Both macOS and iOS have robust privacy settings that can impact your browsing experience in several ways. Although enabling these settings will give you more oversight on what kind of data you share with third-party companies, some may also slow down your browsing experience, depending on the website you are accessing. We recommend that you review the settings listed below and enable or disable these settings based on your needs:

  1. IP Address Tracking: Enabling this feature on your Mac or iOS device can prevent online tracking by concealing your IP address; however, it can slow down your browsing speeds. Chapman University Service Desk has received multiple reports from folks about this feature on Eduroam. If you prefer to disable it, follow the steps below:
    1. Mac: Go to System Preferences > Network > Wi-Fi > Network Settings (Click on the three dots on the right of the network name).
    2. iOS 15 iPadOS 15 or later: Go to Settings > Wi-Fi > Network Settings > turn off Limit IP Address Tracking for each network you use.
  2.  Safari Privacy Settings: Offers a range of privacy settings to help protect your online activity. Some of the most helpful privacy settings in Safari include the ability to prevent cross-site tracking, block all cookies, and ask websites not to track your activity. Safari also includes intelligent tracking prevention, which identifies and blocks cross-site tracking, as well as a fraudulent website warning that alerts you if you’re about to visit a malicious or fraudulent website. These privacy settings help to protect your online privacy and prevent unwanted tracking by advertisers and other third parties. However, as noted earlier, they may disrupt your access to certain websites or web pages. 
    1. Safari Privacy settings in Safari on Mac
    2. Safari Privacy settings in Safari on iOS
  3. App Tracking Transparency: On iOS 14.5 and later, Apple introduced a new privacy feature called App Tracking Transparency. This requires apps to get user permission before tracking their activity across other apps and websites. This can give users more control over their data and limit advertisers’ ability to track them.
  4. Location Services: Both macOS and iOS allow users to control which apps can access their location data. This can affect your browsing experience by limiting the ability of websites to show location-based content or offer personalized recommendations based on your location.
  5. Ad Tracking: On macOS, you can limit ad tracking by going to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Advertising and selecting “Limit Ad Tracking.” This can reduce the number of targeted ads you see, but it may also impact the relevance of the ads you see. (Screenshot coming soon).
  6. Content and Privacy Restrictions: On iOS, users can set up Content and Privacy Restrictions to limit access to certain types of content, such as explicit language, adult websites, or location-based services. This can affect your browsing experience by limiting the types of content that are available to you.

Overall, privacy settings on macOS and iOS can significantly impact your browsing experience by affecting the types of content and personalized recommendations you see, limiting the ability of advertisers to track your activity, and controlling which apps have access to your data.

Understanding and customizing these privacy settings to your needs can help protect your privacy and have a more tailored browsing experience. It is up to you to decide whether or not to disable the settings we mentioned above, so please do your research to make a well-informed decision and one that provides you with a good browsing experience and still protects your privacy.

If you are experiencing internet connectivity issues when accessing the internet on Chapman University’s network (Eduroam), please contact the Service Desk.

 

Thank you,

Chapman University Information Systems & Technology (IS&T)

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