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Yes, your iphone track your browsing history—and it's not necessarily a bad

Yes, your iphone can track your browsing history—but it might not be as bad as you think.

By Aymeric DelaplacePublished 2 years ago 4 min read
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Yes, your iphone track your browsing history—and it's not necessarily a bad
Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

It's no secret that iPhones and smart phones in general have been used for tracking without people knowing. This is because not a lot of people are aware of the potential for their apps to track them. I think when someone buys an iPhone, they (at least I) expect it only to be able to track them financially.

For example: If I'm browsing the web on my phone and click a link to buy something on Amazon, it should just know that I need to make a purchase and show me an Amazon button so I can quickly make the purchase. However, that is not the case. The apps on your phone that you don't even realize are tapping into your data do much more than this and are very similar to what website developers can do with cookies.

Apple does track your browsing history—and you can easily see that information.

You might have heard that Apple tracks your browsing history and that it can be accessed by any app or website you visit. This is true, and you can see that information yourself. Apple does track your browsing history—and you can easily see that information. To access it, click the Settings icon on your iPhone or iPad and then tap Safari > Website Data.

You'll see a list of websites and apps with their associated data, including how long you spent on each site, how many times you visited it, and how many times you've opened or closed it. You can delete individual websites from this list by tapping Edit at the top-right corner of the screen.

To delete all of your website data for good, just tap Clear History at the bottom-left corner of the screen.

Apple uses a feature called icloud safari browsing history to do this, but it only works in conjunction with some other apps.

It's true that your iPhone can track your web browsing history, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. Apple uses a feature called icloud safari browsing history to do this, but it only works in conjunction with some other apps. The feature is turned on by default—you can turn it off in Settings > Privacy > Safari website data.

If you leave it on, Apple will collect information about which websites you visit and use that data to improve its own services. Apple uses this data to make its mobile Safari web browser more useful and efficient. For example, if you visit a website that has previously worked with an Apple-owned app (for example, the App Store or iBooks), Apple might suggest the app for you to download next time you want to use it.

This isn't just limited to Safari either; Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox also use similar features that allow them to track your browsing history as well.

You can turn this feature off if you want to—but it will also block some other popular features.

Can apps track your browsing history? The answer is yes—and it's not necessarily a bad thing. The iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch have a feature called "limit ad tracking," which you can turn on or off in Settings > Privacy > Advertising. Enabling it will prevent advertisers from using your browsing history to show you targeted ads on other websites or apps.

But it also blocks some other handy features that require your location or other data to operate properly. Here's what happens if you turn it off: Some websites won't work properly If you visit a website that requires access to one of your device's sensors (such as GPS, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth), limit ad tracking will stop the site from working correctly on your device.

This includes many popular news sites and services such as Facebook, Twitter and Spotify that have location-based features built into them. There are alternatives to limit ad tracking You could disable this setting for individual websites — just go into Settings > Safari > Limit Ad Tracking and toggle each site on or off individually — but that's time consuming and annoying if you visit more than just a few sites regularly.

The third-party apps that use this feature have controls in place to keep your data private.

The answer is yes. Apple has provided an API (Application Programming Interface) for third-party apps to track your browsing history. This is done for the purpose of allowing apps to provide more relevant search results based on your browsing history. The third-party apps that use this feature have controls in place to keep your data private.

For example, in Safari on iOS, tapping Clear History deletes all of your browsing history and cookies from the device; they're not stored anywhere else but on the device itself. Apps that provide you with results based on your previous searches are very useful, especially when they make it easier to find things like restaurants or hotels.

All in All...

There are programs out there that DO track your browsing history and send that information back to a central source. However, those aren't apps. Apps cannot do this on their own, even if you give them permission to access your data. In short, no, apps can't track your browsing history on their own.

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About the Creator

Aymeric Delaplace

💬 Hello, I'm Aymeric 📱. 👋 I write about apps, software and businesses for kids for publications like TechCrunch 🌟. 🤔Have a question? DM me on Twitter or e-mail my email address. 👈❤️

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