Jamf releases iOS app permissions report and recommends users block access to non-essential permissions

On Thursday, Jamf released a report on the most common "permission types" of popular iOS apps on the App Store and provided iPhone users with some tips on how to avoid them. Apple Insider pointed out that the Apple mobile device management (MDM) company analyzed nearly 100,000 popular App Store apps, and the data came from 2.5 million Wandera customers.

Jamf found that many iOS apps requested access permissions including photos, camera, location, and microphone, especially apps such as photo/video, shopping, and social networking.

In addition to survey data, Jamf also provides some privacy recommendations to help users avoid unnecessary permissions/data requests from certain apps.

First, Jamf recommends blocking all unrelated apps from accessing the photo album. At the same time, referring to iOS 14's privacy controls, it recommends that users only provide granular access to specific photos, such as those that they want to edit or post to social media.

The second is the access rights to the camera or location information. Even if it is a navigation app, do not allow it to record your geographic location in the background all the time. It is best to limit camera access rights to specific situations and limit location permissions to "allow once" or "only when in use".

More importantly, Jamf recommends that users think twice before allowing a particular app to access contacts or other sensitive information. Unless an app really depends on it, it should be disabled.

Finally, Jamf emphasized the new microphone privacy policy introduced by Apple in iOS 14. When a foreground or background application calls the microphone, the system will also light up an orange prompt dot to help users find out the application that secretly accesses the microphone.