Apps on iPhone can track you secretly

APPLE’s strict rules against apps tracking you may not be working as well as we all thought.

The tech giant introduced itself strict restrictions in the past year that hit Facebook and Google hard.

2

This meant that any app you install on the iPhone would have to ask permission to track your activity on other apps – which are mainly used for targeted advertising.

They also had to pre-specify so-called “privacy nutrition labels.” app store what kind of data they suck up.

However, experts claim that there are loopholes for the big guns to exploit, which actually “amplifies” their power.

This includes usage IP addresses and the login function provided in apps.

“Our results suggest that tracking companies, particularly larger ones with access to large first-party treasure troves, are still tracking users behind the scenes,” the researchers said University of Oxford warned.

“While potentially increasing transparency and consumer choice, nutritional privacy labels on iOS are sometimes inaccurate and can therefore be misleading and give consumers a false sense of security.

“As long as the labels remain imprecise, they appear to primarily serve Apple’s advertising and marketing strategy around privacy.”

Of the apps examined, a fifth said they did not collect any data from users.

But researchers say many were not telling the truth.

Eight out of ten of them contained at least one tracker library.

Despite all of that, they believe Apple’s new policies “largely live up to their promises to make tracking more difficult overall.”

Apple was contacted by The Sun for comment.

2

• Read the latest phone and gadget news
• Stay up to date on Apple stories
• Get the latest on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science Team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk