Privacy is a big deal these days, and Apple is increasingly making its protection of user data a key selling point. One of its most compelling ads, Private Side, argues that “if privacy matters in your life, it should matter to the phone your life is on.”
The advert is right. You should care about the information kept on your device, and how easy it is for bad actors to get hold of it. But it’s equally important to be aware of the personal data harvested by websites and services you use every day, and understand how to view, edit, or remove it.
Even Apple stores a bunch of information about your usage habits in the cloud – though importantly, it anonymizes much of that data and encrypts almost everything in a way that makes it impossible for anyone but you to get at. It also doesn’t monetize that data like most of its competitors do.
Luckily, we’ve covered this topic numerous times before – so instead of rehashing old ground, we’ll simply link through to the various tips and tricks we’ve surfaced about data privacy in the past. Tap through for more on whichever is most relevant to your online usage.
Here, then, are five articles to help you take control of your own privacy and see just how much data these big companies have on you.
How to access every chunk of data stored against your Apple ID
How to properly view and delete your Google search activity
How to clear out your Amazon browsing history on all devices
How to choose who sees which parts of your Facebook profile
How to ditch Facebook and replace it with four alternative apps
Now you can really take back control of your online presence!