As long as you use its capabilities, the iPhone does a terrific job of safeguarding your privacy. This entails using Face ID or Touch ID to encrypt the data on the phone and locking the iPhone screen with a password or PIN. That’s what safeguards your privacy and encrypts the phone.
However, someone can snoop on you without needing to unlock your phone. As long as they can physically access the iPhone or only quickly gaze at the screen, they can short spy on you thanks to one feature: The alerts on my iPhone.
The good news is that you can adjust a few notification settings to lower your exposure.
Disabling the Always-on display, a feature featured on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro, is the easiest way to lower the chance that someone will see your notifications. Not only will this extend the battery life, but it will also lessen the chance that someone may glance at the screen.
Second, make sure that you are the only one who can see the contents of notifications. In this manner, text messages from different apps won’t be readable by third parties. Navigate to the Settings app, select Notifications, and then select the Show Previews menu to activate the protection.
Select the “When Unlocked” option rather than “Always or Never.” As long as Face ID is enabled, you can see previews while using the phone in this manner. As you glance at the notifications, your phone will passively authenticate you.
However, prying eyes will still be able to determine the source of the notifications even if they are unable to view previews. You may select Countin the Display as section from the same Notifications option to further enhance your privacy. The count of alerts is the only thing this option will show.
As can be seen in the above screenshot, I would also suggest disabling Siri’s notification announcement feature. In a similar vein, you may wish to disable screen notifications if you share your iPhone screen with others frequently. Look at the screenshot above one again.
Lastly, I’ll also include the apparent fix to stop your iPhone from spying on your notifications. You may view a list of all the installed iPhone apps by just scrolling beyond the options above. You have complete control over which ones to display notifications on and how. You can customize the appearance and tone of the app’s alerts, as well as whether it can notify you.
Additionally, several apps offer settings specific to their notifications. particularly messaging applications, like WhatsApp, to name a few. To further alter the way your iPhone displays notifications, make sure to check those options as well.
If you do divulge your iPhone’s password to third parties, they will be able to access your phone’s data, including apps. You could want to update your password if you want to avoid it.
It’s also a good idea to regularly backup your iPhone’s data and update the screen password. Aside from notifications spying, losing your iPhone is a constant concern. Or perhaps it is stolen.