Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

appleinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 461 posts

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

#301

Post by the_gipsy »

privateSFacct wrote: post #143
surround wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s two things about iOS that bothers me, privacy wise: - Apple still makes money off of ads, creating a conflict of interest. By default, users have a unique tracking/advertising ID attached to their phone. - iOS is extremely restrictive, making certain privacy adjustments impossible.

"By default, users have a unique tracking/advertising ID attached to their phone." Google has the same thing, and with apple if you care you can opt out. "When Limit Ad Tracking is enabled on iOS 10 or later, the Advertising Identifier is replaced with a non-unique value of all zeros to prevent the serving of targeted ads. It is automatically reset to a new random identifier if you disable Limit Ad Tracking." So this…

> you can't get unremovable malaware installed on an iphone you buy from apple.

This is simply not true. iOS also allows "supervisor" apps (see MDM) that are extremely difficult to remove later, perhaps even more difficult than android.

I know because I used to work at company that did a kids protection app.

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

#302

Post by jonny383 »

If you're running Android, I suggest you install one of the open source "firewall"s available on FDroid.

Even if you don't plan on using it, make yourself aware of the sheer number of requests being sent _constantly_ from not only your applications, but by Android system services themselves.

I'm not saying these requests are always related to ad tracking, but you can't argue there's a lot of information constantly being sent back an forth.

Pro-tip: Your battery life will possibly double running a software firewall on Android...

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

#303

Post by deergomoo »

jeffparsons wrote: post #254
Waterluvian wrote: post #77

I'm probably saying the complete obvious, but Apple can completely crush Google if they execute this angle properly. Google has no choice but to support ads. They're an ad company. Apple has to keep hammering how bad the ad and privacy experiences are with Android. Make iOS an absolute delight to use in contrast. I'd pay a premium for that. Android has done a great job making me want an iOS device again, these last t…

For some reason I still strongly prefer the look and feel of Android over iOS, but at this point my next phone will be an iPhone. Why? Because Google recently stepped up its notification spam in their official apps. They're using a mechanism that's supposed to exist to notify me of things _I_ want/need to know about urgently instead to advertise products and services to me that I have no interest in. It's tedious to…

> I paid a premium for a high-end flagship Google phone

Unfortunately it seems paying a premium isn't enough to get any respect from manufacturers these days. Just look at Samsung and LG TVs, you can pay thousands for a high-end model and still have to set up PiHole to avoid being shown ads in the menus.

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

#304

Post by wewake »

Apple already collects all the data of their users heavily and moves like these are simply meant to annoy their competitors (mostly Google) and keep the data to themselves while looking like a good kid in the valley.

The number of gullible people aka Apple fanboys is staggering here who actually think Apple is trying to _save_ their privacy from advertisers after reading this highly biased article. Hah.

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

#305

Post by algesten »

wewake wrote: post #304

Apple already collects all the data of their users heavily and moves like these are simply meant to annoy their competitors (mostly Google) and keep the data to themselves while looking like a good kid in the valley. The number of gullible people aka Apple fanboys is staggering here who actually think Apple is trying to _save_ their privacy from advertisers after reading this highly biased article. Hah.

Any sources for this?

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

#306

Post by benbristow »

solarkraft wrote: post #297
jeffparsons wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason I still strongly prefer the look and feel of Android over iOS, but at this point my next phone will be an iPhone. Why? Because Google recently stepped up its notification spam in their official apps. They're using a mechanism that's supposed to exist to notify me of things _I_ want/need to know about urgently instead to advertise products and services to me that I have no interest in. It's tedious to…

I like lots of things about Apple software, but feel a lot less respected than with Google's. While the price you pay with Google is annoyances through ads, the price you pay for Apple (besides the hardware being 3x as expensive as comparable Android hardware) is just not being able to do things . You can't side load apps without some people with years of experience putting all of their time and energy into breaking…

Lightning cables are more popular than USB-C cables at this point. If I'm at a party or something usually someone has an iPhone cable, USB-C, not so much.

To be honest with an iPhone there's not much reason to want to sideload anything. Sideloading on Android is dodgy enough with dodgy APKs. Who knows what they're doing in the background? At least with the App Store (and Play Store for that matter) being a walled garden, for both it's positives and negatives, you know an app has been vetted and is safe from malware.

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

#307

Post by Sander_Marechal »

deergomoo wrote: post #303
jeffparsons wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason I still strongly prefer the look and feel of Android over iOS, but at this point my next phone will be an iPhone. Why? Because Google recently stepped up its notification spam in their official apps. They're using a mechanism that's supposed to exist to notify me of things _I_ want/need to know about urgently instead to advertise products and services to me that I have no interest in. It's tedious to…

> I paid a premium for a high-end flagship Google phone Unfortunately it seems paying a premium isn't enough to get any respect from manufacturers these days. Just look at Samsung and LG TVs, you can pay thousands for a high-end model and still have to set up PiHole to avoid being shown ads in the menus.

This absolutely infuriated me. I bought a very expensive new TV a year ago. Then last summer it suddenly started showing ads in the menu. I was planning to return the TV to the store and getting my money back but it would probably just be a headache inducing hassle. Now I pi-holed my entire network.

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

#308

Post by cerberusss »

wewake wrote: post #304

Apple already collects all the data of their users heavily and moves like these are simply meant to annoy their competitors (mostly Google) and keep the data to themselves while looking like a good kid in the valley. The number of gullible people aka Apple fanboys is staggering here who actually think Apple is trying to _save_ their privacy from advertisers after reading this highly biased article. Hah.

What makes you so sure about that?

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

#309

Post by underwater »

Waterluvian wrote: post #77

I'm probably saying the complete obvious, but Apple can completely crush Google if they execute this angle properly. Google has no choice but to support ads. They're an ad company. Apple has to keep hammering how bad the ad and privacy experiences are with Android. Make iOS an absolute delight to use in contrast. I'd pay a premium for that. Android has done a great job making me want an iOS device again, these last t…

Google is an ad and data company, so they can't help but push ads and watch what you do.

But on the flip side Apple is addicted to building their ecosystem. They will happily cripple the functionality of their devices to force you to buy their MacBook, AirPods, HomePod, Apple Watch, Apple TV, etc.

I personally prefer companies who sell solid hardware and focus on their niche.

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

#310

Post by cerberusss »

lilyball wrote: post #85
freehunter wrote: post #24

On the other hand Apple has forced apps to use location data for purposes it should not be used for. Termius, for example, is my favorite iOS SSH app. But according to them, they can’t keep an SSH session running in the background unless they’re constantly tracking your location data. And somehow Apple approved this usage of location data. I don’t want to give Termius my location. I don’t want them tracking me everyw…

Absent memory pressure, apps can stay open for up to 10 minutes in the background. The correct solution here is for the app to request background processing and to schedule a local notification in 9 minutes saying that the app is about to run out of background time and pause (and then clean up the notification if the user returns to the app before it fires). This means you're not abusing anything, and it lets the use…

Are you sure about that? Especially in iOS 13, killing apps seems to have gotten a bit more agressive.
Post reply on HN