Sergey Shkundaleu @archit3ct@social.ssbx.dev

Let's talk about privacy of various capabilities linked to physical sensors on your iPhone. There is a special section in settings where you can decide which apps get access to those capabilities. Go to Settings-> Privacy & Security, then scroll past "Wallet" option. You'll see Accessories, Bluetooth, Camera, etc. Go inside each option and ensure that only apps that you expect have access to each particular capability(number represent how many apps). #iphoneprivacy #punkprivacy

Let's talk about privacy in section that responsible for standard smartphone capabilities, like Calendar, Contacts, Photos, etc. List is much longer. Go to Settings-> Privacy & Security, then scroll past "Tracking" and in next section go into each capability and grant access based on your needs. There are 3 options, None, Limit access(you select items) or Full Access. Avoid giving full access, limit as much as possible. #iphoneprivacy #punkprivacy

Today's story is about tracking across devices and apps. iPhone has a setting that allows apps to request to track you across multiple channels and unfortunately it's ON by default. Time to turn it off. Go to Settings-> Privacy & Security-> Tracking and turn off top toggle that says Allow Apps to Request to Track, also go through all the apps on the list there and make sure it's off for all of them. #iphoneprivacy #punkprivacy

Next set is quite complex, explanation won't fit into a single post. So here is list of items I'd recommend to disable for personal iPhone. Go to Settings-> Privacy & Security-> Location Services scroll down through all the apps, at the bottom you'll see "System Services", click on it. Go through all options and adjust as you see fit, recommendation on the image. While you are there turn on "Status Bar Icon" to see when location used. #iphoneprivacy #punkprivacy

This setting might be a bit controversial, but I'll still recommend turning it off. Go to Settings-> Privacy & Security-> Location Services scroll down through all the apps, at the bottom you'll see "System Services", click on it. Scroll down to Significant Location & Routes and click on it. Then disable it and clear history. Description states that it's end to end encrypted and can't be read by Apple, but I'll still recommend turning it off anyway. #iphoneprivacy #punkprivacy

One other setting to disable in Location section - "Product Improvement", no it's not improvement for you it's simply to use your data to improve Apple systems, just disable it. Go to Settings-> Privacy & Security-> Location Services scroll down through all the apps, at the bottom you'll see "System Services", click on it. Scroll down to "Product Improvement" section and disable all settings within that section. #iphoneprivacy #punkprivacy

Let's talk about location precision. iPhone has a setting that controls how precise your location passed to an app. Unfortunately by default it's precise, which is a within 10 ft radius. Turning it off makes it a mile-ish radius. I am sorry, but weather does not change within a mile radius, so your weather app does not need it. Go to Settings-> Privacy & Security-> Location Services, review apps and turn off Precise Location unless it's an app that needs it. #iphoneprivacy #punkprivacy

We are not done with location just yet, now we need to review apps that we are sharing location with. Go to Settings-> Privacy & Security-> Location Services and review each app. Typically you night have next options: Never, Ask Next Time or When I Share, While Using the App, Always. Many apps will attempt to convince you to switch to Always, never do that. If app requires location, maps for example, settle on While Using the App.
#iphoneprivacy #punkprivacy

Let's start with iPhone feature to share location with your friends/family. Go to Settings-> Privacy & Security-> Location Services-> Share My Location and confirm that you intended to share it with those people. Click on individual person, scroll down and click "Stop Sharing My Location" to stop. Go through every name on the list. If you are not sharing with anyone click on "Share My Location" green checkbox to stop sharing it all together. #iphoneprivacy #punkprivacy

I have decided to start a series of posts on iPhone privacy with tips, to help people understand privacy settings on their device, learn what those settings do and how to configure them. Series can be found under #iphoneprivacy hashtag.
#punkprivacy

Surveillance is easy, it does not require any special equipment and for little bit of money you can do a lot. Here is article analyzing Le Monde's article that talks about tracking of daily movement of French police and military. What can you do about it? Start deleting advertisement ID, may not help much but it's a good first step. I wrote about that in my mini advent calendar for privacy improvement on punkprivacy.com. Here is article itself: https://proton.me/blog/ad-tech-privacy #punkprivacy

When was the last time you reviewed apps on your phone? Apps typically collect lots of data, if you don't need app right now, delete it you can install it later when you need it. It's a simple hygiene that will dramatically improve your privacy. #punkprivacy

Do you use Echo devices by Amazon? Do you know that they typically come with Sidewalk bridge turned on by default? Amazon Sidewalk is a mesh network that uses LoRa among other things for long distance communication. Sidewalk device in a bridge mode will share it's Internet connection with some random device, sometimes half a mile away. While it's low bandwidth did you really signed up for that when you bought it? If not - disable it.
#punkprivacy

Here you go, proof that tracking won't stop until you delete "social media" apps off of your phone. Think again do you need app to communicate with your real friends instead of calling them? #punkprivacy #privacy
Meta and Yandex are de-anonymizing Android users’ web browsing identifiers - Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/06/meta-and-yandex-are-de-anonymizing-android-users-web-browsing-identifiers/

Lawsuit filed against insurance company, alleging the insurer illegally tracked drivers through their cell phones without consent. What is interesting there that data was collected not even through an insurance owned app, but rather embedded into SDK that has been used by other apps. Remove unused apps from your phone.
Link:https://cyberinsider.com/texas-ag-sues-allstate-over-alleged-unlawful-data-harvesting/
#punkprivacy #privacy #consumerrights

I had been saying that listening to the microphone on your phone is not practical or scalable from a marketing point of view(while 100 % possible). My recommendation though has always been removal of social media apps from your phone. #punkprivacy However looks like at least one player brags about it, so maybe they were able to implement a process that yields good ROI and proves me wrong. Please remove unnecessary apps from your phone. https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-partner-phones-listening-microphone #privacy

If you look at legal landscape of privacy you'll find that there is a significant misunderstanding of what privacy is and confusion of privacy with anonymity. Most privacy laws cover your personal information while do not protect tidbits of information about what you were doing online. Simple example streaming providers recommend movies based on what you watched or opened, that information might tell a lot about your interests/hobbies and won't be protected by laws on the books. #punkprivacy

Everyone, I'd like to share some exciting news. Since grownups don't typically have advent calendars I've tasked my team at IonTec Software LLC to create one with lot's of activities targeted to help people protect their privacy in a fight against surveillance capitalism. It's bite size chunks of activities which will open on designated day for next 12 days until Christmas, why wait take an action: https://punkprivacy.com/ Merry Christmas #privacy #punkprivacy

If you are using Android phone then you could have noticed recent update from Google which allowed you to "personalize your ad experience" and those settings apparently were on by default. So you have to actually do work to opt out. Here is how you can turn it off: Settings->Security&Privacy->More privacy settings->Ads->Ad privacy. It will take you to the screen in picture, go ahead and turn off all of these settings and definitely delete your advertising ID. #punkprivacy

TIP: Never store passwords on your mobile, or for that matter use built in password manager which does not have additional master password. Imagine situation when your phone gets stolen, and thief already learned your pin code by shoulder surfing. Their next move is to change your AppleID password and from there they'll have access to every single piece of information connected to your AppleID. Use stand alone 3-rd party password managers. #punkprivacy