Apple has always defended privacy because it considers it a right of users, and while the company has never been a fan of having ads on its platforms, it was the last period, it decided to change its policy and bring ads to its store and applications to maximize its profits, so far everything is normal, but what is new here is that Apple It was spying on its users through its apps and knowing everything about them in the App Store by tracking every click they made with their iPhone.


Apple and privacy

A new report issued by researchers raises privacy concerns as it states that Apple collects very detailed information about iPhone users through its own apps even when tracking is turned off. Applications.

According to the researchers, the company has been collecting user data from its apps (Apple Music, Apple TV, Books and Stocks) and has been tracking them within its App Store since iOS 14.6 which was released in May 2021 and this is when Apple put in place barriers to block third parties like Google and Facebook And others tracked iPhone users, which hurt their ad network, but it paved the way for itself to collect data for its own targeted ads as data is sent from the App Store to the company even when the user stops personalized ads.

The report explained that the Apple Store collects information about everything you did in real time, including what you clicked on, the applications you searched for, the ads you saw, how long you looked at a particular application, and how you found it.

Apple's other apps also collect information about you and your iPhone. This includes the ID number, the model of the device you're using, screen resolution, keyboard language, and how your device connects to the Internet.

One researcher said that opting out or turning off personalization options did not reduce the amount of detailed data the app was sending to Apple, and even if you turned off all possible options—specifically personalized ads, recommendations, and sharing usage data and analytics—the apps would still send everything about you to the company. However, data collection was part of iOS 14.5, but researchers are not definitively sure that Apple continues to track and collect user data with the new iOS 16 operating system.


Apple's advertising network

Apple introduced in-store ads for the first time in 2016, and developers could then promote their apps to appear with search results in the App Store, and through the Ads and Privacy page, it says Camel They may use your searches within their store and information about the pages you have viewed or the app you have downloaded in order to display a relevant ad, and this year they have decided to expand their app store ad network and introduce new ads that will appear in the “Today” tab and also in the “May” section you like this".

From our point of view, the real reason for tracking and collecting user data on Apple apps and the App Store is ads, and it seems that Apple will use that user data to help developers know the statistics of their ads and their performance. At the same time, because Apple is keen on the privacy of its users, it will not be shared That data is with third parties, but the worrying thing is that the company collects tiny details about everything you do across its apps and store.

What do you think about Apple tracking its users without their knowledge, tell us in the comments

Source:

gizmodo

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