Apple is watching you! A study revealed that the tech giant collects data about users from built-in applications

Apple may not be the pro-privacy company that it proudly advertises.

A new study finds that the tech giant collects data on its customers as they use their apps, even when they turn off sharing analytics.

The discovery was made by two developers who found that the tech giant records every move you make in the pre-installed App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, Books and Stock apps.

These apps are found to send Apple requests that include the apps the user has been looking at, including those related to sexual preference and religion, the shares they’re watching and the ads they’re watching.

Data collection also includes identification numbers and the type of device used, which is sufficient for device fingerprinting.

The study comes just over a year after Apple released its device Controversial Privacy Control This required iPhone users to grant permission for apps to track their activity for advertising purposes, which spurred revenue for many companies and developers who relied on ads.

It’s not clear why Apple is backing down from its pro-privacy stance, but it recently added ads to the App Store app and data collection may be a way to better understand how its ads work.

The independent study was conducted by a couple of developers and found that Apple records every move you make in its built-in apps, including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, Books and Stocks.

The Apple Device Support and Privacy page states that you must obtain consent from the user to collect such information from devices.

None of the information collected is personally identifiable. the page is reading.

“Personal data is either not logged at all, is subject to privacy technologies such as differential privacy, or is removed from any reports before it is sent to Apple.”

DailyMail.com has contacted Apple for comment.

Tommy Musk and Talal Hajj Bakri, the two security researchers who exposed the data collection, posted videos on Twitter showing how the information is stored by Apple.

However, the team noted in a video of their study that “the behavior of iOS 16 is likely to be the same.” The video shows a screen with several requests, all time-stamped, that are sent to Apple from the App Store app

The data in a single request shows that Apple collects ID numbers that can identify the user

This was only found in iOS 14.6 – ‘It’s unclear if Apple is still collecting analytics data in iOS 16’, the team shared in a tweet posted to the company’s account, musk.

However, the team noted in a video of their study that “the behavior of iOS 16 is likely to be the same.”

The video shows a screen with several requests, all time-stamped, being sent to Apple from the App Store app.

Requests are made every time the user is in the App Store app.

Within a single request are revised identifiers that can identify the session and assign it to the user data profile.

It also hides in the data collection process the user’s device that is being used.

The example shown in the video shows that the person is using an “iPhone 10”.

It also hides in the data collection process the user’s device that is being used. The example shown in the video shows that the person is using “iPhone 10”

The request also shows that the user viewed the Daily Themed Crossword Puzzles app while searching the App Store and how long they have been searching for it

The video also shows that the user viewed the Daily Themed Crossword Puzzles app while searching the App Store and how long they have been looking at it.

While a crossword puzzle app may seem innocuous, Gizmodo It offers a more serious reason not to ignore Apple’s data collection.

If you search for apps for mental health, sexual orientation, and religion in the App Store, this data will be sent directly to the tech giant’s servers and stored – some of this information may be sensitive to some people.

The researchers conducted a similar test with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge apps and found that when analytics sharing is disabled, the apps cannot collect data from the device.

Not only is the collection of data without consent a serious problem, but Apple considers itself a company that respects the privacy of its user.

Apple introduced a privacy control feature in 2021, which CEO Tim Cook said gives people the ability to decide which companies and developers they can track — but Apple appears to be above its own values

On its privacy page, the tech giant clearly shares: “Privacy is a fundamental human right. It’s also one of our core values. That’s why we design our products and services to protect it. This is the kind of innovation we believe in.”

The findings also suggest that Apple is more of a “do as I say not as I do” type of company, as its privacy controls penalize many companies and developers for collecting similar data on users.

The control appeared as a full-screen notification asking users if they agreed to be tracked “through apps and websites owned by other companies.”

These ads paid in large part the bills for Facebook, other app makers, publishers, and small businesses.

But Apple CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly defended the update, which was part of Apple’s iOS14, arguing that it was necessary because targeted advertising is manipulating people and being served to their devices without their express permission.