TechCrunch claims many iPhone apps “secretly record your screen.” Is that true? Well, yes, kind of—but their recording abilities are limited. Apple is now cracking down on these apps and requiring more transparency, too.
An App Can Only Record Your Activity In the App
First, let’s make this clear: iPhone and iPad apps can’t record everything you do on your phone’s screen. An app can only record what happens within the app itself.
In other words, even if an app is trying to record everything it can, it can only record the swipes, taps, and data you enter within that app. The Expedia app was one of the few singled out here. So, if you’re using Expedia, the app can record everything you swipe, tap, and type into the Expedia app. But, after you leave the app, it can’t see anything you do on your home screen or anything you type into another app. Apple’s iOS operating system would prevent apps from recording your screen all the time, even if they wanted to.
The only person who can record everything on your screen is you—with the screen recording tool built into iPhones. Apps can’t access that.
App Developers Are Monitoring Their Own Apps
With that scary headline taken away, we can see what’s going on: Apps from many major companies are monitoring what you do in the app itself.
It shouldn’t be a huge surprise that this is possible. When you’re using an app like Air Canada, Hollister, or Expedia, that app can monitor everything you tap and swipe in the app itself. It can monitor how many seconds you spend looking at a particular screen. It can even record text you type into that app. For example, if you type a credit card number into the app before changing your mind, deleting it, and typing a new credit card number, the app can capture that first credit card number. After all, you typed it in the app, and the app can monitor everything that happens in the app itself.
None of this is excusing the larger issue: That companies are doing this without clearly disclosing it to their customers. But you should be aware that, even if a company says it isn’t doing this in its app, any app can monitor anything that happens inside itself and you have no way of knowing. Apple is now trying to stop this from happening without your knowledge, which should at least give some app developers pause.
Websites Do This, Too
This behavior isn’t just restricted to iPhone apps. While you’re visiting a website, anything you do on that website can be monitored. It often is, too.
