Keep Apple TV from harvesting your data by changing these 3 settings immediately

Summary

Apple has easy steps to safeguard your Apple TV 4K data privacy.
Apple maintains transparency regarding how data is used, which reduces privacy settings hassles.
Limited privacy setting changes are needed for Apple TV 4K, unlike other streaming devices.

It’s not exactly a secret that your data is being harvested when you go online. It’s happening across a variety of platforms, whether it’s social media, streaming services, and yes, even your streaming boxes. Even your Apple TV 4K could be guilty of this. Thankfully, there are some preemptive measures you can take to ensure your data isn’t being harvested for any nefarious reasons.

By default, Apple asks if you want to share your data when you install an app, so the decision to do it or not is always down to you. If you have given Apple permission to store your data, but you want to rescind it, that’s easy to do too. I have to admit, though, Apple has a good thing going here. I’m not the biggest Apple fanboy, but I have to tip my hat as it feels like the company has taken extra steps to making me feel like my data and info is safer with my Apple TV 4K.

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How to protect your privacy on Apple TV 4K

Keep your info safe and secure

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Changing privacy settings on your Apple TV is really easy, and you can get it all done in a matter of seconds. The only thing you have to do is:

Turn on your Apple TV 4K.
Select your settings.
Go to General.
Pick Privacy, and then go from there.

There are several different toggles to pick, and you can get them all tailored to your liking. If you want to make sure your apps ask you if you’re okay with your data being tracked, make sure you leave Allow Apps to Ask to Track set to On.

This is the default option, so you shouldn’t have to change anything here.

After that, you can also go into the Analytics and Improvements section and swap Share Apple TV Analytics and Improve Siri and Dictation to on or off depending on your preferences. Turning off the analytics means you won’t have as many targeted ads, so you’ll likely start seeing more generic ones in their place. In summary, these are the settings you want to look for.

Allow Apps to Ask to Track set to On
Share Apple TV Analytics set to On or Off depending on preference
Improve Siri and Dictation to On or Off depending on preference

For the most part, you can leave the settings as they are and not worry about it too much. Apple will always ask if you want an individual app to track your information, so just answer accordingly and go from there.

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Apple is doing a solid job

There aren’t many privacy settings to change

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When compared to some of the other streaming devices like Roku or Google Chromecast, there’s really not a lot you have to change to ensure your data is safe. Building off that, the data that is collected doesn’t do a whole lot other than giving you more targeted advertisements.

Ultimately, your Apple TV 4K has to be connected to the internet in order for it to be anything other than a paperweight, so you’re at the whim of what the corporation decides to do with the data. Apple tells you where the data is going and what it’s being used for up front, so you either take the corporation at its word or live in fear that the data is going elsewhere.

As some added security, you can disconnect your TV from the internet if it’s a smart TV, since you won’t need to use its UI anymore if you have an Apple TV 4K. At that point, the TV acts as a glorified monitor, and there’s no real need to update the apps or deal with any of the privacy issues if you don’t ever use them.

If you keep your TV connected to the internet, you’ll want to navigate into its settings and mess with the privacy settings there, too. For example, Samsung and Apple have different ways of collecting your data, so it’s worth checking the settings on your TV and streaming device.