Security on iPhone: Allow and deny access to the camera, microphone and more [23. part]

iPhone is designed to protect your data and privacy. Built-in security features help prevent anyone but you from accessing your iPhone and iCloud data. Built-in privacy minimizes the amount of data others have about you and lets you control what information is shared and where. And this also in terms of which applications have access to which hardware. 

Thus, the social network may request access to the camera in order to take and then share photos. In turn, the chat application may want access to the microphone so that you can make voice calls in it. Different applications therefore require different approaches, including technologies such as Bluetooth, motion and fitness sensors, etc.

Changing an app's access to iPhone hardware resources 

Usually, you will be asked for individual app accesses after the first launch. Often, you tap off everything just because you don't want to read what the application says, or because you're just in a hurry. However, whenever you need, you can see which applications are accessing which hardware functions and change your decision – i.e. additionally disable or enable access.

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You just need to go to Settings -> Privacy. Here you can already see a list of all the hardware resources that your iPhone has and to which applications may require access. Except for the camera and voice recorder, this also includes contacts, calendars, reminders, Homekit, Apple Music and others. After clicking on any menu, you can see which application has access to it. By moving the slider next to the title, you can easily change your preferences.

E.g. with Photos, you can also change the accesses, whether the application has them only for selected, all or no photos. In Health, you can also define the volume of the sound in the headphones. After clicking on the application, you can see here exactly which information the application has access to (Sleep, etc.). It is also worth mentioning that if an application uses the microphone, an orange indicator will appear at the top of the screen. If, on the other hand, he uses the camera, the indicator is green. Thanks to this, you are always informed in a given application if it accesses these two most important functions. 

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