Apple's Big Privacy Push

What is Apple doing to keep your data safe and sound?

- Alex Blake

Apple has always been known for its pro-privacy stance. Back in 2010, Steve Jobs laid it out for anyone who wasn’t sure: “Privacy means people know what they’re signing up for, in plain English, and repeatedly.”

But even by Apple’s own lofty standards, these days the company is really pushing the privacy envelope. What prompted this renewed focus on privacy? And what is the world’s biggest tech company doing to keep your data safe?

The first of those questions is answered relatively easily: because Apple’s rivals keep screwing up. From the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal to Google hoovering up your conversations, the other big Silicon Valley tech firms seem hell-bent on handing Apple PR victories. And Apple is not one to turn down a free PR victory.

However, this goes beyond mere marketing. Apple isn’t just saying it respects your privacy without the evidence to back it up (we’re looking at you, Facebook). Practically everything Apple does, in both its hardware and software, is geared towards collecting as little of your data as possible. Even when Apple does take in your information, most of it is encrypted, anonymised or both. And recently, the company’s been making sure the world knows it.

macOS Catalina and iOS 13

At WWDC 2019, one of Apple’s key privacy features was Sign In with Apple. Apple pitched this as an alternative to websites and services that harvest your email address and other data, and build up a profile of you through their apps.

Sign In with Apple was floated as something very different. Rather than having to fill out forms with your personal data or sign up with a social media account, Sign In with Apple lets you join a service using your Apple ID and Face ID or Touch ID. No passwords to remember – typically the weak link in user security – just dependable biometrics.