iOS 13 now shows you a map of where apps have been tracking you • Hacker News Board

Re: iOS 13 now shows you a map of where apps have been tracking you

#31

Post by ikeyany » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 1:49 AM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #27

ikeyany wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard plenty of arguments that don't misrepresent Apple. For example, the iPhone has never had replaceable batteries. Also, they were proven to slow down old phones without telling users why, until it became an ordeal [1]. [1] - https://news.northeastern.edu/2018/10/26/the-new-iphone-come...

> they were proven to degrade old software to strong-arm users to update They never did this.

Looks like they didn't. Slashdot did a story on it [1] that was disproven later [2].

[1] - https://slashdot.org/story/347559

[2] - https://news.northeastern.edu/2018/10/26/the-new-iphone-come...

Re: iOS 13 now shows you a map of where apps have been tracking you

#32

Post by shereadsthenews » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 1:50 AM UTC

reilly3000 wrote: post #3

Good gravy this would be an abysmal report on Android. In my experience many of the free utility apps and games I downloaded required location tracking for no good reason. I’m on iOS for that (and other) reasons.

Why do you download such apps?

Re: iOS 13 now shows you a map of where apps have been tracking you

#33

Post by sitharus » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 1:52 AM UTC

ikeyany wrote: post #23

dpkonofa wrote: post #16

I really don't understand how people can simultaneously say that Apple is anti-consumer and then ignore moves like this that not only show that Apple is committed to consumers. It would be so easy for them to gather all this info and sell it to advertisers and third-parties and yet they refuse to. On top of that, I think it's strangely telling that most of the anti-Apple stories when it comes to the "right to repair"…

I've heard plenty of arguments that don't misrepresent Apple. For example, the iPhone has never had replaceable batteries. Also, they were proven to slow down old phones without telling users why, until it became an ordeal [1]. [1] - https://news.northeastern.edu/2018/10/26/the-new-iphone-come...

> they were proven to degrade old software to strong-arm users to update

I don't recall this being proven. I recall Apple stating the power consumption was limited to prevent the devices over drawing power from the battery and self-resetting. They subsequently added a battery status overview so users could judge if they could simply replace the battery.

I won't argue that they couldn't have done this sooner or handled it better, but it's quite different from software degrading old devices.

Re: iOS 13 now shows you a map of where apps have been tracking you

#34

Post by ikeyany » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 1:52 AM UTC

gumby wrote: post #30

ikeyany wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard plenty of arguments that don't misrepresent Apple. For example, the iPhone has never had replaceable batteries. Also, they were proven to slow down old phones without telling users why, until it became an ordeal [1]. [1] - https://news.northeastern.edu/2018/10/26/the-new-iphone-come...

> I've heard plenty of arguments that don't misrepresent Apple'l. For example, Apple has never had replaceable batteries. Not only have many apple devices had replaceable batteries, I actually own an apple battery charger (model MC500LL/A)

I was referring to iPhones if it wasn't clear before. I don't remember users being able to replace the battery in those.

Re: iOS 13 now shows you a map of where apps have been tracking you

#35

Post by scarface74 » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 1:53 AM UTC

codedokode wrote: post #14

duskwuff wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Never allow" already exists. The user can deny location access when it is first requested, or can disable location access through Settings. "Provide fake location" is not necessary, because apps which fail to work when you deny location access are rejected during App Store review.

What if the app works without location, but gives some benefits only if you enable it? E.g. a shop app gives a discount if you allow tracking you.

More than likely that would be rejected.

Re: iOS 13 now shows you a map of where apps have been tracking you

#36

Post by saagarjha » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 1:53 AM UTC

ikeyany wrote: post #31

saagarjha wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they were proven to degrade old software to strong-arm users to update They never did this.

Looks like they didn't. Slashdot did a story on it [1] that was disproven later [2]. [1] - https://slashdot.org/story/347559 [2] - https://news.northeastern.edu/2018/10/26/the-new-iphone-come...

Yeah, no. That source is a complete misrepresentation: Apple didn’t intentionally slow down devices so you could buy a new one: they throttled devices with weak batteries so they wouldn’t shut down randomly. The issue was that Apple communicated this to users somewhat poorly.

Re: iOS 13 now shows you a map of where apps have been tracking you

#37

Post by ssivark » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 1:56 AM UTC

dpkonofa wrote: post #16

I really don't understand how people can simultaneously say that Apple is anti-consumer and then ignore moves like this that not only show that Apple is committed to consumers. It would be so easy for them to gather all this info and sell it to advertisers and third-parties and yet they refuse to. On top of that, I think it's strangely telling that most of the anti-Apple stories when it comes to the "right to repair"…

Refer what other comments says about un-repairability of Apple hardware, or software slowdowns, or the inability to replace the battery on phones/tablets.

The answer seems to be that Apple doesn't have a monolithic pro/anti consumer opinion, but just whatever is better for their business profits.

- Do whatever they can to push people to buy more devices and more expensive ones.

- Do whatever they can to make their iOS devices seem preferable to Android.

Apple is not a special snowflake, as far as large corporations go.

Re: iOS 13 now shows you a map of where apps have been tracking you

#38

Post by Twisell » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 1:58 AM UTC

ikeyany wrote: post #23

dpkonofa wrote: post #16

I really don't understand how people can simultaneously say that Apple is anti-consumer and then ignore moves like this that not only show that Apple is committed to consumers. It would be so easy for them to gather all this info and sell it to advertisers and third-parties and yet they refuse to. On top of that, I think it's strangely telling that most of the anti-Apple stories when it comes to the "right to repair"…

I've heard plenty of arguments that don't misrepresent Apple. For example, the iPhone has never had replaceable batteries. Also, they were proven to slow down old phones without telling users why, until it became an ordeal [1]. [1] - https://news.northeastern.edu/2018/10/26/the-new-iphone-come...

I think that telling you that my 2002 PPC iBook actually had remplaçables batteries, as well as all Apple laptop of that era, is pretty much proving misrepresentation...

They were very practical (especially when video playback autonomy was limited to 2h and word processing to around 5h) but clunky. We could discuss for ages if, now a common choice across multiple manufacturers, moving for internal non-moving battery was clever or odious. But the verifiable facts remains that Apple once sold replaceable batteries out there.

Re: iOS 13 now shows you a map of where apps have been tracking you

#39

Post by saagarjha » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 2:01 AM UTC

dpkonofa wrote: post #16

I really don't understand how people can simultaneously say that Apple is anti-consumer and then ignore moves like this that not only show that Apple is committed to consumers. It would be so easy for them to gather all this info and sell it to advertisers and third-parties and yet they refuse to. On top of that, I think it's strangely telling that most of the anti-Apple stories when it comes to the "right to repair"…

Not being able to repair your device is anti-consumer–in a vacuum. In the real world, there are trade offs: making devices repairable makes them thicker, more complicated, etc. Those that understand this and feel that Apple is compromising in the wrong direction have a reasonable opinion.

However, there is quite a bit of misrepresentation as you mention: often “right to repair” people forget that this compromise exists. In particularly egregious examples (YouTubers in particular) they willfully neglect to discuss this. Off the top of my head, Louis Rossmann has literally lied to people to stir up controversy: see the media outrage about “Apple confiscating batteries”, which was completely orchestrated.

Re: iOS 13 now shows you a map of where apps have been tracking you

#40

Post by profmonocle » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 2:01 AM UTC

akmarinov wrote: post #17

duskwuff wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Never allow" already exists. The user can deny location access when it is first requested, or can disable location access through Settings. "Provide fake location" is not necessary, because apps which fail to work when you deny location access are rejected during App Store review.

Well Pokemon Go basically doesn't work without location and it wasn't rejected.

I believe the actual requirement is apps have to work without location access if it isn't essential to the basic functioning of the app. A GPS navigation app obviously needs location access to do its job, something like Twitter, not so much.