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How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

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Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#201

Post by tjoff »

pavanred wrote: post #69

I am surprised that on opting out of ad tracking in Android, they found that the opt-out flag was set to true, but the size of the tracking payload shot up i.e. more attributes being tracked. Not sure what to make of it? Is it possible its a legal thing that once you opt-out of ads, it enables less risk for the company and therefore more tracking, perhaps?

You are not being tracked. That is, previous data is not correlated with current data.

To get around that you just send everything every time.

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#202

Post by cheeseomlit »

robertAngst wrote: post #100
JimDabell wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Thr fact that Apple which could do this without significant adverse monetary impact but has chosen not to They restrict access to most of the things listed above, giving randomised fakes where necessary. The advertising ID they do let apps access is unique to a publisher so they can't be tied together with behaviour from apps by other publishers, and it's trivially disabled/resettable by the end user (Settings > Pr…

>I'm not really sure how you can arrive at the conclusion that Apple are holding back; they seem clearly committed to improving privacy as demonstrated by their continuous work in the area. Given the Apple phone was successfully hacked in the FBI case, I'm not sure why HN seems to think they are the bastion of privacy. Given the other anti-consumer and anti-developer practices at Apple, I wouldn't trust them to prote…

Not sure why this is so heavily downvoted, Apple was named as one of the PRISM companies in the Snowden leaks after all.

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#203

Post by aymenim »

I have a more technical question, It was my understanding that Android apps no longer trusted user added certificates by default starting Android 7 (https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2016/07/changes-to...), but on the talk, they were able MITM Android 8.1, are they modifying the apps to trust their CA certs or is there something I am missing?

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#204

Post by jake_the_third »

zozbot123 wrote: post #48
blfr wrote: post #13

Where are the torrent links? Anyway, There are more paid tracking SDKs in the wild and probably more invasive than Facebook's. For example, in Poland there is a service called Cluify which supposedly tracks millions of phones to then target ads at them. Although they're Google ads. In fact, they're a "proud partner of Google." On the website https://cluify.com/ they mention using wifi but in sales pitches they boast…

You can use adb commands to "disable" system apps FWIW, all you need is the "developer options" menu, to temporarily enable adb access from USB. This lets you use all the features of a "locked", stock "ROM" (payment services, DRM apps, better camera), and also works on "locked down" devices where you can't unlock the bootloader and install a different OS. Of course, it's only worthwhile if you trust the "ROM" vendor…

This type of control is still possible on android devices?!

I had given up on buying new devices because of how restrictive and abusive phone manufacturers have become towards their customers. If adb can really do what you say it can, maybe I can finally upgrade my phone after all these years. Can you recommend an online article that goes over using `adb` like this? (especially for disabling locked apps)

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#205

Post by kgwxd »

nly wrote: post #8

We're spoiled in the desktop browser by being able to clear history, cookies, local storage etc, or use a private browser session. There's also the importance of the "same origin policy". The Android platform API should simply never allow apps to obtain global system identifiers (serial numbers, "advertising IDs", MACs, Wifi network info, EMEIs etc) in the first place. Perhaps even going as far as not providing a sha…

Firefox Mobile for Android has all the spoils.

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#206

Post by barrow-rider »

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #49
sfifs wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Android platform API should simply never allow apps to obtain global system identifiers When the revenue stream of the creator of Android fundamentally depends on being able to tie devices to identity and behaviour, it's highly unlikely this is going to happen. They can't also keep it only for themselves and block for others or they'll get unfair trade practices action on their backs. Thr fact that Apple which…

>When the revenue stream of the creator of Android fundamentally depends on being able to tie devices to identity and behaviour, it's highly unlikely this is going to happen. Well put. I’ve tried to explain to people that I prefer Apple’s upfrontness that they are there to sell me a device and it’s software for money. Unlike Android systems where I feel the lead is intentionally buried by telling me how “free” the so…

Nitpick: I believe that's "lede" as in "burying the lede".

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#207

Post by zozbot123 »

jake_the_third wrote: post #204
zozbot123 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can use adb commands to "disable" system apps FWIW, all you need is the "developer options" menu, to temporarily enable adb access from USB. This lets you use all the features of a "locked", stock "ROM" (payment services, DRM apps, better camera), and also works on "locked down" devices where you can't unlock the bootloader and install a different OS. Of course, it's only worthwhile if you trust the "ROM" vendor…

This type of control is still possible on android devices?! I had given up on buying new devices because of how restrictive and abusive phone manufacturers have become towards their customers. If adb can really do what you say it can, maybe I can finally upgrade my phone after all these years. Can you recommend an online article that goes over using `adb` like this? (especially for disabling locked apps)

See e.g. https://github.com/jaredsburrows/android-bloatware/blob/mast... the "non-root" section. Some tutorials suggest slightly different commands, viz. `pm hide` rather than `pm disable`, and that in order to 'uninstall' apps without root the command `pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.bloatware.app` should be used. Either way, do backup your data before doing any of this stuff (if stuff gets screwed up, you might need to perform a factory reset from recovery mode in order to revert to a sensible state), and do not expect this to always work; it might not, depending on the specific "rom" you're running.

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#208

Post by danShumway »

scarface74 wrote: post #198
danShumway wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are plenty of apps that do that with the iPhone. ...no. iOS doesn't have a user-accessible file browser. On Android, I can use my browser to access system files from any other application. Apps in iOS are sandboxed from the file system. I'm confused -- isn't that one of the things you like about iOS? Maybe that's changed since the last time I used an iPhone? Did Apple break and add a system-wide file access p…

As far as file access, no app should ever need access to the entire file system - just the users’ files. Even then, a photo/video app should only need access to the photo library a music app should only need access to your music library etc. As far as generic files again the user chooses which files the app has access to outside of the sandbox via a standard file picker. Besides the built in iCloud, if you install Dr…

The first sentence of the article you link:

> With iOS 8, your iPhone or iPad can now have a local file system like the one Android users have.

The evolution of file access on iOS is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. A rough feature that came out of Android's laissez faire permission model that was later tweaked and adopted by iOS after it proved useful and was demanded by users.

And I feel like this is still happening - to me the new Files app in iOS 11 is a pretty clear step towards unifying disparate storage solutions in a single interface, and opening up the Files app to third party integrations is another cautious shift towards Android's more permissive model. I would not honestly be surprised if at some point in the future Apple introduces a way to access some system files -- every desktop OS supports it, and the iPad is slowly positioning itself as a desktop replacement. But I dunno, it'll be interesting to see.

When you say, "oh, there's nothing innovative about this", you're glossing over that it took a heck of a long time to get file access at all in iOS, and that Apple is still evolving how file access works on its devices. Android served as a testing ground for that feature while Apple stood back and watched and thought about how they wanted to approach it. Which (again) is a process that's good for users on both platforms.

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#209

Post by scarface74 »

danShumway wrote: post #208
scarface74 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as file access, no app should ever need access to the entire file system - just the users’ files. Even then, a photo/video app should only need access to the photo library a music app should only need access to your music library etc. As far as generic files again the user chooses which files the app has access to outside of the sandbox via a standard file picker. Besides the built in iCloud, if you install Dr…

The first sentence of the article you link: > With iOS 8, your iPhone or iPad can now have a local file system like the one Android users have. The evolution of file access on iOS is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. A rough feature that came out of Android's laissez faire permission model that was later tweaked and adopted by iOS after it proved useful and was demanded by users. And I feel like this is st…

And I feel like this is still happening - to me the new Files app in iOS 11 is a pretty clear step towards unifying disparate storage solutions in a single interface, and opening up the Files app to third party integrations is another cautious shift towards Android's more permissive model

That’s kind of the point, the way that Apple allowed third party storage providers were done in a method that is still not “permissive”. Apps don’t have access to users files except for the files that the user chooses. If an app wants full access to their Dropbox or Google Drive storage, they still have to have a custom integration like VLC.

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#210

Post by scarface74 »

danShumway wrote: post #208
scarface74 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as file access, no app should ever need access to the entire file system - just the users’ files. Even then, a photo/video app should only need access to the photo library a music app should only need access to your music library etc. As far as generic files again the user chooses which files the app has access to outside of the sandbox via a standard file picker. Besides the built in iCloud, if you install Dr…

The first sentence of the article you link: > With iOS 8, your iPhone or iPad can now have a local file system like the one Android users have. The evolution of file access on iOS is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. A rough feature that came out of Android's laissez faire permission model that was later tweaked and adopted by iOS after it proved useful and was demanded by users. And I feel like this is st…

Apple introduces a way to access some system files -- every desktop OS supports it, and the iPad is slowly positioning itself as a desktop replacement. But I dunno, it'll be interesting to see.

And every desktop OS has the potential for viruses and ransomware because of third party apps having access to system files and to what benefit?

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