Apple does so many things well, actually. I would return to them for some things and even recommend them (versus exclusively GNU/Linux and LineageOS) if they'd only change the stupid iOS terms that prohibit GPL software.
Our Approach to Privacy
21–30 of 183 posts
Re: Our Approach to Privacy
#22On Android you can Sideload VPN apps, iOS on the otherhand banned them in China. Apple mounted the most successful attack on General Computing with it's walled garden. The whole Apple is good for privacy is marketing.
You don't need to sideload VPN apps on Android. They're right in the store, and there's an API for them to run without root, from what I understand.
Here's OpenVPN.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.openvpn.op...
There's also Tor with Orbot and Orfox.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.torproject...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=info.guardianp...
But only explicitly configured apps will use this proxy. Proxying all traffic does require a rooted phone.
In general, Android gives you more options but iOS seems to offer a more privacy-minded configuration OOTB.
Re: Our Approach to Privacy
#23Apple's approach to privacy also includes being a partner in PRISM, a fact which they chose to vigorously deny as false allegations until it was proven to be true.
Every story about Apple and privacy chooses to omit thus huge piece of info.
Why should anybody trust them now? What has changed to make anybody believe they aren't still lying about privacy?
Re: Our Approach to Privacy
#24At least one company is "trying" keep my photos private. The other day Google Photo told my wife it had prepared an album for our trip to SFO. We were surprised because she already disabled Geo-tagging but whataya know... Google still figured it out!
If you have location enabled on your phone, Google appears to cross reference your location with your photo timestamps to work out where you were. I know this because when I import my DSLR images to Google Photos it estimates the location, usually very accurately.
Re: Our Approach to Privacy
#25Apple's approach to privacy also includes being a partner in PRISM, a fact which they chose to vigorously deny as false allegations until it was proven to be true. Every story about Apple and privacy chooses to omit thus huge piece of info. Why should anybody trust them now? What has changed to make anybody believe they aren't still lying about privacy?
If their technology is built such that even they themselves cannot peer into the inner workings of your content, what good is their association with PRISM?
Re: Our Approach to Privacy
#26Apple does so many things well, actually. I would return to them for some things and even recommend them (versus exclusively GNU/Linux and LineageOS) if they'd only change the stupid iOS terms that prohibit GPL software.
Funny, to me it's not Apple that is stupid, it's your license that is stupid. It's keeping your app out of the App Store, it's keeping ZFS and Dtrace from the Linux kernel, the amount of developer energy and time wasted on GPL enforcement and arguing about what it actually says and means is appalling. Why you would saddle yourself to a license with so much dead weight and so many problems I can't understand.
Re: Our Approach to Privacy
#27On Android you can Sideload VPN apps, iOS on the otherhand banned them in China. Apple mounted the most successful attack on General Computing with it's walled garden. The whole Apple is good for privacy is marketing.
Android and its community are sorta schizophrenic towards security.
On one hand, users are told that they should never ever, ever install applications from untrusted sources. They should always use the play store because applications are scanned for vulnerabilities and whatnot.
On the other hand, we have people telling us that one of the great advantages of Android is that you can sideload apps - bypassing the store security model completely.
On one hand, a VPN needs root access for transparent proxying (or at least TOR does). Changing the hosts file needs root access. Changing gps.conf requires root. Lots of useful operations need root access, so if you are concerned about privacy and security, or just want more control, you probably want root.
On the other hand, root is stupidly hard to obtain, and users are strongly discouraged from doing it anyway because it opens all sorts of attack vectors. Unless the manufacturer provides a legitimate method to do it, the operation of obtaining root itself, like on iOS, often relies on an unpatched local privilege escalation vulnerability. Note that any application can exploit this, not just the rooting app.
I don't support Apple's walled garden approach, but we can't argue that they have a much clearer picture with regards to security, and the results speak for themselves. Malware in the Apple devices is rare, whereas in Android it is rapidly becoming routine. Unfortunately, you sacrifice flexibility for enhanced security.
Re: Our Approach to Privacy
#28So a cop can put your phone in front of your face while you're tied up and unable to do a thing. Boom, phone unlocked. Marvelous.
You can disable Face ID by pressing the power and volume buttons at the same time. They are on either side of the phone. Faster than the multiple press method and more discrete.
Only on the iPhone X and possibly the 8.
Re: Our Approach to Privacy
#29So a cop can put your phone in front of your face while you're tied up and unable to do a thing. Boom, phone unlocked. Marvelous.
If you think it's a security risk, then don't enable. It's pretty simple. It's very transparent about how it works.
Re: Our Approach to Privacy
#30On Android you can Sideload VPN apps, iOS on the otherhand banned them in China. Apple mounted the most successful attack on General Computing with it's walled garden. The whole Apple is good for privacy is marketing.
You don't need to sideload VPN apps on Android. They're right in the store, and there's an API for them to run without root, from what I understand. Here's OpenVPN. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.openvpn.op... There's also Tor with Orbot and Orfox. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.torproject... https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=info.guardianp... But only explicitly conf…
The parent is talking about the lesser-known (for obvious reasons) VPNs, not the well-known ones which are pretty much useless in China for "jumping over the wall".