Proton

Your iPhone is not as private as you might think

Apple’s marketing team has built a powerful association between the iPhone and privacy. The company’s ad campaigns claim that “what happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone.” And, “Privacy. That’s iPhone.”

But Apple’s lawyers are telling a different story. In a recent court filing(ventana nueva), they told a judge, “Given Apple’s extensive privacy disclosures, no reasonable user would expect that their actions in Apple’s apps would be private from Apple.”

This article, part of our series on privacy washing(ventana nueva), examines several reasons the iPhone doesn’t live up to its marketing claims or consumer expectations. It certainly doesn’t align with the privacy standard we use at Proton. But there are a few steps you can take to improve your iPhone privacy.

This article explains what data Apple collects about you and highlights two recent revelations: that Apple was secretly sharing data with law enforcement agencies and left a security backdoor that may have been exploited by the Chinese government for political repression.

Apple can see your data

Contrary to the claim that what happens on your iPhone stays there, Apple constantly gathers data from your phone whenever you use Apple services, the App Store, or the Apple News or Stocks apps, each of which has its own privacy policy(ventana nueva).

Apple can see all your data in iCloud Mail, Contacts, and Calendar. If you use these apps, there’s no way to turn on end-to-end encryption(ventana nueva).

By default, Apple can also see your photos, iCloud and Messages backups, notes, reminders, voice memos, and more. You can, however, turn on end-to-end encryption for this data by enabling Advanced Data Protection. 

We explained the limitations of Apple’s encryption in our article about iCloud privacy(ventana nueva).

A growing advertising business

There’s a perception that, as a hardware company, Apple doesn’t need to collect personal data. But as computer and phone sales slow down, the company is searching for new revenue sources. 

In fact, from 2022 to 2023(ventana nueva), Apple’s hardware sales fell by over $18 billion. Meanwhile, revenue from services, including advertising, has grown steadily.

To deliver targeted ads, Apple collects information(ventana nueva) about your device, location, App Store searches, shows you watch, and books and articles you read.

Read more about Apple advertising tracking here

Apple may have shared push notifications with law enforcement

In December 2023, a US senator revealed that Apple had received sealed court orders that forced it to secretly share push notification data(ventana nueva) with law enforcement agencies in the US and foreign countries. (He did not reveal what other countries.) Apple claims federal authorities prohibited them from disclosing these surveillance requests.

As a US-based company, Apple is vulnerable to this kind of secret surveillance. Even so, Apple did not take even minimum precautions to protect users’ privacy, such as requiring a court order before disclosing push notifications. The company quietly updated its privacy policy(ventana nueva) following the scandal.

Proton, by contrast, is based in Switzerland, so it would be illegal for us to comply with a foreign request without a valid Swiss court order. We not only require court orders but also often challenge them. 

Leaky AirDrop used for political repression

In January, another story broke. This time, security researchers in Beijing reported(ventana nueva) an Apple bug that allows attackers to identify senders via AirDrop, which Chinese government officials said they used to identify people sharing “inappropriate information”.

It turns out that a German research group had notified Apple about this very issue in 2019, but the company didn’t fix the problem. The group subsequently published an open-source fix(ventana nueva) in 2021. But Apple left the vulnerability in place.

How to protect your privacy on iPhone

Compared with other hardware manufacturers, Apple offers much greater privacy, robust security features, and a great user experience. If you use Apple products, there are simple steps you can take to keep the company out of your data.

First, you can turn on Advanced Data Protection(ventana nueva) or turn off iCloud syncing if you don’t need it. You can also turn on Advanced Data Protection while turning off iCloud specifically for the services that don’t support end-to-end encryption, such as Mail or Calendar. You can also turn off location tracking for apps that don’t need it.

Next, you can switch to privacy-focused alternatives for Apple Mail, Calendar, iCloud, iMessage, and other apps. Signal(ventana nueva) is an encrypted messenger service. And Proton offers end-to-end encrypted alternatives for email, calendar, cloud storage, and password manager. Since our only source of revenue is subscriptions, we don’t need to collect data and our only incentive is to protect your privacy.

Artículos relacionados

A cover image for a blog describing the next six months of Proton Pass development which shows a laptop screen with a Gantt chart
en
  • Actualizaciones del producto
  • Proton Pass
Take a look at the upcoming features and improvements coming to Proton Pass over the next several months.
The Danish mermaid and the Dutch parliament building behind a politician and an unlocked phone
en
We searched the dark web for Danish, Dutch, and Luxembourgish politicians’ official email addresses. In Denmark, over 40% had been exposed.
Infostealers: What they are, how they work, and how to protect yourself
en
Discover insights about what infostealers are, where your stolen information goes, and ways to protect yourself.
Mockup of the Proton Pass app and text that reads "Pass Lifetime: Pay once, access forever"
en
Learn more about our exclusive Pass + SimpleLogin Lifetime offer. Pay once and enjoy premium password manager features for life.
A cover image for a blog announcing that Pass Plus will now include premium SimpleLogin features
en
We're changing the price of new Pass Plus subscriptions, which now includes access to SimpleLogin premium features.
Infinity symbol in purple with the words "Call for submissions" and "Proton Lifetime Fundraiser 7th Edition"
en
It’s time to choose the organizations we should support for the 2024 edition of our annual charity fundraiser.