Privacy expert sounds alarm over new Apple feature: ‘It accesses your banking apps’

An internet privacy expert has warned users about the dangers of Apple’s new AI feature.

Apple Intelligence, released last month, embeds into the operating system, allowing it to pull information information from apps and tack action within them.

Chip Hallett, author of The Ultimate Privacy Playbook, warned that the process lets the AI learn how people use their banking and financial apps and location maps.

However, there are ways to block the tech from analyzing sensitive information stored on your smartphone.

There is a hidden ‘switch off’ function in Settings, which lives in Apple Intelligence and & Siri.

There is ‘Learn from this App’ automatically toggled on, which Hallett urged users to turn off, along with the ‘Suggest App’ and ‘Suggest Notifications’ switches.

Other tech experts have suggested doing the same for Health and Fitness apps or Apple Intelligence will have access to the personal information.

Apple Intelligence’s privacy page assures users that their data is not stored, but it also states the feature ‘identifies the data necessary to provide to a generative model to best assist you.’

‘Apple Intelligence is designed to deliver personalized intelligence without Apple collecting your personal data,’ the tech giant’s website states.

‘To provide a customized experience, Apple Intelligence uses information on your device, including across your apps.’

Apple Intelligence, launched only to those with the high-end iPhone 15 smartphones and new iPhone 16, which CEO Tim Cook touted as ‘a new chapter in Apple innovation.’

Largely, Apple Intelligence is focused on so-called ‘generative’ AI models, which allow users to create text or images from prompts. 

However, generative AI models analyze data by learning patterns and structures within large datasets, which can be found in iPhone apps.

‘Apple Intelligence is going to be learning how you use your banking apps, your financial apps, and your location maps,’ Hallett claimed in a TikTok video.

He urged users to open their iPhone’s ‘Settings,’ then select ‘Apple Intelligence & Siri,’ scroll down again and select Apps.

‘Scroll down all the way to wherever your banking information is,’ Hallett said, using his Wells Fargo App as an example.

Chip Hallett, author of The Ultimate Privacy Playbook, warned that the process lets the AI learn how people use their banking and financial apps and location maps. However, there are ways to block the tech from analyzing sensitive information stored on your smartphone

Then he urged users to deselect the options.

‘I also don’t want Google Maps knowing my location and learning off my location,’ he said.

But Apple Intelligence will still have access to other personal information, like written messages, photos, videos and calendar events, CNN reported.

However, the tech giant said Apple Intelligence data is encrypted, specifically through Apple’s ‘Private Cloud Compute’ system.

The assures that when data is sent to Apple’s servers for processing, it is only used to fulfill the user’s request and is never stored or made accessible to Apple itself.

The tech giant was so sure that its Apple Intelligence was safe that it offered up to a $1 million bounty to anyone who could hack it before the release on October 28.

The public was invited to test the security of ‘Private Cloud Computer,’ the servers that will receive and process user requests for Apple Intelligence when the AI task is too complex for on-device processing.

The system, according to Apple, features end-to-end encryption and immediately deletes a user’s request once the task is fulfilled.

However, the system was designed to help improve the lives of its users.

This system introduces a suite of new AI features, including the ability to create custom images and ‘Genmojis,’ enhanced Siri capabilities, email generation through ChatGPT integration, and more.

Some features have yet to hit iPhones but will be released with later iOS 18 versions.