iPhone is more than the device in your hand. It’s made up of every decision we take. From the energy we source, to the way we protect your data, right up to how we responsibly recycle its tiniest components.
At Apple, we believe that data privacy is a fundamental human right. Your personal data belongs to you and no one else.
And while some companies sell your data, we don’t. We’ll tell you if we collect your data and let you know how it’s used. For instance, we may utilise that data to make iPhone more user friendly. And you can always change your settings to limit the amount of information that can be accessed.
Learn more about how Apple protects your privacyApple Stores take back old smartphones and recycle them for free. This helps recover more materials, so fewer resources need to be mined from the earth.
iPhone is made to last. But when you do want to replace it, you can take your old iPhone to an Apple Store or send it back to us using a pre-paid postage label. Many are recycled by a specially developed disassembly robot that recovers more materials and at a higher quality than previous methods, so fewer resources are taken from the earth. You can even send us smartphones from other manufacturers. All this means less electronic waste and more materials recovered. And helps to protect our planet’s natural resources.
Learn more about how recycling works with Apple Trade InInstead of storing an image, Face ID saves a mathematical value created from the characteristics of your features. It’s impossible for anyone else to recreate your likeness from this.
Face ID is a biometric authentication of your iPhone, which makes it an extremely safe way of protecting your privacy and data. In fact, the probability that another person can unlock it is just one in a million. Face ID works by projecting more than 30,000 infrared dots onto your features to form a topographical representation and a 2D infrared image. These are then converted into a mathematical reference value that’s stored in a secure area on your iPhone. Each time you use Face ID, your face gets converted into a unique mathematical value and this is checked against the stored reference value on your iPhone. If both are identical, the iPhone unlocks. And just as your fingerprint can’t be recreated from Touch ID data, it’s also impossible to recreate your facial map from Face ID data.
Learn more about how Face ID protects your privacyTaking photos. Opening apps. Using the keyboard. The things you do every day are now faster. Even on older models of iPhone.
iOS 13 improves the speed of iPhone. And because many people hold on to their iPhone for years, we’ve ensured it enhances the speed of products as far back as iPhone SE. The camera opens more quickly. The keyboard appears more quickly. And even with multiple apps open at once, you can still see significantly improved performance. iOS 13 allows people to use iPhone for longer. And much faster.
Learn more about iOS 13When you surf with Safari on your iPhone using iOS 13, Intelligent Tracking Prevention is automatically activated. It limits the information advertisers receive from cookies.
Websites contain cookies that store information about your online activity. Some companies use this information to show you ads based on websites you’ve previously visited. Intelligent Tracking Prevention in Safari ensures that 24 hours after you’ve visited a website, advertisers stop receiving that information. So the ads stop following you.
Learn more about how you can manage your privacyWe’ve developed a robot called Daisy to recover more materials from iPhone, reducing the need to mine resources from the earth. Daisy dismantles each device into individual parts and sorts the different components.
This allows us to reclaim more materials of a higher purity than with conventional recycling methods. We can make new products using the recovered materials or return them to the market. And these practices help to save the planet’s limited resources.
Learn more about how Apple conserves natural resourcesBoth your audio and video FaceTime calls are automatically protected with end-to-end encryption, letting you communicate securely in real time.
FaceTime uses two-key encryption, similar to iMessage but with an even more complex system. Your conversations leave iPhone as jumbled data, and will not revert to their original form until they appear on the recipient’s iPhone. So only you and the people you talk to have the keys to hear or see your conversation.
Learn more about how Apple protects your privacyWhen you sign in at iCloud.com or use the Find My iPhone app, you can remotely lock your iPhone or even erase it to protect your data.
Signing in will automatically turn on Activation Lock. With it on, your iPhone can only be reset with your Apple ID password. Using Lost Mode locks your iPhone immediately and allows you to track where it’s been over the last 24 hours. You can also display a message with a contact number on your Lock screen, so the finder can call you without getting access to any other information. If you believe you won’t get your iPhone back, you can wipe your data and restore the device to its factory settings using Remote Erase. And since Activation Lock stays active, your device will remain unusable to anyone but you.
Learn more about how you can protect your data remotelyIn 2017, we achieved a Zero Waste to Landfill certification for all iPhone final assembly lines worldwide.
This means materials that are not needed are recycled or reused, with a small amount contributing to generating energy. Even the upper layer of the protective film that covers iPhone screens during production is recycled. It’s part of our efforts to move to a closed-loop supply chain. That’s a big ambition, but it’s one we’re constantly working towards.
Learn more about what Apple does for the environment