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Data Privacy Day – Apple reiterates commitment to privacy

Data Privacy Day is into its 15th year, encouraging businesses and users alike to consider best practices for keeping their private data safe online.

In a world where data tracking is more prevalent than ever, Apple has outlined the ways in which its privacy features help protect and empower users to control their own data. It has done so in a charming but frankly frightening report entitled “A Day in the Life of Your Data,” showcasing the invisible ways a father and daughter can be tracked by data brokers on a normal day.

Later, the document runs through the day again, showing how using Apple’s services instead of its rivals’ could have blocked each of those potential privacy violations. For example, Safari automatically prevents web tracking, while Apple News and Maps don’t build or store user profiles beyond the preferences saved to the device.

Apple then lays out in broad strokes how its overriding privacy principles aim to help. In short, it promises four things: to only collect the minimum amount of data required for a given service; to process data on your own device instead of the cloud; to ensure users can see and control what’s happening to their data; and to keep apps and devices safe from bad actors.

You only have to look at the features Apple has added in the last year or two (Sign in With Apple; Automatic Tracking Prevention; App Tracking Transparency) to see that it’s taking privacy seriously as a unique selling point amongst its tech contemporaries. Many of the other Silicon Valley giants rely on targeted ad sales and data collection for a huge chunk of their overall revenue – Apple does not.

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For more, we’d recommend reading A Day in the Life of Your Data in full. You can also check out Apple’s privacy microsite or its Data Privacy Day press release. As for more general privacy tips, check out one of our many articles on the topic…

Further reading

Everything iOS 14 does to protect users

Is Apple’s privacy stance a help or hindrance?

Security Essentials: protect your privacy, data, and hardware [Premium]