It’s now a lot easier to get your data from Apple

contained on various devices, like the iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad, and in software like Apple Pay and Siri.

Apple’s approach on privacy could be a marketing message as well, showing a clear distinction between the company and rival Android, the operating system from Google that has an 85 percent market share worldwide. Google takes a more hands-on approach, using some of users’ data to sell to advertisers.

New for 2018

❚ The MacOS update demands that companies that put in software tracking “cookies” that, say, follow you with ads for a pair of shoes after you’ve looked them up on Amazon.com must first inform you and ask permission before they can be installed on your computer.

❚ A new feature on the iPhone and iPads is called “Screen Time,” and it tracks usage on the device, to let you know just how many hours a day you spend with, say, Twitter or other apps. But Apple points out the information is a one-way street. You know it; Apple doesn’t.

❚ An automatic password feature was added to iOS and MacOS to make it easier to create hard-to-hack passwords and store them with Apple’s iCloud Keychain. Apple says this is a move to wean people from logging in with social media logins like Facebook or Google that track you after you‘ve signed in. The Keychain doesn’t track you, Apple says.

To protect your privacy on the site, Apple recommends using a hard-todecode passcode on the iPhone and iPad (unlike rapper Kanye West, who showed off the easy-to-crack 000000 code in a meeting last week with President Donald Trump); enable FaceID or TouchID as well, for biometric safety; and turn on two-factor authentication, which has you sign in twice before you can use your device.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will be the keynote speaker at the 2018 International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners next Wednesday in Brussels, marking the first time a tech CEO has addressed the gathering.