Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Popular iPhone apps caught sending user location data to monetization firms

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 261 posts

Re: Popular iPhone apps caught sending user location data to monetization firms

#31

Post by dwighttk »

MBCook wrote: post #26

No surprise to see a number of weather apps on here. Seems to be such an incredibly scummy category. The built in Apple app is fine for basic information. There are plenty of high-quality third-party apps. Weather Line (my fav) is $2. DarkSky is $4. Instead people go for these weird free apps covered in ads with terrible UIs. The NOAA one isn’t made by the government, seems like using that name should be some kind of…

>There are so many good apps on the store made by good developers. It’s amazing how much better your experience is if you just avoid free apps when possible.

Yes. It cannot be emphasized enough. Go pay for apps that are good.

Re: Popular iPhone apps caught sending user location data to monetization firms

#32

Post by kupiakos »

dwighttk wrote: post #31
MBCook wrote: post #26

No surprise to see a number of weather apps on here. Seems to be such an incredibly scummy category. The built in Apple app is fine for basic information. There are plenty of high-quality third-party apps. Weather Line (my fav) is $2. DarkSky is $4. Instead people go for these weird free apps covered in ads with terrible UIs. The NOAA one isn’t made by the government, seems like using that name should be some kind of…

>There are so many good apps on the store made by good developers. It’s amazing how much better your experience is if you just avoid free apps when possible. Yes. It cannot be emphasized enough. Go pay for apps that are good.

While generally true, I've also found free apps are usually decent and not-scummy if they're open source.

Re: Popular iPhone apps caught sending user location data to monetization firms

#33

Post by magnetic »

kupiakos wrote: post #32
dwighttk wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There are so many good apps on the store made by good developers. It’s amazing how much better your experience is if you just avoid free apps when possible. Yes. It cannot be emphasized enough. Go pay for apps that are good.

While generally true, I've also found free apps are usually decent and not-scummy if they're open source.

Could you give us some examples? I'd like to go check them out.

Re: Popular iPhone apps caught sending user location data to monetization firms

#34

Post by trevor-e »

Why does it seem like browser extensions are ignored in all of these discussions? For example, right now the Honey Chrome extension has permission to "Read and change all your data on the websites you visit". They could be doing anything with that, I'm just crossing my fingers that they find me good deals and don't abuse my data.

Chrome actually acknowledges this: "Warning: Google Chrome cannot prevent extensions from recording your browsing history. To disable this extension in incognito mode, unselect this option."

Related question: why can't we restrict the domains that Chrome extensions can read data from?

Re: Popular iPhone apps caught sending user location data to monetization firms

#35

Post by walterbell »

willstrafach wrote: post #19
smilliken wrote: post #8

My company analyzes iOS and Android apps en mass, using static and dynamic analysis. We've partnered with several major universities to provide data like this about apps. If any reseachers are interested in this data, please feel free to reach out. For location in particular, we see which location collection permissions the app has, as well as indirect methods like Bluetooth and Wifi. We also see the commercial integ…

Ours (guardianapp) does exactly this as well, although exclusively for iOS. We are using the data we glean from the static + runtime analysis for an upcoming mobile firewall app but are open to other interesting opportunities. Please feel free to send a message at any time, even if you would just like to compare notes on all this (hello@sudosecuritygroup.com).

Is your mobile firewall app going to implement iOS MDM, e.g. to enable per-app VPNs?

Re: Popular iPhone apps caught sending user location data to monetization firms

#36

Post by murukesh_s »

trevor-e wrote: post #34

Why does it seem like browser extensions are ignored in all of these discussions? For example, right now the Honey Chrome extension has permission to "Read and change all your data on the websites you visit". They could be doing anything with that, I'm just crossing my fingers that they find me good deals and don't abuse my data. Chrome actually acknowledges this: "Warning: Google Chrome cannot prevent extensions fro…

Ya I think an option to ask permission per website should be there..it could be subtle like an orange icon that you need to manually click the first time to give permission to that domain

Re: Popular iPhone apps caught sending user location data to monetization firms

#38

Post by walterbell »

MBCook wrote: post #26

No surprise to see a number of weather apps on here. Seems to be such an incredibly scummy category. The built in Apple app is fine for basic information. There are plenty of high-quality third-party apps. Weather Line (my fav) is $2. DarkSky is $4. Instead people go for these weird free apps covered in ads with terrible UIs. The NOAA one isn’t made by the government, seems like using that name should be some kind of…

In the US, high quality weather data and forecasts can be bookmarked as a web page/icon for your zip code, https://www.weather.gov. Works well and no data leakage.

Re: Popular iPhone apps caught sending user location data to monetization firms

#39

Post by scurvy »

magnetic wrote: post #33
kupiakos wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While generally true, I've also found free apps are usually decent and not-scummy if they're open source.

Could you give us some examples? I'd like to go check them out.

Living Earth HD is great.

Full disclosure, I formerly worked with the author.

Re: Popular iPhone apps caught sending user location data to monetization firms

#40

Post by modzu »

MBCook wrote: post #26

No surprise to see a number of weather apps on here. Seems to be such an incredibly scummy category. The built in Apple app is fine for basic information. There are plenty of high-quality third-party apps. Weather Line (my fav) is $2. DarkSky is $4. Instead people go for these weird free apps covered in ads with terrible UIs. The NOAA one isn’t made by the government, seems like using that name should be some kind of…

shameless plug for my app true weather:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.conceptual...

Privacy policies don't need to be complicated:

"TrueWeather does not collect any personal information."

Post reply on HN