iOS Internals · iPhone Privacy Controls · Lesson 5 of 5

Challenge: The Coupon App Checkup

Audit your aunt's coupon app and tighten her iPhone privacy settings.

The case brief

Your Aunt Rosa installed DealDrop, a free coupon app, on her iPhone running iOS 18. During setup she tapped the friendliest-looking button on every prompt. She likes the coupons for shops near her, but she says the app "seems to know too much" and asks you to look.

Here's what you find in Settings, Privacy & Security:

• Location Services: DealDrop is set to Always, with Precise Location on. Its purpose string says "DealDrop uses your location to improve your experience."
• Photos: Full Access. She only ever uploads a receipt now and then.
• Contacts: Full Access. DealDrop has no feature that uses contacts.
• Tracking: DealDrop is switched on.

She wants to keep the app, and keep getting nearby coupons when she opens it. She doesn't need coupons popping up while the app is closed.

The dot

While you're sitting with her, Rosa scrolls through DealDrop's coupon list. She isn't on a call, isn't recording anything and hasn't tapped any voice search button. An orange dot appears at the top of the screen for a few seconds, then vanishes.

She closes the app and asks whether the dot was DealDrop or something else running in the background. You want to show her where iOS answers that question.

Label versus reality

Rosa turned on App Privacy Report a week ago. For DealDrop, it shows Contacts accessed dozens of times, often late at night, and App Network Activity full of domains like collect.adpartner.example.

DealDrop's App Store label, though, lists only Coarse Location under Data Not Linked to You. Nothing under Data Used to Track You. Rosa points out that the label is on Apple's own store, so surely it's been checked.

The cleanup

Rosa wants to finish the job properly. Her goals:

• Still upload the odd receipt photo, without DealDrop seeing her whole library.
• Stop DealDrop reading her friends' and family's details.
• Stop DealDrop linking her activity with other companies' apps and websites for ads.

She'd rather not reset all her settings or lose features in her other apps. You already fixed location, so three more settings are left to change.