How to safeguard your privacy on your iPhone by opting out of usage statistics tracking

iPhone apps use various analytics tools like Pinch Media, Flurry, Medialets and Mobclix. These apps send anonymous usage statistics to the developers. Users couldn’t opt-out of this usage tracking until now. However this has changed now, thanks to Pinch Media’s initiative in providing an option to all jailbroken devices to opt-out. They contacted Jay Freeman (developer of Cydia) and BigBoss to come up with PrivaCy, a settings panel which lets you opt-out of sending anonymous usage statistics to the above mentioned providers. Here’s how to use it:

Open up Cydia and let it update. You’ll see the new PricaCy “Opt-Out” link on the front page.

Tap it and it’ll show you the details. Install it using the button on the top right.

Once it’s installed, go to settings and you’ll see the new Privacy Panel. If you don’t see it, make sure you have PreferenceLoader enabled in Mobile Substrate add-ons. You can check that easily if you have SBsettings installed.

Open up the panel and disable which ever service you feel like. If you installed PrivaCy, you will probably want to disable them on. Enjoy your new re-gained privacy on your iPhone and iPod Touch! :)