![\"Digital](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1757274249_297_960x0.jpg\")
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Toggle on for privacy<\/p>\n
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Is your iPhone listening to you \u2014 no, well not exactly. But that doesn\u2019t stop millions assuming it is. What is happening is a new form of silent tracking that identifies your phone across all the websites you visit, without you ever knowing it\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n
This is called digital fingerprinting<\/a>. Google has warned \u201cthis subverts user choice and is wrong<\/a>.\u201d That\u2019s because \u201cunlike cookies, users cannot clear their fingerprint, and therefore cannot control how their information is collected.\u201d<\/p>\n But Google suddenly changed its mind.<\/p>\n ForbesFBI Warning\u2014Major Problem With Apple\u2019s iPhone EncryptionBy Zak Doffman<\/a><\/p>\n Just as with its decision to unkill tracking cookies<\/a>, Google has also brought back digital fingerprinting<\/a> this year. And it\u2019s not just browsers any more \u2014 all your smart devices can be part of this tracking ecosystem built around your life.<\/p>\n But browsers are at the heart of any tracking \u2014 because this is where you visit websites that neatly define your life, job, interests and habits. This is where you shop, work, play, research and hang out. None of us would choose to make our internet history public.<\/p>\n Digital fingerprinting collates an array of data from your phone \u2014 your IP address, device model and OS, time zone, setup and anything else if can get \u2014 to create a unique identifier in aggregate, even if each individual data snippet us useless on its own.<\/p>\n Toggle on for privacy.<\/p>\n @UKZak<\/p>\n If you\u2019re interacting with Google on your iPhone you\u2019re leaving a fingerprint, even if you use Safari and avoid Google\u2019s own Chrome browser<\/a> on privacy grounds. But Apple is fighting back with iOS 26 to stop this working as Google might like. And you can enable this now \u2014 and reclaim some of the privacy lost to this invasive new tracking.<\/p>\n In the Safari settings on your iPhone, under \u201cAdvanced,\u201d you will see an option called \u201cAdvanced Tracking and Fingerprinting Protection.\u201d By default this is currently toggled to \u201cPrivate Browsing,\u201d but will default to \u201cAll Browsing\u201d in iOS 26.<\/p>\n This setting essentially confuses digital fingerprinting by pushing out a raft of useless data or chaff to mask what\u2019s real, making it difficult \u2014 albeit not impossible \u2014 for trackers to isolate your device from hundreds of millions of others.<\/p>\n This is important because while Safari blocks tracking cookies, which offer opt-outs, digital fingerprinting is pervasive and silent and you can\u2019t opt out. As one regulator<\/a> warns, this means it\u2019s \u201cnot a fair means of tracking\u201d and is likely \u201cto reduce people\u2019s choice and control over how their information is collected.\u201d<\/p>\n