Apple’s new software update for iPhones might appear routine on the surface but it actually comes with a powerful new feature to help protect your privacy.

The tech giant has now added a new feature that blocks the police or intelligence services from accessing your iPhone even if it’s locked.

In the past, police services around the world have been experimenting with various tools that allow them to plug a device into the iPhone via USB and then crack it open despite the phone being locked.

This is because the iPhone allows data to be sent to and from the device via the Lightning port in the bottom.

From today, the iPhone will instead block all communication to and from the phone via the cable if it has been locked for over an hour.

In a statement to Sky News in June, Apple said: “We’re constantly strengthening the security protections in every Apple product to help customers defend against hackers, identity thieves and intrusions into their personal data.

“We have the greatest respect for law enforcement, and we don’t design our security improvements to frustrate their efforts to do their jobs.”

Instead the company claims that it was working on the feature before it discovered that the police were using to forcibly access locked iPhones.

Law enforcement aren’t the only groups to use the technology with criminals and hackers also being found to favour it as a means of getting into someone’s phone without their permission.

To make use of the feature you’ll need to download the latest version of iOS which became available on all iPhones this week.

If for whatever reason you want to turn it off you’ll need to head to the Settings menu and then scroll down to Face ID & Passcode and then tap on that.

Then scroll down and you’ll find the section Allow Access When Locked. Beneath it is the newly added option called USB Accessories. This will be turned off by default.

If you turn it on, this will allow devices constant access to your iPhone via the USB cable even if your phone is locked.