All new privacy and security features coming to iOS and macOS

As he does every year, Apple has used the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) to show off some changes coming in the software this year, and surprisingly, given Apple’s track record, privacy and security are once again on the agenda.

IOS 15 update for your iPhone and the MacOS 12 Monterey update for your Mac will arrive later this year, along with enhancements designed to protect your data and devices without harm. Many of these revamped privacy and security features need to be applied together in both operating systems.

This time it is one of the applications that attracts a lot of attention Mail, Apple’s default email client on both mobile and desktop. A new function called Email privacy protection has a purpose tracking pixels embedded in many emails – when you open your messages, those pixels are loaded and you can return to the sender to choose information such as your location and your software platform.

Marketers, newsletter writers, and many people in between use these tracking pixels to see how many people open their posts, but Mail Privacy Protection protects that data collection. It won’t be enabled by default, but will stand out as an option when upgrading to iOS 15 and macOS 12 Monterey. Also, since tracking pixels are just images, this protection applies to all images that are remotely uploaded to email. They’re not exactly “locked in,” but are routed through a relay that rejects that data collection but intends to store your latest experience.

Apple also allows you to take a closer look at the apps installed with these software updates. Through the function called Application privacy report, you can see how many times an app has accessed your location, photos, camera, microphone, and contacts over the past week.

If you’re wondering if an app really needs the permissions it requires, this privacy report should tell you. The report will also list the domains that the app contacts and how often they will give users a better idea of ​​what more data is being captured and transmitted.

As for Apple’s digital assistant, Siri, further processing of speech detection tasks and commands will be performed on your specific device. This reduces the amount of data stored back in Apple and stored in the cloud. This means that someone else is likely to hear you, even if you do most of the weather check, set alarms and add items to your … to do list.