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

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

#61

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.

Android has a list of apps that requested permission for location.

I get a notification on my Galaxy S9 each time an app tries to access my location, microphone, etc. It's called permissions monitor and it appears to either be part of Android itself or a feature Samsung added to my device.

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

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Bad example. Yes, the core gameplay doesn't work, but the app still allows you to log in, manage your account mess with your existing Pokémon and items, move those Pokémon into Pokémon Let's Go's Go Park on the Nintendo Switch. If you try to play the core game with location permission permanently disabled, the game will alert the user that the game needs the location permission enabled but it will NOT lock the user o…

And if I'm a new user and create an account, but forbid location access - what exactly can I do with the app?

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

#64
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 iO…

Except that people are misrepresenting all 3 of those situations to make their point. Apple didn't slow down people's phones in order to get them to buy newer models. They actually slowed them down to extend their lifespans when the battery started to fail. While I do think that they could have communicated that better and that their current solution is pretty decent, it's a huge leap to say that this was an intentio…

As I understand it, Apple increased the peak power usage of the 6S (as a result of making the processor faster), but chose to use the same battery (in order to avoid making the phone thicker). As a result, unexpected shutdowns became much more common - while this did happen on older models, it seems to have been much less frequent.

Strictly compared to the alternative of letting people's phone shut off, throttling seems like the right decision, but I would also argue that Apple produced a defective product, where the battery wore out much quicker than consumers expected (because even if it had sufficient capacity, it couldn't provide the peak power necessary). As a result, Apple's decision seems more like a way to cover up their design flaws, rather than to actually be helpful to consumers.

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

#65

I support Apple trying to turn privacy into a major marketing issue, but I think we’ve basically already learned that consumers just do not care.

I'd modify your idea to say "consumers generally don't make decisions based on privacy alone" -- a much milder take that leaves a lot of room for experimentation in the future.

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

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad example. Yes, the core gameplay doesn't work, but the app still allows you to log in, manage your account mess with your existing Pokémon and items, move those Pokémon into Pokémon Let's Go's Go Park on the Nintendo Switch. If you try to play the core game with location permission permanently disabled, the game will alert the user that the game needs the location permission enabled but it will NOT lock the user o…

And if I'm a new user and create an account, but forbid location access - what exactly can I do with the app?

Manage your newly created account.

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

#67

I support Apple trying to turn privacy into a major marketing issue, but I think we’ve basically already learned that consumers just do not care.

They will care. They watch marketing. And that is the point Apple is trying to make.

I assume, next is banners at the Apple Stores and at Best Buys.

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

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good feature but quite different, if the user is at home when they need to use the app that first time then it reveals where the user lives and possibly personally identifies them.

Your IP address when on WiFi almost certainly can be connected to a specific address by a databroker. That doesn't mean location shouldn't be limited in resolution, but there are other ways to get the same thing.

The ip address is also not going to be shared with apps anymore starting in iOS 13

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

#69
post #41
post #2

Fantastic. It is the asymmetry in information collection that is so frustrating as a consumer. In an ideal marketplace, information flows freely, and informed choices make the market move towards efficient transactions. When no consumers know what information is being collected or how it’s used, and it’s value is obfuscated, then deep rifts in expectations can emerge. We need more of this sunlight in order to make go…

With trust, trade is unlimited. That said, we should be able to say NO - and this includes apple. For instance, why should we have to identify ourselves to apple?

AFAIK, you don't. An iPhone will work fine without signing in to any Apple service and you can opt out of all Apple data collection right in the device.

I've set up several testing iDevices for work with no Apple accounts.

The only thing you can't do without an Apple account is to use the Apple services like the App Store and iCloud and other paid services.

I think even software updates can be done without an account, but I'm not sure since I haven't tried this.

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

#70

It seems a bit extreme to offer apps one of two extremes: either my sub-metre location or no location at all. It seems the reasonable default for location sharing should be something like sharing the rough suburb that I'm in. This solves most use-cases such as showing closest store locations, delivery options, dating apps showing nearby matches, etc. It's only the occasional navigation app that needs to know exactly…

I specifically get directions “home” to a neighbor’s house a bit away. Once I know where I am, I kill Google Maps. I’m sure they could, if they wanted to badly enough, figure the whole thing out, but at least my profile has a certain amount of uncertainty (though what utility that has is probably debatable).

I would love to be able to fuzz my location within a certain (randomized?) radius of my home for certain apps. Strava has a ‘privacy circle’ that essentially accomplishes this when sharing GPX tracks of runs around one’s home. An OS-level feature would be fantastic in many cases.

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