iPhone Privacy Report Reveals if Apps Are Using the Camera to Spy On You

A little-known iPhone feature can check if any malicious apps are spying through your camera or microphone.

The App Privacy Report is a great way of showing you which apps are accessing the camera or microphone on your phone.

Of course, there are plenty of apps that legitimately require access to your camera such as Instagram. However, there may be an obscure app that you have downloaded that is taking advantage of iPhone permissions.

The Sun reports that the App Privacy Report is a way of instantly blocking any unwanted apps from the recording devices on your phone.

“With iOS 15.2 or later, you can turn on App Privacy Report to see details about how often apps access your data — like your location, camera, microphone, and more,” Apple explains.

“You can also see information about each app’s network activity and website network activity, as well as the web domains that all apps contact most frequently. Together with Privacy Nutrition Labels, App Privacy Report helps give you a more complete picture of how the apps you use treat your data.”

How To Use the App Privacy Report on iPhone

Firstly, ensure that your iPhone is running iOS 15.2 or later. You can check this by going to Settings > General > About where you’ll find the iOS version listed on the second line.

Once that has been checked, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > App Privacy Report. If you haven’t used it before then you will need to turn the feature on; App Privacy Report won’t operate unless you tell it to. If you haven’t turned it on then you will have to wait a while for it to make its report.

But once App Privacy Report is on you can go and check on it anytime. Any apps that access sensitive data will be flagged on there and it will even show the date and timestamps of when the apps were active.

If you see anything strange on there or something you don’t like then you can investigate and deny access.

“Data & Sensor Access shows how many times and when an app accessed privacy-sensitive data or device sensors in the past 7 days,” says Apple. “This may include details about an app’s access to Location, Photos, Camera, Microphone, Contacts, and more. You can tap each app and data type to learn more.”

To change individual app permissions on things like Camera or Health, go back to Settings> Privacy & Security and then revoke access. As The Sun notes, if you’re really concerned about an app, you can always delete it entirely.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.