Adapted from privacyguides.org
The privacy and security of iOS can be enhanced by disabling certain built-in telemetry features and hardening the system’s built-in privacy and security settings.
Privacy & Security
Lockdown Mode is a security setting that increases a phone’s resistance to attacks. It is designed for individuals who, due to their identity or activities, may be personally targeted by some of the most sophisticated digital threats.
This is especially true in China.
- Select Setting → Security & Privacy → Turn On Lockdown Mode
Before First Unlock
The state after a reboot but before unlocking your device is referred to as Before First Unlock (BFU), and when your device is in that state it makes it significantly more difficult for forensic tools to exploit vulnerabilities to access your data. This BFU state allows you to receive notifications for calls, texts, and alarms, but most of the data on your device is still encrypted and inaccessible.
Info
If your threat model includes targeted attacks that involve forensic tools, you should restart your device frequently.
VPN
We recommend the Wireguard protocol with a provider such as Mullvad or IVPN.
Warning
Even when a VPN is active, some traffic that is necessary for essential system services will take place outside the VPN so that your device can function properly – Apple.
iCloud
If you do use iCloud you should enable Advanced Data Protection, This encrypts nearly all of your iCloud data with keys stored on your devices (end-to-end encryption), rather than Apple’s servers, so that your iCloud data is secured in the event of a data breach, and otherwise hidden from Apple.
You can also protect your data by limiting what you sync to iCloud in the first place. In Settings → iCloud turn off the switches for any services you don’t want to sync to iCloud.
Find My
Find My location data is E2EE when:
- Your location is shared with a third-party, and you both use iOS 17 or greater;
- Your device is offline and is located by the Find My Network.
Your location data is not E2EE when you use Find My iPhone remotely to locate your device while it is online. You will need to decide whether the anti-theft benefits of Activation Lock are worth the trade-offs.
Media & Purchases
At the top of the Settings app, you’ll see your name and profile picture if you are signed in to an Apple Account. Select that, then select Media & Purchases → View Account.
- Turn off Personalized Recommendations
iOS Settings
Airplane Mode
Enabling Airplane Mode stops your phone from contacting cell towers. You will still be able to connect to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, so whenever you are connected to Wi-Fi you can turn this setting on.
Wi-Fi
You can enable hardware address randomization to protect you from tracking across Wi-Fi networks, and on the same network over time. On the network you are currently connected to, tap the information button:
- Set Private Wi-Fi Address to Fixed or Rotating
You also have the option to Limit IP Address Tracking. This is similar to iCloud Private Relay but only affects connections to “known trackers.” Because it only affects connections to potentially malicious servers, this setting is probably fine to leave enabled, but if you don’t want any traffic to be routed through Apple’s servers, you should turn it off.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth should be disabled when you aren’t using it. Disabling Bluetooth (or Wi-Fi) via the Control Center only disables it temporarily: you must switch it off in Settings for disabling it to remain effective.
- Turn off Bluetooth
Note: Bluetooth is automatically turned on after every system update.
General
You should change Your iPhone’s device name to something more generic, like “iPhone.” Select About → Name and enter the device name you prefer.
Enable automatic updates to keep your phone up-to-date. Select Software Update → Automatic Updates:
- Turn on Automatically Install
AirDrop represents a significant privacy risk. The AirDrop protocol constantly broadcasts your personal information to your surroundings, with very weak security protections. Your identity can easily be discovered by attackers even with limited resources.
- Select AirDrop → Receiving Off
Warning
The Chinese government has openly acknowledged using such techniques to identify AirDrop users in public since 2022.
AirPlay lets you seamlessly stream content from your iPhone to a TV; however, you might not always want this. Select AirPlay & Continuity → Automatically AirPlay:
- Select Never or Ask
Background App Refresh may cause them to make unwanted connections. Turning this off can also save battery life, but may affect an app’s ability to receive updated information, particularly weather and messaging apps.
If you don’t want any apps to refresh in the background, you can select Background App Refresh again and turn it Off.
Apple Intelligence & Siri
Chinese Iphone
Info
On chinese iPhone, Apple Intelligence natively embarks Qwen, Alibaba’s AI model along with Baidu’s AI since iOS 27.31 2 3 4.
Rest of world
Apple Intelligence uses a combination of on-device processing and their Private Cloud Compute for things that take more processing power than your device can provide.
To see a report of all the requests made to Apple’s servers, navigate to Privacy & Security → Apple Intelligence Report and press Export Activity to see activity from either the last 15 minutes or 7 days. Similar to the App Privacy Report which shows you the recent permissions accessed by the apps on your phone, the Apple Intelligence Report likewise shows what is being sent to Apple’s servers while using Apple Intelligence.
Apple Intelligence can integrate with ChatGPT. If you want ChatGPT integration, you can navigate to ChatGPT and press Set Up. If you want to disable it, go to the same place:
- Turn off Use ChatGPT
You can also have it ask for confirmation every time if you leave ChatGPT integration on:
- Turn on Confirm Requests
If you don’t want anyone to be able to control your phone with Siri when it is locked, you can turn that off here.
- Turn off Allow Siri When Locked
Face ID/Touch ID & Passcode
Select Turn Passcode On or Change Passcode → Passcode Options → Custom Alphanumeric Code. Make sure that you create a secure password.
If you use biometrics, you should know how to turn them off quickly in an emergency. Holding down the side button and either volume button until you see the Slide to Power Off slider will disable biometrics, requiring your passcode to unlock.
Stolen Device Protection adds additional security intended to protect your personal data if your device is stolen while unlocked. If you enable both biometric authentication and the Find My iPhone feature, we recommend enabling this protection:
- Turn on Stolen Device Protection
Allow Access When Locked presents options for what you can allow when your phone is locked. Pick and choose which feature you want to disable to prevent unauthorized access if someone gets their hands on your phone.
iPhones are already resistant to brute-force attacks by making you wait long periods of time after multiple failed attempts; however, there have historically been exploits to get around this. To be extra safe, you can set your phone to wipe itself after 10 failed passcode attempts.
- Turn on Erase Data
Warning With this setting enabled, someone could intentionally wipe your phone by entering the wrong password many times.
Privacy & Security
Review and pick which apps can use your location here. Select Location Services:
- Turn off Location Services
A purple arrow will appear next to an app in these settings that has used your location recently, while a gray arrow indicates that your location has been accessed within the last 24 hours. If you don’t want to submit location analytics to Apple, you can disable this here as well. Select System Services:
- Turn off iPhone Analytics
- Turn off Routing & Traffic
- Turn off Improve Maps
Disallows all apps from tracking you with your phone’s advertising ID. Select Tracking:
- Turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track
Turn off Research Sensor & Usage Data:
- Turn off Sensor & Usage Data Collection
Safety Check allows you to quickly view and revoke certain people and apps that might have permission to access your data. Here, you can perform an Emergency Reset, immediately resetting permissions for all people and apps which might have access to device resources. You can also Manage Sharing & Access, which allows you to review and customize who and what has access to your device and account resources.
Disable analytics if you don’t wish to send usage data to Apple. Select Analytics & Improvements and unselect the type(s) of analytics that you don’t want to send to Apple.
Disable Personalized Ads if you don’t want targeted ads. Select Apple Advertising:
- Turn off Personalized Ads
App Privacy Report is a built-in tool that allows you to see which permissions your apps are using. Select App Privacy Report:
- Select Turn On App Privacy Report
Set wired accessories to ask for permission when you connect them. Select Wired Accessories:
- Select Always Ask or Ask for New Accessories
E2EE Calls
Both FaceTime Video and FaceTime Audio calls are E2EE. Alternatively, use Signal for E2EE calls.
Encrypted iMessage
iMessage works in China. A blue bubble indicates that iMessage is E2EE, while a green bubble indicates the other party is using either the outdated SMS and MMS protocols or RCS.
RCS on iOS is not E2EE. If either you or your messaging partner have iCloud Backup enabled without Advanced Data Protection, the encryption key will be stored on Apple’s servers, meaning they can access your messages.
To defend yourself from a potentially malicious server, you can enable Contact Key Verification. At the top of the Settings app where your name is, select it, then go to Contact Key Verification.
- Turn on Verification in iMessage
Both you and your contacts need to enable Contact Key Verification and follow Apple’s instructions for the security assurances mentioned above to take effect.
Photo Permissions
Allow apps to only access whichever photos you choose by tapping the “Select Photos…” option in the permission dialog. You can change photo access permissions at any time by navigating to:
- Settings → Privacy & Security → Photos → Limited Access.
Contact Permissions
Similarly, change contact access permissions by navigating to:
- Settings → Privacy & Security → Contacts→ Limited Access.