If you don't know how information shared among the apps installed on your iPhone is being used, it's about to get a lot easier to find out

As initially promised in the release of iOS 14 earlier this year, Apple's self-proclaimed "nutrition label" for privacy has arrived It is intended to provide more transparency about what you are sharing with others And it will be included in all apps available on the iPhone

Apple first announced plans to offer a buffet of privacy disclosures in this form when it previewed iOS 14 at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June by November, Apple will require developers to provide information collected by December 8 types of information they were required to provide

The threat of potentially losing the ability to add updates to individual apps seems to have favored some developers to accelerate this process, which brings users access to more information per app, even outside of the Apple ecosystem

But what information is now available? For each app, you can view three different categories of data: data used to track you, data linked to you, and data not linked to you Basically, you can see what data is being recorded that can be used to track you on the Internet and on a daily basis, what data is being obtained that can be matched to you, and what additional data is being collected that cannot be matched to you but is still being collected

In the App Store app on iOS devices, you can find privacy information contained in the app entries This data appears roughly two-thirds of the way through the App Store entry, sandwiched between user ratings and additional information about the app

The data tracked includes everything from personal information, such as your name, address, and other important identifying information, to location information, such as where you are when using the app All of this is data that is used to better tailor ads or meet other ad-related metrics Apple also applies the term "data tracking" here to sharing device information with the company that ultimately sells it

Data linked to you means anything that can be used to link you to a particular app and identify you This includes information obtained from a particular app, which allows the user to infer, among other things, that you are a supporter of said app Data not linked to you is a set of general data that is collected but not attached to you This could include information such as browsing history and other small pieces of information that are not necessarily linked to what you do

According to Apple, labels must be kept current and accurate with each app update, and this rule applies to both third-party apps and Apple's own apps Labels can be easily viewed on the web as well as from the device currently in use