Protect Your Personal iPhone Data with These 9 Tips

By Ali Mahdi
4 Min Read
9 Tips to Enhance Safari Browsing Privacy in iOS 11

With so much of your private information being exposed to the web, it is important that you take extra precautions to ensure that you're browsing privately. Safari provides a number of privacy options so that you can search the web more securely without exposing much of your private information. Press the right arrow to learn 9 Tips to Enhance Safari Browsing Privacy in iOS 11.

9 Browse in Private Mode

Most browsers have a Private browsing mode, or Incognito Mode, which prevents websites from tracking your browsing behavior. Safari also offers this feature and it is built right into the browser. When you're in Private mode, Safari won't remember the pages you visit, your search history, or even your AutoFill information. It also deletes cookies when you close the tabs.

To browse in Private mode in Safari:

  1. Open Safari.
  2. Press the Tabs icon in the bottom right corner.
  3. Now tap on the Private button in the bottom left corner. This enables the private browsing mode.
  4. Safari now turns into a dark color to indicate that you are browsing in private mode.

8 Disable Location Services for Safari

If you have Location Services enabled for Safari, then websites that require access to your location, such as a mapping website, can keep track of your location without acknowledging it. We recommend that you disable Location Services for Safari if you don't want any website to track your location.

  1. Open the Settings app and go to Privacy.
  2. Tap Location Services.
  3. Tap Safari Websites.
  4. Select Never so that no website can access your location in Safari.

7 Block Cookies

Most websites that you visit use cookies to remember and identify you. Cookies are pieces of information that websites store on your device, such as your IP address, the username that you use on the site, your device model and its version, and any personal information that you might have provided, such as your name and email address. Websites also use cookies to track your login information and keep you signed in.

Safari automatically blocks all third-party cookies and accepts cookies only from the websites that you visit. If you want to enjoy more privacy and browse safely, then you can disable all cookies in Safari. Note: Some websites require cookies to function properly.

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Go to Safari.
  3. Turn on the toggles for Block All Cookies and Ask Websites Not To Track Me.

6 Disable Camera & Microphone Access

iOS 11 now allows you to permanently disable Camera & Microphone access for Safari. This prevents malicious websites from accessing your camera & microphone without your consent. Here's how to access this option:

  1. Open Settings and go to Safari.
  2. Scroll down to Privacy & Security, then toggle off Camera & Microphone Access.

5 Clear History and Website Data

You might want to clear your website history every once in a while to delete all the cookies that are stored and remove your browsing history. Keep in mind that clearing your Safari history will log you out from all the websites where you're signed in as well as clear URL autofill.

To clear History and Website Data:

  1. Open the Settings app and go to Safari.
  2. Scroll to the bottom and tap on Clear History and Website Data.

4 Turn Off Frequently Visited Websites

When you open a new tab in Safari, it displays your frequently visited websites. This is useful to quickly open the sites that you visit regularly, but if you don't want Safari to keep track of your frequently visited websites, then you should turn this feature off.

  1. Go to Settings > Safari.
  2. Scroll to the General section, then toggle off Frequently Visited Sites.

3 Disable Access to Photos

Just like Location Services, if you don't require any website to access the photos and videos on your device, then it's recommended that you turn it off to make sure that malicious websites do not access your photo library without your consent.

To disable access to Photos in Safari:

  1. Open the Settings app and go to Privacy.
  2. Tap Photos.
  3. Tap on Safari. If you don't see Safari in the list, then it means that you haven't granted it access to your photos.
  4. Select Never.

2 Use VPN on Public WiFi Networks

Disconnect VPN and Content Blocker Review

Public Wi-Fi networks are always insecure and we highly recommend that you use a VPN to encrypt your data and channel all of your incoming and outgoing traffic through a secure server. This prevents a malicious middleman from snooping on your internet usage and stealing your personal information.

There are a lot of great VPNs available today, such as VPN Unlimited, PureVPN, and Disconnect VPN. Once you install a VPN app on your device, turn it on the next time you connect to a public Wi-Fi so that you can browse the web safely.

1 Prevent Cross-Site Tracking

Most third-party services on websites track your browsing behavior and internet usage so that they can improve their services. For instance, ad networks track your internet usage to provide you more relevant advertisements, which can actually be a good thing depending on your viewpoint.

Apple has added a new privacy option to iOS 11 that lets you prevent cross-site tracking. When you enable this option, it identifies trackers and segregates cross-site scripting data so that you can browse the web with more privacy.

Here's how to prevent cross-site tracking in iOS 11:

  1. Open the Settings app and go to Safari.
  2. Scroll down to Privacy & Security, then toggle on Prevent Cross-Site Tracking.
  3. Note: Toggling on 'Prevent Cross-Site Tracking' will not decrease the advertisements you see online. Advertisers simply won't be able to tailor ads to you. If you prefer to see relevant advertisements, toggle the switch to the OFF position.
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