Since the data we have on your devices is extremely private and vulnerable; hence, all the news we hear about security breaches has made us paranoid. Apple has launched a new feature of labels that will appear on the App Store so that the users know how iOS is using their information. In July in an Apple Worldwide Developers Conference announced that the company is working on security labels, which they called 'nutrition labels.' Apple gave the developers a deadline of 8th December 2020 to pour in all the information, and thus, following the deadline, the company has officially rolled out the new feature for all iOS devices that are updated to iOS version 14.
Apple never fails to complete the promises it makes to the users. The company was criticized by Facebook-owned WhatsApp the previous week for showing inconsistency in its requirements. The tech giant has released the label feature for all of its platforms, including iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, and tvOS. Furthermore, all of the platforms must be updated every time a new update is submitted by the developer.
The company says that it will provide a web page instead of on an app for all privacy information because if an App Store Product page is created in an application, it cannot be removed, for example, the messages app; hence, a web page would be handy for all. The web will show every single bit of information and privacy labels to the users.
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Apple has created three different categories, namely, "data used to track you," "data linked to you," and "data not linked to you." The tracking category will involve all the applications that use your personal information such as location and all the data on your device and link them with the data of other companies for ad-related metrics. Here' tracking' also means that the company could sell the personal information of their users to data brokers.
The second label category, i.e., data linked to you, means that the data can be utilized to identify you. The service gleans your data through the account that you have made on their platform. The purpose of pulling data from your device could be targeted advertisements.
Whereas, applications under the 'data not linked to you' category will clarify when your sensitive data such as browsing history, location, and other personal information is safe from being used anywhere. Apple has specifically designed a developer portal page for developers and a consumer-facing page for detailed and general information.
This is not the first time when Apple has launched such a major security feature for its users. The company is also working on a new privacy feature that will require the app developers to ask for the user's permission to track their iOS devices across the applications and websites through an identifier device known as Identification for Advisers or IDFA code. The company wanted to roll out this feature along with the release of iOS 14, but Apple provided the developers with more time hence delayed the release.
