iOS 14 Through the Eyes of a Privacy Enthusiast: How Apple Protects User Privacy in the Latest iOS

For the first time in a long while, a new version of iOS was released independently of a new iPhone generation. This year, the release caught many developers off guard, as they didn’t expect the Gold Master to drop so soon, followed by the official release the very next day. In this article, we’ll discuss what Apple’s engineers have done to protect user privacy in iOS 14, as well as features that were announced in early betas but didn’t make it into the final build.

Approximate Location

Let’s start with one of the most interesting updates: apps that want to always know your location can now be restricted without losing functionality. iOS 14 introduces the option to grant apps access to your approximate location instead of your precise one. How “approximate” is it? At WWDC 2020, Apple said it covers an area of about ten square miles, roughly a three-kilometer radius.

This matters because most app developers (especially those offering free apps) are keen on profiling users to sell this data. If you grant location access—even to apps like Microsoft OneDrive, not to mention weather or ticket apps—your precise location can end up in your profile. While iOS has always limited background location polling, users often have many apps installed, each with multiple “spy” SDKs from the same companies (from Facebook to lesser-known firms). This means your movements can be tracked in detail by these SDKs across multiple apps.

Apple’s marketing says that for local news or weather apps, approximate location is more than enough. In fact, it could be even less precise without affecting functionality. For “spy” SDKs, approximate location is only slightly better than no access at all, since companies like Facebook can estimate your location from your IP address anyway.

Limited Photo Library Access

In iOS 14, users can restrict app access to their photo library. Previously, it was all or nothing—now, you can grant access to your entire library (for apps like Dropbox or OneDrive that sync all photos) or just selected images. This is useful if you only want to send a specific photo in a chat, set an avatar, or edit a picture in a new AI-powered editor.

This change mainly affects companies that love to profile users based on all available data—like Facebook and Instagram. Regular users benefit by gaining more control over potential leaks of private photos and videos. However, don’t celebrate too soon: Apple, like Microsoft, Google, Verizon, Twitter, Facebook, and Yahoo, scans photos uploaded to their clouds for compromising content.

Clipboard Privacy Fixes

Apple’s iOS 14 addresses a clipboard privacy issue discovered earlier in the year, where 53 iOS apps (including TikTok) were found to be constantly reading clipboard contents without clear reason. Devices using the same Apple ID within about three meters can share a universal clipboard, even between iOS and macOS.

Clipboard data can include one-time passwords, links, addresses, search queries, and more—things you may not want to share with TikTok, LinkedIn, or similar apps. While Apple didn’t officially acknowledge the issue, iOS 14 now displays a banner whenever an app reads the clipboard. These banners can be annoying and can’t be disabled, but developers can use a new API to check the type of clipboard data without accessing its contents, reducing unnecessary notifications as apps update.

Microphone and Camera Indicators

iOS 14 beta users noticed new indicator dots at the top of the screen: orange for microphone use, green for camera use. This applies to all apps except Siri, which is always listening for its wake word. This trend follows hardware changes in MacBooks and smart devices like Google Nest Hub Max, which physically disconnect microphones and cameras. Unlike clipboard banners, these colored dots are unobtrusive. Ideally, Apple would use a physical LED indicator, but that’s not their style.

Sign in with Apple: More Prominent

“Sign in with Apple” is Apple’s answer to unified login services from Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. Apple’s version creates a unique email for each app or site, which can be disabled if you delete your account, but it’s tightly tied to the Apple ecosystem. iOS 14 reminds users to use this feature and makes it easier for developers to implement. However, during the dispute with Epic Games, Apple temporarily blocked “Sign in with Apple” for some games, raising concerns about losing access if you switch platforms or if Apple revokes the service.

Competitors have their own issues—Facebook, for example, is known for its loose handling of user data and is pushing users to consolidate under Facebook ID, even requiring it for Oculus VR users starting October.

Local Contact Autofill

When filling out standard fields (name, address, email) in apps, iOS 14 users no longer need to “share” a contact. Just enter the contact’s name, and the system autofills the rest—locally, on your device.

On-Device Voice Dictation

Voice dictation using the standard keyboard now happens locally on your device. However, Russian is not supported yet. In iOS 13, offline dictation was available for English only; the new on-device recognition in iOS 14 supports several languages but requires an iPhone Xs or newer.

APFS-Encrypted Drive Support

The Files app, introduced in iOS 11, now supports external drives with APFS encryption. Just enter your password to access encrypted storage. This is especially useful for iPad models with USB Type-C ports.

Safari Privacy Updates

• Privacy Report: Safari now lets you see how websites track your behavior. You can view details for each site and tracker, a feature previously only available in third-party ad blockers.
• Weak Password Check: Safari, like other browsers, can save and sync passwords. Unlike others, it uses the system Keychain for storage and iCloud Keychain for syncing. Safari now checks your saved passwords against known data breaches, similar to Google’s password checkup, but does so using password hashes without sending your actual passwords.

App Store Privacy Labels (Coming Soon)

Two new features were announced for iOS 14 but may arrive later. By year’s end, each App Store app page should include a section showing what data the app collects—location, contacts, advertising ID, etc. Developers will self-report their privacy practices, including what personal data they collect and use for tracking. This is not an automatic scan of app permissions, but a developer-provided disclosure. The feature is still in development and may appear in a future iOS 14 update.

App Tracking Transparency (Delayed)

Another announced but delayed feature is App Tracking Transparency, which would require apps to ask permission before tracking users via embedded ad SDKs (like Facebook’s). Apple’s battle with Facebook over tracking dates back to iOS 11’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention, which limited third-party cookies. iOS 13.4 blocked third-party cookies by default in Safari. iOS 14 was supposed to require apps to get user consent before accessing the device’s advertising identifier (IDFA) or any tracking method, with users able to review and change permissions in settings.

Facebook and other advertisers pushed back, fearing users would refuse tracking. Apple postponed the requirement, now set to become mandatory in early 2021.

Conclusion

As usual, many of iOS’s new privacy features are Apple’s response to emerging issues or implementations of competitors’ ideas. Still, iOS 14 brings some genuinely new and interesting privacy tools. Unfortunately, the most significant changes—limiting app tracking via ad SDKs—didn’t make it into the official release. Progress in this area, if it comes, will likely be seen next year.