Apple doubles down on protecting users' personal data globally

NEW DELHI: In a fresh bid to make users aware about the privacy of their data and take control of their personal and financial information, Apple has introduced a global campaign that will run on broadcast and social media across 24 countries, including India.

The 90-second video campaign highlights a slew of features Apple has developed to safeguard users' data like Mail Privacy Protection and App Tracking Transparency (ATT) which helps users ask third-party apps not to track their online activity.

The iPhone maker aims to show how iOS users can take back control over their personal data.

"Over the past decade, a large and opaque industry has been amassing increasing amounts of personal data. A complex ecosystem of websites, apps, social media companies, data brokers, and ad tech firms track users online and offline, harvesting their personal data," said Apple.

This data is pieced together, shared, aggregated, and used in real-time auctions, fueling a $227 billion-a-year industry.

"This occurs everyday, as people go about their daily lives, often without their knowledge or permission," said the tech giant.

With iOS 15.2 and iPadOS 15.2, you can turn on App Privacy Report to see details about how often apps access your data, like your location, camera, microphone, and more.

"You can also see information about each app's network activity and website network activity, as well as the web domains that all apps contact most frequently. Together with Privacy Nutrition Labels, App Privacy Report helps give you a more complete picture of how the apps you use treat your data," the company informed.

Apple said it doesn't store or have access to the original credit, debit, or prepaid card numbers that you use with Apple Pay.

"And when you use Apple Pay with credit, debit, or prepaid cards, Apple doesn't retain any transaction information that can be tied back to you -- your transactions stay between you, the merchant or developer, and your bank or card issuer," the company emphasised.

App Tracking Transparency allows you to choose whether an app can track your activity across other companies' apps and websites for the purposes of advertising or sharing with data brokers.

"With iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5, apps must ask for permission before tracking your activity across other companies' apps and websites," said Apple.