Is iOS 9 Spying Your Phone Number & Contact Details?
I saw this question online:
“You know iOS 9 tracks and shows the name of a person calling your phone number. I think Apple has this central database where all your info is collected. So when you call someone, that info is sent to the receiver. Hence the receiver knows your details. Scary!”
I see this happening a lot. And I want to put an end to this.
Because if “other” companies does this, doesn’t mean even Apple is doing this.
I am talking about spying.
Or let’s say stealing your data.
In fact, many Android users across the Internet think that Apple is stealing iOS users data. And they prefer Android over iOS because of that.
Fact is?
Apple takes privacy very seriously. And, as mentioned in our Privacy Settings feature page, none of the data is shared with any third-party companies.
Unless you decide to share it with other companies – like Facebook or Twitter – nothing you have is going to reach the “outside” world.
But then, how can Apple really predict the name of the person calling you?
This is a new feature that was added to iOS 9.
Let me explain you how it works:
First, this works when you are using the default Mail app. So let’s say I am sending you an email, with my contact details in it.
iOS 9 will store this mail locally on your iPhone / iPad.
But I will never store your contact details in my address book.
Next, if you call me only my iOS device, iOS 9 will take your phone number and try to find a match by scanning the saved emails.
If there is a match, your name is shown. Note that the name you have given in your email is shown on the phone screen.
Apple has taken this a step further. It now tries to predict the name.
For ex: Say I receive a call from 333-6000 that happens to be my personal gym trainer (let’s call him “Mr. Trainer”). Next time if a call comes from 333-6022, then iOS 9 will show “might be Mr. Trainer” on the screen.
That’s all iOS 9 does – no spying, no central database, or invasion of your privacy.
Of course, Apple comes with its set of faults, but I believe this feature is something positive (and not negative) that is made for us – and not for the company to steal our data (if they wanted to steal, they would have been done it silently… why let the world know?).