'What Happens On Your iPhone, Stays On Your iPhone?' New Research Suggests Otherwise

Apple Inc. AAPL reportedly collects users’ information with its flagship apps even when iPhone Analytics is switched off. 

What Happened: Tommy Mysk and Talal Haj Bakry, app developers and security researchers at software company Mysk, studied data collected by Apple’s prized apps like App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, Books and Stocks, reported Gizmodo. 

They found that the analytics control and other privacy settings don’t stop Apple’s data collection. In fact, the tracking continued whether iPhone Analytics was switched on or off. 

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On Gizmodo’s request, Mysk examined a few other Apple apps for comparison. The results indicated that the Health and Wallet apps didn’t transmit any analytics data, regardless of whether the iPhone Analytics setting was on or off. In contrast, the aforementioned Apple apps and iTunes Store collected data. 

Apple did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comments. 

The data analytics transmitted shared consistent ID numbers, which may allow the Cupertino-based tech giant to track users’ activities across its services, the researchers stated.

In the past, the researchers ran a similar test on Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG GOOGL Google Chrome and Microsoft Corporation’s MSFT Edge but found that data wasn’t sent when analytics settings were disabled.   

Why It’s Important: In 2019, a billboard depicting the rear of an iPhone read, “What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone,” a reference to the company’s efforts to protect users' privacy, according to 9To5Mac. 

But it seems the phrase is only valid if the meticulous data iPhone sends to Apple is disregarded, the report noted. 

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