You can now record apps that are spying on you using iOS 15

Sep 23, 2021, 11:42 IST

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Apple has introduced a new feature dubbed as Record App Activity.
It allows you to track which apps are accessing your private data.
Here is how to enable this feature and what activities it tracks.

Privacy has been one of the key themes of Apple’s recent iOS updates. After adding App Tracking Transparency with its earlier update, the iPhone maker has now added a new feature in iOS 15 that allows you to record apps that are tracking your private data.

iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 come with a new feature called Record App Activity that allows you to find out which apps are accessing your private data like location, photos, camera, microphone and more. In addition to this, it also records the domains that the apps are communicating with or connecting to, so you can understand where your data is going.

Apple’s ‘Record App Activity’ feature saves a 7-day summary of when apps access your data. You can also save this summary to refer back to later or export it.

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How to enable Record App Activity feature

To enable this feature, you must first be on iOS 15 or iPadOS 15.

Go to settings and click on Privacy.
Now, scroll down and click on Record App Activity.
Now, enable the toggle for Record App Activity to start recording.

This feature will save a seven-day summary of when apps access your data and see when apps or websites you visit within apps contact domains.

Apple on its website has documented that it records app activity each time one of the following resources is accessed.

Category	Resource
Photos	The user’s photo library
Camera	The device’s camera
Microphone	The device’s microphone
Contacts	The user’s contacts
Media Library	The user’s media library
Location	Location data
Screen Recording	Screen sharing

While you get to know if any app has accessed these resources, you will not be informed that specific data was accessed.

This is a step towards the right direction and offers users more control over their private data.

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