Simple answer: TURN IT OFF, POWER IT DOWN AT NIGHT.
During regular daily use, use an app tracker, and force close all un-used apps so they don't run in the background.
Closing most Apps does NOT shut them down.

That's just the start...depending how anal/paranoid you are. If you're really freaked out, surveillance satellites can read license plates from their orbits on a clear day....and don't forget about all those traffic cameras, and toll scanners collecting your whereabouts too. And in some cases, your phone's location maY still be tracked when it's turned off. And then there's Microphone and Camera access without your full permission too.
"Brave New World"

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:
Apple has total control of the iPhone and its App store. App store is where Apple rakes in billions as well. Yes it is your iPhone that's leaking data. Apple can easily stop all of this - remember, what happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone??

Not, stays on your iPhone, unless you use our App store to install apps screened and approved and monetized by us, which can expose your screenshots, passwords and other personal data..

But they don’t control the apps. It’s pretty straightforward

Turn off Background App Refresh:
Settings > General > Background App Refresh > Background App Refresh > Off

Apps Are Using Background App Refresh to Send Data to Tracking Companies

When Background App Refresh is enabled, some iOS apps are using the feature to regularly send data to tracking companies, according to a privacy experiment from The Washington Post that explores the relationship between apps and tracking companies.

The Washington Post's Geoffrey Fowler teamed up with privacy firm Disconnect and used specialized software to see what his iPhone was doing and when. And while it's no surprise that apps are using trackers and sharing user data, the frequency with which apps took advantage of background refresh to send data off to tracking companies is surprising, as is some of the data shared.

Fowler found that apps were sending data like phone number, email, location, IP address, and more.
On a recent Monday night, a dozen marketing companies, research firms and other personal data guzzlers got reports from my iPhone. At 11:43 p.m., a company called Amplitude learned my phone number, email and exact location. At 3:58 a.m., another called Appboy got a digital fingerprint of my phone. At 6:25 a.m., a tracker called Demdex received a way to identify my phone and sent back a list of other trackers to pair up with.
Apps that were found passing data along included Microsoft OneDrive, Mint, Nike, Spotify, The Weather Channel, DoorDash, Yelp, Citizen, and even The Washington Post's own iOS app. Citizen shared personally identifiable information that violated its privacy policy (the tracker was later removed), and Yelp was sending data every five minutes, something the company later said was a bug.

During the course of a week of testing, Fowler ran into 5,400 trackers, mostly found within apps, which Disconnect told him would likely send 1.5 gigabytes of data over the course of a month.

Trackers within apps, for those unfamiliar, serve different purposes. Some analyze user behavior to let apps streamline advertising campaigns, combat fraud, or create targeted ads. Delivery app DoorDash, for example, was found using a whopping nine trackers in its apps, sharing data like device name, ad identifier, accelerometer data, delivery address, name, email, and cellular phone carrier.

DoorDash also has trackers from Facebook and Google Ad Services, which means Facebook and DoorDash are notified whenever you're using the DoorDash service. DoorDash is not alone in sending tracking data, nor are the apps listed above - using tracking information is standard practice - but most people aren't aware that it's happening.

Not all data collection is bad, such as when it's anonymized and stored for a limited period of time, but some trackers are collecting specific user information and don't provide clear information on how long that data is stored nor who it's shared with.

As Fowler points out, there is no way to know which apps are using trackers and when that data is being sent from your iPhone, nor does Apple have tools in place that give iPhone users a way to see which apps are using trackers and for what purpose. Apple was contacted for comment, but provided a standardized privacy response.
"At Apple we do a great deal to help users keep their data private," the company says in a statement. "Apple hardware and software are designed to provide advanced security and privacy at every level of the system."

"For the data and services that apps create on their own, our App Store Guidelines require developers to have clearly posted privacy policies and to ask users for permission to collect data before doing so. When we learn that apps have not followed our Guidelines in these areas, we either make apps change their practice or keep those apps from being on the store," Apple says.
Fowler suggests Apple could require apps to label when they're using third-party trackers, while privacy company Disconnect suggests greater privacy controls in iOS to give users more control over their data.

iOS users concerned about the data apps are sending, especially at night and without user knowledge, can turn off Background App Refresh in the Settings app and can use a VPN like Disconnect's Privacy Pro to limit the data apps are able to send to third-party sources.

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:
Apple has total control of the iPhone and its App store. App store is where Apple rakes in billions as well. Yes it is your iPhone that's leaking data. Apple can easily stop all of this - remember, what happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone??

Not, stays on your iPhone, unless you use our App store to install apps screened and approved and monetized by us, which can expose your screenshots, passwords and other personal data..

But they don’t control the apps. It’s pretty straightforward

They can and do. Apple App store is supposed to be a walled garden!? Each app that communicates to the outside world has to call an iOS API to do so. Apple can easily vet the traffic..

But they let these out in these instances. Because they most likely monetized the streams of data going out.

It's funny.. Android apps caught leaking - F*** Google, it's all Google's fault. Apple does it - nope straight forward not Apple's fault (despite all the what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas promises), it's the app's fault because Apple is iron-clad.. they said so!

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:
Apple has total control of the iPhone and its App store. App store is where Apple rakes in billions as well. Yes it is your iPhone that's leaking data. Apple can easily stop all of this - remember, what happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone??

Not, stays on your iPhone, unless you use our App store to install apps screened and approved and monetized by us, which can expose your screenshots, passwords and other personal data..

But they don’t control the apps. It’s pretty straightforward

They can and do. Apple App store is supposed to be a walled garden!? Each app that communicates to the outside world has to call an iOS API to do so. Apple can easily vet the traffic..

But they let these out in these instances. Because they most likely monetized the streams of data going out.

It's funny.. Android apps caught leaking - F*** Google, it's all Google's fault. Apple does it - nope straight forward not Apple's fault (despite all the what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas promises), it's the app's fault because Apple is iron-clad.. they said so!

You don’t understand the situation. Kirk out.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
This is a very interesting article, and thanks for posting it.
However: I cannot find Privacy Pro on the App Store site, except as a VPN by that name.
Disconnect.com takes me to a site that tells me how to delete social media accounts.
Has anyone else tried to download the Privacy Pro software mentioned in the article?

I found it and downloaded it

Privacy Pro SmartVPN is what you want to search for

its a free download for a 7 day trial and then $5 a month after that

Turn off app data refresh to alleviate this. There are phone apps that will stop several of the trackers, etc. I'm trying Fyde right now which seems to do some good. Hooks the phone to a VPN and kills the google and DoubleClick data harvesters. Naturally, they are also harvesting data.

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:
^^^^ This.

Remember how Tim Cook was slamming Zuck and Facebook?? Well it turns out apps on his App store, screened and approved and monetized by Apple, was data mining for who else - Facebook!

Wow. You have absolutely no idea of what you're talking about.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:
^^^^ This.

Remember how Tim Cook was slamming Zuck and Facebook?? Well it turns out apps on his App store, screened and approved and monetized by Apple, was data mining for who else - Facebook!

Wow. You have absolutely no idea of what you're talking about.

He of the "iPhones are iron clad *****"

When Apple slowed down iphones (slowed mine down to being almost unusable), iPhone fanbois told me - it's for my own good!

When iPhones leaked data like a sieve - not Apple's fault because they're iron clad LMAO despite past claims of how "iron clad" Apple was because they control everything, walled garden and all!

My goodness. What a Koolaid drinker! what you fanbois are saying is that Apple does not vet the apps, and deploys no mechanism to control the apps and traffic to and from its iPhones? Others already said no one really read the TOS, and Apple shouldn't expect people to, because like y'all, most trusted Apple to do the right thing, with their happens on iPhone, stays on iPhone promise from the leader Cook.

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
You don’t understand the situation. Kirk out.

You're right I don't drink that Koolaid!

I wish I was so important that all the big bad corporate conglomerates cared about my daily life and whereabouts.

Didn’t realize we had so many VIPs on SF.

Name, DOB, home and work addresses, phone numbers, all that other shit is/was already avail through public or private search engines so not sure what other sensitive info my phone (actually the apps I installed and agreed to) can divulge to the scary-net that puts me at risk.

I liken this “hyper awareness” over security and “protection” of my data as a consumer to the current “selfie-craze”. Both show an amazing level of narcissism where regular old everyday people think the world as a whole gives a rats ass about each and every insignificant thing they do.


I was googling about lawnmowers a week ago, and for the next couple days I did notice an increase in lawnmower ads, hmmm nefarious underhanded shit going there...


Yawn...

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:


I liken this “hyper awareness” over security and “protection” of my data as a consumer to the current “selfie-craze”. Both show an amazing level of narcissism where regular old everyday people think the world as a whole gives a rats ass about each and every insignificant thing they do.

Agreed. If I was Jennifer Lawrence, I would care because people are trying to track her down and hack into her phone.

No one cares where I shop or what photos I have on my phone. And if they do, so what?!

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
Yawn...

While I agreed with most of your post, because I myself don't really care about my shopping being tracked (though I don't shop for sex toys and only use free pron, but don't we all?), or my location (a thief casing the neighborhood can easily find this information), etc. Most people voluntarily expose way more data on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms.

However a popular iOS banking app was actually caught a few months ago surreptitiously taking screenshot of your bank login screen, with password and ID in plain text, and sent it to 3rd party. That I would very much care about.

You cant really think those nifty free apps are really free? Nobody, absolutely nobody said let me create a navigation app which has has the most up to date street index and real time traffic warnings because they want to help people get to their destination quicker.

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:
However a popular iOS banking app was actually caught a few months ago surreptitiously taking screenshot of your bank login screen, ...

Cite, please?

I have an Android based tablet. I noticed one day that while I had my WiFi on the tablet turned off, some google apps were being updated. So turning off WiFi apparently doesn’t.

Turning off new/modern Intel based PCs doesn’t mean they can’t be accessed either. I can’t say that anyone does but they can be. They aren’t 100% “off”.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Cite, please?

Many popular iPhone apps secretly record your screen without asking And there's no way a user would know

"Glassbox’s software records video of users’ screens as they use apps, then compresses and plays back the footage for analysis. This “session replay” becomes a record of every keyboard press, everything they type, the error messages they see, the amount of time they spend on each page, and so on. Session replays are versatile documents."

"Glassbox has contracts with major U.S. banking companies, including Bank of America and Wells Fargo, according to its site, in addition to major retailers and travel sites such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Hotels.com, Air Canada, and Singapore Airlines."

"This lets Air Canada employees — and anyone else capable of accessing the screenshot database — see unencrypted credit card and password information,” he told TechCrunch."

"Later, Singapore Airlines emailed back, saying the data it collects is “in accordance with our privacy policy which includes the use of customer data for testing and troubleshooting issues,” and is “specified under Clause 3 of our privacy policy.” We checked again, but found nothing of the sort."

"That could be a problem if any one of Glassbox’s customers aren’t properly masking data, he said in an email. “Since this data is often sent back to Glassbox servers I wouldn’t be shocked if they have already had instances of them capturing sensitive banking information and passwords,” he said."

TechCrunch, MacRumors, FastCompany - Feb 2019.

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Cite, please?

Many popular iPhone apps secretly record your screen without asking And there's no way a user would know

"Glassbox’s software records video of users’ screens as they use apps, then compresses and plays back the footage for analysis.

That's pretty egregious. I'm surprised I hadn't heard of it before now. Thanks for pointing it out.

However: Apple cracks down on apps that record your screen

You will note two things: 1. That was a clear violation of Apple's strict privacy terms and guidelines, and 2. Apple immediately cracked-down on the authors of those apps.

I never said Apple was perfect. I said, and I quote: "Apple's privacy policies are straight-forward and iron-clad."

As an ex-IT type, and ex-software developer before that, I know better than to believe anybody's software is perfect. Even being the BOFH I was as an IT Admin, occasionally users would break the rules. (They generally only did it once, however. They were usually disinclined to risk suffering the consequences a 2nd time .)

I admit that your use of the word "iron clad" did trigger me and I went off like a SJW.

Having an iron clad written policy is one thing, but being ignorant of what developers doing behind its back is another. If Apple claimed ignorance, I'd find that very hard to believe. They either turned a blind eye to it, or might even be worse, charge a service fee for these "analytic but very personal data" going out of iPhones to 3rd parties.

I am also a software dev, on servers, and the systems do keep track of potential nefarious traffic.

Surprisingly, these secret screen recordings happen far less on Android:

quote:

To find out whether that popular theory is true, researchers at Northeastern University recently conducted a study of more than 17,000 apps to find out if any of them actively overhear or record user activity.

The researchers found no instance of any app unexpectedly activating the microphone or dispatching audio files without a user’s permission. Of the 17,260 Android apps included in the year-long study, over 9,000 had permission to access the camera and microphone. The researchers used an automated program to interact with each app and then analyzed the traffic generated.

Although the researchers did not find any evidence of apps secretly recording their user to serve up targeted ads, the team found at least one instance in which an app sent screen recordings and screenshots to a third-party mobile analytics company.

Recorded what users were doing within the app
The researchers found that a popular food delivery app called GoPuff recorded and sent screen recordings to a mobile analytics company called AppSee. The app recorded footage of a screen where users had to enter their zip code.

After being contacted by the researchers, GoPuff added disclosure of this policy to its privacy policy and removed the AppSee SDK. AppSee also claims it deleted the recordings it had obtained.

Consumer Affairs July 2018