Apple sued over spying mobile apps

#1

Post by zoowar » Tue, Dec 28, 2010, 7:02 PM UTC

Apple sued over spying mobile apps
venturebeat.com

Re: Apple sued over spying mobile apps

#2

Post by roc » Tue, Dec 28, 2010, 7:16 PM UTC

I'm not sure why the UDID would eever have been exposed to app developers. It seems the API should offer an ID that was the result of the UDID run through some sort of hash seeded by project or at least developer cert.

Re: Apple sued over spying mobile apps

#3

Post by d_r » Tue, Dec 28, 2010, 7:18 PM UTC

Here comes the fearmongering by the media. Sigh.

Re: Apple sued over spying mobile apps

#4

Post by niclupien » Tue, Dec 28, 2010, 7:22 PM UTC

It was about time!

Re: Apple sued over spying mobile apps

#5

Post by tedunangst » Tue, Dec 28, 2010, 7:35 PM UTC

"Some apps are also selling additional information to ad networks, including users’ location, age, gender, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation and political views."

It then goes on to list Pandora and Weather Channel as affected apps. Having used both of them, I don't recall entering anything about my income or political views into either. I would really like to learn of a concrete example of an app that sold each of the above pieces of information, instead of the current list of well known apps that once displayed an ad.

Re: Apple sued over spying mobile apps

#6

Post by nolanbrown23 » Tue, Dec 28, 2010, 7:36 PM UTC

It's all fear mongering as d_r says. Ironically, the WSJ app sends more data about a user (including the UDID) then the apps referenced in the article.

Should apple change the way UDIDs are given to developers? Probably. A simple hash of the UDID and the bundle id would get an app specific identifier but I guarantee that there would still be the same "privacy concerns".

Re: Apple sued over spying mobile apps

#7

Post by jdp23 » Tue, Dec 28, 2010, 7:37 PM UTC

d_r wrote: post #3

Here comes the fearmongering by the media. Sigh.

How is reporting on a lawsuit "fearmongering"?

Re: Apple sued over spying mobile apps

#8

Post by jimboyoungblood » Tue, Dec 28, 2010, 8:16 PM UTC

jdp23 wrote: post #7

d_r wrote: post #3

Here comes the fearmongering by the media. Sigh.

How is reporting on a lawsuit "fearmongering"?

Because the lawsuit was most likely inspired by this report by the WSJ:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870469400457602...

Re: Apple sued over spying mobile apps

#9

Post by jdp23 » Tue, Dec 28, 2010, 8:19 PM UTC

jimboyoungblood wrote: post #8

jdp23 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is reporting on a lawsuit "fearmongering"?

Because the lawsuit was most likely inspired by this report by the WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870469400457602...

And how is reporting that applications share informaiton without asking for permission fear-mongering?

Re: Apple sued over spying mobile apps

#10

Post by devindra » Tue, Dec 28, 2010, 8:54 PM UTC

nolanbrown23 wrote: post #6

It's all fear mongering as d_r says. Ironically, the WSJ app sends more data about a user (including the UDID) then the apps referenced in the article. Should apple change the way UDIDs are given to developers? Probably. A simple hash of the UDID and the bundle id would get an app specific identifier but I guarantee that there would still be the same "privacy concerns".

Author of the post here. Where exactly did you hear that the WSJ app shares more data than the others? The WSJ included their own app in the study, and according to them they only use the UDID internally to count users (http://blogs.wsj.com/wtk-mobile/2010/12/17/wall-street-journ...). Now I realize that data isn't exactly trustworthy since they're talking about their own app, but I've yet to see anything that disproves it yet.