Academics probe Apple's privacy settings and get lost and confused

A study by Aalto University critiques Apple’s first-party app privacy practices, finding that data collection is often enabled by default and that critical controls (especially for Siri, Safari, Family Sharing, and iMessage) are fragmented across multiple settings, poorly documented, and hard for users to navigate; in a small user survey (n=15), participants struggled to fully disable features and relied on web searches over Apple’s materials. The authors recommend centralizing privacy controls and providing clear, in-context explanations, noting that legal actions alleging opaque tracking practices may pressure Apple more than academic findings.