Latest iPhone update adds increased privacy protection, transparency

Chances are that one of the first things you did this morning was check your phone—and your phone was also tracking your movements But now, new privacy settings from Apple let you stop it tracking your activities between apps.

By pressing just one button, you now have more control over your privacy settings, which means those targeted advertisements that pop up on your Facebook or Instagram accounts may start to disappear if you opt not to share your data.

Before this new software update, you didn’t have the option to allow or disallow certain data tracking between apps and on the web.

Now, if an app want’s to track you, you will see a pop-up that says: “Allow ‘App’ to track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites?” and you have the option to select “Ask App Not to Track You” or “Allow.”

According to Apple, the app is not allowed to offer an incentive for you to allow tracking, or disable any features if you say no.

Lee County residents told WINK News it always concerns them when they see ads for products they were just searching pop up on social media.

“I don’t want people to know exactly where I’m at or what I’m doing,” said Melissa Cusumano. “I mean it’s just personal information then I would rather keep to myself.

“I think they’re just listening to everything I’m doing or watching, everything I’m doing,” said Erin Abdalan. “I feel like, even if you’re talking about it, it pops up, too.”

Those ads pop up because apps have trackers embedded in them to collect pieces of information about us and create a digital profile which can then be used to target us with ads.

But tech experts say there are some apps for which you may want to keep your location settings on.

“Otherwise, the downside of it… you could easily be shutting off your location services especially when you need it the most,” said Gene Hoyt, an expert in mobile applications and information systems at Florida Gulf Coast University. “If you’re a college student and you want your family or friends to be able to track you, there are different apps that use the tracking feature, and if you turn it off, they’re not gonna be able to find you if they need to follow you.”