Apple has added tabs related to user privacy to the list of product pages in its iPhone and iPad App stores for various types of apps.
These privacy labels appear in a box at the bottom of the app listings so that users can see them when they download without having to read their lengthy privacy policies. The importance of these “privacy labels” is that they can alert you to the fact that annoying advertisers may collect and use data from your phone, politicians may manipulate your behavior, and the government may track you.
A story by Joffrey Fleur in the Washington Post notes that while this is a step forward, after experimenting with it himself, he found that Apple’s privacy label is not easy to understand.
Some apps take far more information from your phone than they need to complete their tasks, which you’ll notice when you read the privacy policies of other apps that perform similar tasks. For example, you can see that the video conferencing app Zoom asks for six types of data related to your identity, while the competing app Cisco Webex says it won’t collect any data other than what is needed to run the app.
In this story, the authors also highlight some of the basic information and things we should be aware of when looking at these privacy labels.
Categorization
Apple’s privacy labels include 4 categories that identify the type of data used. Three of them explain how your data will be used based on a list of usage levels, and another one claims that your data will not be used. You can click on each category to get more details.
The “tracked” data category
For most people, this category is the most worrisome because it means that the app collects information such as the email address used to identify the user so that the company can link your activity within the app to your activity within other websites, or even keep track of your purchases in physical stores.
According to Apple’s definition, the “tracking” category includes data media that is used for the purpose of delivering ads to users, measuring the effectiveness of ads, or contributing to the possible retention of files.
Apple’s definition of the “Tracking” category includes the purpose of delivering ads to users and measuring the effectiveness of ads (social networking sites)
“Related” data categories
Applications in this category explain the way in which data that may be “relevant” to users is collected or shared, which is a broad category. On the details page, data collection will be categorized by purpose, such as showing you ads from outside companies or researching your use of other applications, such as Google Analytics.
“Unrelated” data categories
This type of application collects data that is not “personal information”. This category uses only non-personal data and ensures that no existing data is used to your detriment, such as your IP address, etc.
The category that does not collect data
Apps in this category are safe and Apple has added a blue check mark to these apps. Apps in this category do not send data to anyone other than the user, and do so only for operational purposes.
Caution
The authors say that the more data an app asks for, the more likely it is to involve you in something you’re not happy about. facebook’s detailed privacy list can be 14 pages long, which means it’s working to sell you information.
If you’re unhappy with the amount of data that appears on the privacy tab, you can also try to find apps that collect less data as an alternative. In this way, apps will have to scramble to reduce the amount of user data they collect in order to win consumer choice.
But this is only a general rule, and you may also find that certain apps use a lot of data for good, such as preventing fraud. You may also find that an app tries to track you, but only to check the effectiveness of its ads, not to sell your information to others.
At the same Time, you should also be cautious when an app’s privacy label is too short, or even displays a “no data collected” label, as these labels may not be accurate because Apple does not verify labels before they are released.
When reading privacy labels, look for the term “identifier” because it may contain your device ID, which Apple provides to applications that may link data from different sources.
You can change the settings on your device to prevent apps from reading your device ID.
Reading your location will not only allow others to track you, but will also expose your privacy, such as your itinerary.
Apps should indeed ask your explicit permission to track your location, but privacy labels can also give us some clues as to what apps are doing with your information.
Apps can use your location information for a variety of purposes, whether it’s for the normal operation of the app, for precise placement of ads, or to secretly sell your information.
The authors point out that a personal rule on issues related to location is to simply decline location requests when they are made by apps. If it turns out that the app you really need to use does not work in such a situation, then you can always change your personal privacy settings as well.
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