Apple Data Security

Overview

Ever wondered why you think your phone is listening to you? You are streamlined with ads of products that you have just searched for? Probably because you have been using a web browser that is pulling your personal data.

In this case study, I wanted to see how Apple's web browser, Safari, would be with securing users' personal data.

This exploration was done of my own accord and at no point was I an employee of Apple.

This case study is a high definition desktop application designed in Sketch that is still ongoing.

Assumption Mapping

I wanted to start by building my assumptions about data security. Not knowing a whole lot about the subject at first, I wanted to put myself in tight security mode.

I always wondered if people even cared about their data being used. Do they even use Safari? Do they even check their privacy settings? Can they even find the privacy settings on Safari??

I had to do some research on the topic itself and found out there were two different privacy practices. Data security and data privacy. After looking up what the two were, I then made my assumptions on how users would react.

Empathy Mapping

After doing user research and interviewing, I found that a lot of people were not concerned about their data privacy. "Nothing I can do about it. It's going to happen anyways.".

From the few and far between, I found that there were some people out there that did care about this issue. Some would use third party browsers that would detect if the site was safe from ads, cookies, etc. Others would not use Google Chrome due to them constantly stealing your data for capital gain.

I truly did feel empathy for those who cared about this issue. I came up with deeper insight of the potential user.

Competitive Audit

Throughout my competitive audit, and my research from earlier, user would use a third party browser application that they felt were safe for them.

Brave was the most astounding of all out of users. This browser application would block ads and would eliminate tracking (even though I was skeptical about this).

The other popular third party application was DuckDuckGo. This browser application would block hidden trackers (still skeptical) and has a private browsing mode, which Safari already has.

Sketches and Design

So, what to do next? I thought of an idea that could be useful for the user. My grand idea was that you could go into your settings in Safari and change the search browser to a colored coated background that would identify if the site is pulling your data.

Would it conflict with sites like Amazon, Facebook, and Google? Throughout user testing, users liked the idea, but thought it was bad for other businesses that pulled data. But it was the truth. These sites do steal huge amounts of your data for their gain.

Overall Conclusion

This project was very daunting and intimidating. Would Apple pick up this feature? Probably not. Even though it might not work, It was really interesting to find out that the majority of people simply do not care that their data is being used.

I would love to go back and finish this project. If I had the resources and data to use then I would design something to keep the user informed. This is a big issue that we all need to take more seriously.