Apple’s Safety Check Feature in iOS 16 Is Designed To Protect Users

Apple is bringing a new feature called Safety Check to iOS 16. This was announced earlier at the WWDC22. The new feature is designed to protect users who find themselves in abusive relationships.

Safety Check is meant to help these users stay on top and manage app access and passwords and also to inform them who has their passwords and information. Apple claims this new feature will help these users in abusive relationships cut ties to an abusive partner across devices more easily. How do they do that? Simply by reviewing and revoking access for certain people. Apps that this new feature will work with include Find My, location, data, contacts, and many more. Additionally, it disables location tracking permissions that they may have given to an abusive partner.

Also, a user can use the Emergency Reset feature, which is one feature that immediately resets access by all people and apps at once across devices, provided it’s synced with your iCloud account. The Emergency Reset feature can also be used to review details of your security settings.

Features like the Safety Check are great and a big step in the right direction. It shows how Apple is concerned with taking privacy concerns seriously and continues to record improvements while at it. In 2020, Apple announced privacy “nutrition labels,” which detail what information an app gathers from users, whether or not the app tracks users, and what data is linked back to a user.

Apple also announced new features to simplify children’s account management. These new features guide parents through setting up content restrictions for minors, screen time limits, and location sharing with family members.