iPhone: Important settings for your privacy

If you want to protect your privacy on iPhone, you have to make the right settings yourself. Our instructions show you what to look for.

Privacy on iPhone: Check location services

Location services not only interfere with your privacy, they also use a lot of battery.

1. Open the "Settings" app and select the "Data protection" category.
2. Under the "Location Services" you will now find all apps that have access to your location.
3. Check the type of access allowed for each app. You should be careful here.
4. Often the options are "Never", "Always" and "When using the app". If you do not use the location services in the app, you can switch them off completely. Especially the "Always" option is not recommended.

Safari: Protect privacy

Ad tracking analyzes the websites you visit and places suitable advertisements on other websites.

1. Open the "Settings" app and continue to select the "Safari" item.
2. Under the "Privacy & Security" category, enable the "No Tracking" option.
3. Your data will therefore not be released for analysis. Where you are here, you can also block or at least restrict cookies.

Limit access rights for apps

Many apps can access more data than you really should and should. You can limit this greed for data yourself:

1. Go back to the "Privacy" category in the "Settings" app.
2. Under "Contacts", "Calendar", "Photos", "Camera" or "Bluetooth sharing" you will find all apps that have access to this information.
3. Access can be easily removed with a touch.

Safari: Block cross-site tracking

With the help of cross-site tracking, you are presented with customized advertising on the Internet based on your website and search history. In the latest iOS version, you can now block this function so that you are no longer tracked:

1. To do this, open the "Settings" on the iPhone and tap on "Safari".
2. Then flip the lever on "Try to Prevent Cross-Site Tracking". A German translation is still pending.

iOS 10: Disable "Frequent Places"

In iOS, the system remembers the places you visited in "Frequent Places". This gives you location-related information. You can also turn off this feature for security reasons in order to gain more privacy:

1. To do this, you have to go to "Settings" again and tap on "System Services"> "Frequent Places".
2. Then tap the slider next to "Frequent places" to deactivate the feature.

Set up automatic lock

This feature prevents strangers from using your smartphone when not in use. Therefore, you should regulate when your iPhone should be switched off automatically when not in use.

1. You will find this option in the "Settings" under "General"> "Automatic lock".
2. There you can set the time when your smartphone should be switched off. You can select 30 seconds as the lowest setting.

iPhone: Protect privacy in mail traffic

For maximum privacy, you should send your mails with end-to-end encryption and also save them encrypted on servers.

• Anonymous mail providers like Posteo make it possible. The provider does not save any personal data and encrypts all your mail traffic. So much security comes at a price. You can also send the monthly fee of one euro anonymously by post.
• Alternatively, you can encrypt all data traffic on your iPhone. Whether mail, chat or the use of a website, all data is redirected via an encrypted connection. So far, only the p≡p service has provided a corresponding solution, but only for Android. The iOS app will follow in the future.

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In the next practical tip, we will show you how to set up a WiFi hotspot with your iPhone.