Apple to Focus on Privacy and Security in iOS 12

Apple has announced new settings to strengthen security on your mobile, laptop and tablet devices.

• By Sydny Shepard
• Jun 06, 2018

Apple is taking steps to better secure the personal information of their users starting with iOS 12 and macOS. The tech giant announced the changes to privacy and security for their mobile, laptop and tablet devices at their developer's conference on Monday.

Apple is looking to take better care of your information. The company is making changes to the way it auto-populates passwords in stock apps such as Safari. While firm details have not been released, Apple emphasized that iOS 12 and macOS will be able to "create, autofill and store strong passwords." The generated passwords from previous versions of the OSes have been strong, so it seems Apple is planning to improve the relative difficulty of cracking the passwords it generates.

Siri will play a role in password storage on Apple devices as well. The company noted that you will be able to ask Siri to access your passwords in the future OS versions. How this will work has not been disclosed, but it is safe to say no one really wants Siri spurting out all your passwords out loud.

With the strength of passwords comes the company's quest to help you fill them in. In upcoming releases, Apple says its users will be able to share passwords among nearby devices, noting specifically from iOS to iOS, to an Apple TV and to macOS, but apparently (for now) not from Mac to iOS or Mac to Apple TV.

Apple will also boost account protection with the use of two-factor authentication, which can protect an account from being examined or hijacked in the event of a password breach on a site. Without having access to the account's corresponding phone number, phone, tablet or computer, they can't obtain a second factor rendering the information useless.

In addition to the password protection solutions, Apple is cracking down on the amount of information third parties can obtain about a user's online and on-device behavior. In the latest updates, Apple has locked out some additional methods advertisers use to track people in iOS and macOS.