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How to Use AI to Check Your iPhone Security

Your iPhone holds your photos, messages, passwords, email, financial apps, and access to many of your online accounts. But you don’t have to be a cybersecurity expert to review its security.

In this episode of Level Yourself Up, I show you how to use AI as a guide while completing 10 practical iPhone security checks.

The goal isn’t to convince yourself that every unfamiliar setting is dangerous. It’s to inspect your phone, ask better questions, and make informed decisions.

The 10 iPhone Security Checks

Use the checklist below as your quick-reference guide.

1. Review your installed apps

Go to Settings → General → iPhone Storage and look through every installed app. Investigate anything you don’t recognize before deleting it.

2. Check app permissions

Under Settings → Privacy & Security, review which apps can access your camera, microphone, location, contacts, photos, Bluetooth, and local network.

Remove permissions that an app doesn’t need.

3. Review VPN and device-management profiles

Go to Settings → General → VPN & Device Management.

Look for VPN services or management profiles you don’t recognize. Work and school devices may have legitimate profiles, so investigate before removing anything.

4. Check Safari privacy settings

Review Safari’s privacy settings, extensions, open tabs, and stored website data.

Unfamiliar website data doesn’t automatically mean your phone has been compromised, but it may be worth investigating.

5. Review password warnings

Open Apple’s Passwords app and select Security.

Look for passwords that are weak, reused, or connected to a known data breach. Change important passwords first and enable two-factor authentication whenever possible.

6. Review notification permissions

Go to Settings → Notifications and check which apps and websites can send alerts.

Remove access from unfamiliar apps and anything displaying sensitive information on your lock screen.

7. Inspect network settings

Review your Wi-Fi, VPN, and DNS settings.

Most people will use automatic DNS settings, but a VPN, security service, parental-control tool, or work account may intentionally change them.

8. Check email-forwarding rules

Sign in directly to your email provider and review its forwarding and filtering rules.

Look for unfamiliar forwarding addresses or rules that hide, delete, or redirect incoming messages.

9. Review Messages and FaceTime

Check the phone numbers, email addresses, and devices allowed to receive your messages and FaceTime calls.

Make sure every address and connected device belongs to you.

10. Review your Apple Account devices

Open Settings, tap your name, and review the devices connected to your Apple Account.

If you find a device that definitely doesn’t belong to you, remove it, change your Apple Account password, and review your trusted phone numbers.

How AI Can Help

AI can explain an unfamiliar app, translate a technical setting into plain language, or guide you to a setting that moved after an iOS update.

Try prompts like these:

I found this app while reviewing my iPhone. Explain what it does, who makes it, and what I should verify before deciding whether to keep it.

Review this screenshot as part of an iPhone security check. Point out anything that deserves a closer look, but don’t assume my phone has been compromised.

I am using iOS [version]. Walk me through finding this setting one step at a time.

Protect Your Information

Before sharing a screenshot with an AI tool, crop or cover:

• Names and email addresses
• Phone numbers and contacts
• Private messages and notifications
• Account information
• Financial or payment information

Never share your passwords, iPhone passcode, two-factor authentication codes, recovery codes, or credit-card details.

An Unfamiliar Setting Doesn’t Mean You Were Hacked

Work accounts, school profiles, accessibility tools, parental controls, VPN services, and Apple system features can all create settings that initially look unfamiliar.

Treat something unexpected as a reason to investigate—not automatic proof that someone accessed your phone.

AI can help you ask better questions, but verify important recommendations with Apple Support, the app developer, or another trusted professional before making major changes.

Final Thoughts

You don’t need to understand every technical detail before improving your security.

Work through these checks one section at a time, investigate anything you don’t recognize, use unique passwords, and enable two-factor authentication.

If this helped you, subscribe to Level Yourself Up for more practical ways to use AI and technology with confidence.

A strange pop-up or a slow phone does not automatically mean your iPhone was hacked. Still, there are a few places worth checking before you brush it off. This guide walks through ten of them and shows how AI can help you make sense of a setting or app you do not recognize.

What to check on your iPhone

1. Your app list — Go to Settings → General → iPhone Storage. Look through the whole list. If you do not remember installing an app, look into it before deleting it.
2. Privacy permissions — Check which apps can use your camera, microphone, location, contacts, and photos. Turn off access that does not fit the app.
3. VPN and device management — Go to Settings → General → VPN & Device Management. A profile you did not add yourself needs attention.
4. Browser data — Look at open tabs, website data, search settings, and notification permissions. Clear out sites you do not recognize.
5. Passwords — Review saved passwords and any security recommendations tied to a compromised login.
6. Notifications — Check the list. Unknown apps and sites should not have permission to keep interrupting you.
7. Wi-Fi, DNS, and VPN settings — If a custom setting is there, make sure you know why it is there.
8. Mail forwarding — Look through your mail accounts for any rule that sends messages to another address.
9. Messages and FaceTime — Review text message forwarding and linked devices. Remove anything that is not yours.
10. Your Apple Account — Check the devices signed in to your account and recent activity. If you see a device you do not know, change your password from a device you trust.

Where AI can help

If you are unsure about an app, a setting, or a device-management profile, take a screenshot and ask a plain question: “I am checking my iPhone for security problems. What is this, and what should I verify before changing it?” AI can help explain what you are looking at. It cannot tell you for certain that an account is safe.

If you find something that does not belong

Take a screenshot first. Then start with your email and financial accounts. Use a device you trust, and contact your bank, carrier, or service using the number on your card, bill, or official website. Do not use a number from an unexpected text, pop-up, or call.

 

This episode is educational. If you believe a financial account, Apple Account, or device has been compromised, contact the relevant provider or a qualified security professional.