MILLIONS of iPhone owners have the ability to check to see if apps are spying on them.
Cyber experts have told The U.S. Sun how to uncover sinister snooping on your Apple device – and then quickly put a stop to it.
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Your iPhone is packed with apps that will sometimes need to access sensitive parts of your phone.
WhatsApp needs to use your microphone for voice notes, while Instagram will access your camera and photos.
But some rogue apps might take advantage of you, accessing private info for no good reason.
We spoke to consumer privacy champion Chris Hauk, who revealed how to uncover these nefarious apps.
“iPhone users can take advantage of Apple’s App Privacy Report, which is built-in to iOS versions 15.2 and later,” said Hauk, of Pixel Privacy.
“The App Privacy Report provides details about how often apps access your data – including your location, camera, microphone, and more.”
First you’ll need to make sure you’re updated to at least iOS 15.2 by going into Settings > General > Software Update.
Then go to Settings > Privacy > App Privacy and turn the report on.
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You can check this report at any time to see which apps are accessing your personal info – and how often.
You can also instantly see when an app is using your camera or microphone.
“iPhone users can also tell at a glance if an app is accessing their iPhone’s camera or microphone,” Hauk revealed.
“If you see a green dot in the upper-right-hand corner of your iPhone display, an app is using your iPhone’s camera.
“A yellow dot in the same area means an app is accessing your microphone.”
Look out for these dots and investigate them if anything feels suspicious.
If you’re unhappy with an app’s access to certain parts of your device, you can revoke its permissions at any time.
Just go to Settings > Privacy and Security and tap on the part of your phone you want to investigate.
You can then toggle apps on or off for specific permissions.
WHAT ABOUT ANDROID?
It’s possible to check your app safety on Android phones too.
“On an Android device, users can check the ‘Privacy’ section in the Settings app to view which apps are using the device’s camera or microphone,” Hauk explained.
“Android devices will also display an orange or green dot in the upper-right-hand corner of the display when accessing the device’s camera or microphone.”
