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By Stephen Nellis
(Reuters) – Apple Inc. on Wednesday launched an online tool aimed at users in the United States and several other countries to download, modify, or delete any data collected by the iPhone maker.
Apple has updated its privacy website with the tool, which was unveiled earlier this year to users of the European Union in response to the region's general data protection regulations, or GDPR. Apple will now let users in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand see and download all the information collected by Apple about them. It also gives users an easier way to make changes to the data, suspend their Apple account, or even permanently delete it.
Previously, Apple offered these features in different locations, but brought them together for the European Data Privacy Act. It plans to deploy the same tool for all users of the world by the end of the year.
Apple devices such as the iPhone or Apple Watch collect detailed data about users, such as recipients of their emails, calls or SMS, and even biometric data such as heart rates and fingerprints. Apple, however, has a habit of keeping much of this data on the devices themselves and encrypting them with the help of the user's passcode, which means that Apple does not not own and can not decipher them if law enforcement authorities request it.
Apple has sought to turn its privacy stance into a commercial advantage over rivals in the technology sector. CEO, Tim Cook, said that Apple "would not be in this situation" earlier this year, when Facebook Inc. was the subject of an investigation for misappropriation of data by Cambridge Analytica. Facebook managing director Mark Zuckerberg in turn described Cook's comments as "extremely flippant".
Despite the fact that it focuses on data retention on devices, Apple collects and stores certain data relating to its users. With updates to his privacy website on Wednesday, he tries to better explain these cases. For example, Apple collects data on users' reading habits to improve suggestions in its Apple News application, but indicates that this data is linked to an anonymous identifier, rather than to a personal profile, and that it is not anonymous. they are not connected to their other services and can be reset at any time.
Apple has also developed its guide for users on how to adjust their privacy settings. For example, Apple's default settings allow tracking of certain ads in the App Store and Apple News, but they explain how users can limit this tracking.
(Stephen Nellis report, edited by Jonathan Oatis)
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