Lockdown Mode to prevent extreme attacks on your iPhone
Most people are never going to need to use Lockdown Mode, because it's designed to protect your data when it's under attack from government surveillance or from espionage. That said, it's still worth knowing about this tool in case you ever face a cyberattack or if you suspect that your iPhone has been infected with spyware. Lockdown Mode disables message attachments, links and link previews, most incoming FaceTime calls, many Apple services, certain web technologies and fonts in Safari, and many other features, that bad actors can use to obtain your private data.
Privacy & Security > Lockdown Mode to enable it.
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