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iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

appleinsider.com

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Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#11

Post by hinkley »

The thing is... we still do adaptations of Shakespeare, because human behavior hasn't changed all that profoundly in 600 years.

By the time we actually have privacy again, there will be enough information out there to mine about how people reacted five, ten years ago for the old data to continue to retain value. It'll just be repackaged and re-interpreted over and over again.

The coffee shop may no longer know that you also like kayaks, or bulldogs, but they might not need information like that to peg your preferences based on what stereotypes you fit with the information they do have.

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#12

Post by tehlike »

cremp wrote: post #7
lalos wrote: post #3

Next step is to download Lockdown, open source and on device firewall. It also offers a VPN with an in-app purchase (kinda confusing when you are setting it up), but for free you get the firewall only. Easy to enable and block known ad-trackers (including FB sdk and Google Ads). Highly recommend. It's also made by ex Apple engineers, in case that helps for building trustworthiness. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lockd…

Maybe I'm just skeptical and a cynic, but... > VPN with an in-app purchase Lets pay for a product, and they have the ability to sell that data. I get, acting like a pi-hole and what-not but, a VPN for that task seems overkill.

Vpn is the ux reason. It is the only way to have a way to inspect network traffic on android without rooting. And likely on ios.

Disclaimer: never used lockdown, not endorsing the product.

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#13

Post by Cynddl »

cremp wrote: post #7
lalos wrote: post #3

Next step is to download Lockdown, open source and on device firewall. It also offers a VPN with an in-app purchase (kinda confusing when you are setting it up), but for free you get the firewall only. Easy to enable and block known ad-trackers (including FB sdk and Google Ads). Highly recommend. It's also made by ex Apple engineers, in case that helps for building trustworthiness. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lockd…

Maybe I'm just skeptical and a cynic, but... > VPN with an in-app purchase Lets pay for a product, and they have the ability to sell that data. I get, acting like a pi-hole and what-not but, a VPN for that task seems overkill.

iOS requires a VPN profile (even a local VPN) for ruled-based adblocking. This is what AdGuard Pro [0] does for adblocking.

This does not mean that your data goes through a VPN server.

[0] https://adguard.com/en/adguard-ios-pro/overview.html

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#14

Post by scarface74 »

lalos wrote: post #3

Next step is to download Lockdown, open source and on device firewall. It also offers a VPN with an in-app purchase (kinda confusing when you are setting it up), but for free you get the firewall only. Easy to enable and block known ad-trackers (including FB sdk and Google Ads). Highly recommend. It's also made by ex Apple engineers, in case that helps for building trustworthiness. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lockd…

So if I care about privacy, why in the heck would I trust yet another party with access to all of my internet communication?

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#16

Post by ReverseCold »

novok wrote: post #8

The alert is annoying although for apps you want to have always on location tracking although, like some life logging apps. (Arc, etc) It's like OS doesn't want to accept there are apps you want always on location tracking on and for it to stop annoying you about it.

This might be a necessary evil. If you could turn it off (even in a convoluted way), people would do it - which is what led to the issue of such a large proportion of Americans having their location data streamed 24/7 in the first place.

Unlike Windows 10 updates not giving people a choice in the matter, this only helps you, so I really don't see the problem here.

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#17

Post by foogazi »

duskwuff wrote: post #9
novok wrote: post #8

The alert is annoying although for apps you want to have always on location tracking although, like some life logging apps. (Arc, etc) It's like OS doesn't want to accept there are apps you want always on location tracking on and for it to stop annoying you about it.

Yeah, I'm a little annoyed that there isn't an option for "no really, always allow". I understand that there's good privacy reasons to keep asking -- but I'm quite aware that a weather app will need access to my location, and I'm okay with that.

Wonder if we’ll see a shift to legit location aware apps that then leak tracking data

Are a weather app’s ads more valuable now because it gets more users to track location

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#18

Post by p49k »

scarface74 wrote: post #14
lalos wrote: post #3

Next step is to download Lockdown, open source and on device firewall. It also offers a VPN with an in-app purchase (kinda confusing when you are setting it up), but for free you get the firewall only. Easy to enable and block known ad-trackers (including FB sdk and Google Ads). Highly recommend. It's also made by ex Apple engineers, in case that helps for building trustworthiness. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lockd…

So if I care about privacy, why in the heck would I trust yet another party with access to all of my internet communication?

It has one of the best privacy policies I’ve ever read.

“ Everything Lockdown Firewall does stays on your phone, so no data is transmitted to any of our servers. This can be confirmed by checking the source code, which is 100% open and public for anyone to examine. Lockdown Firewall doesn't use any type of third party analytics, trackers, or APIs, so there's no risk of your data leaking to third parties. This means there's no Google Analytics, no Facebook Pixel, no Mixpanel, Fabric, Mailchimp, etc — nada.

Information We Collect

Lockdown Firewall collects nothing. It all stays on your device.”

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#19

Post by mikestew »

lalos wrote: post #3

Next step is to download Lockdown, open source and on device firewall. It also offers a VPN with an in-app purchase (kinda confusing when you are setting it up), but for free you get the firewall only. Easy to enable and block known ad-trackers (including FB sdk and Google Ads). Highly recommend. It's also made by ex Apple engineers, in case that helps for building trustworthiness. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lockd…

Just downloaded it, too. It does ferret out those ads in the NYT app that I can’t seem to get Pi-Hole to filter out. Seems it will save me setting up a VPN to the home network to use Pi-Hole when on the road, too. So far, it’s two thumbs up. I’ll give it a few days, but I’ll throw some money their way in-app purchase even I never use their VPN (though I’ll certainly give it a whirl).

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#20

Post by mikestew »

cremp wrote: post #7
lalos wrote: post #3

Next step is to download Lockdown, open source and on device firewall. It also offers a VPN with an in-app purchase (kinda confusing when you are setting it up), but for free you get the firewall only. Easy to enable and block known ad-trackers (including FB sdk and Google Ads). Highly recommend. It's also made by ex Apple engineers, in case that helps for building trustworthiness. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lockd…

Maybe I'm just skeptical and a cynic, but... > VPN with an in-app purchase Lets pay for a product, and they have the ability to sell that data. I get, acting like a pi-hole and what-not but, a VPN for that task seems overkill.

VPN for that task seems overkill

If you can figure out another way to pull it off, I’d wager you could make a fair bit of cash. Or at least get a job offer at a lot of places you might like to work.

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