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

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

#391

Post by Nemo157 »

8fingerlouie wrote: post #332
afturner wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They just magically start appearing after a while

And once they start they don't stop again, which is also kinda annoying. I wish there was some way to permanently allow it, and not be bugged by the alerts again. Something the app cannot set by itself, but i can set. I have some apps, i.e. Unifi Protect, that requires access to background location to send activity alerts when nobody is home, and i frequently get alerts that this app has used my location in the backg…

I have a feeling that's a bug. I have an app that I want to have background location and was asked twice soon after upgrading to iOS 13, then iOS was silent for about a month, then started popping up a prompt for it 2 or 3 times a day for half a week. After restarting it stopped popping up again, so it seems likely that something was broken about saving whether it had prompted for that app.

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

#392

Post by dangus »

rienbdj wrote: post #321
dangus wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All Android phones before P are vulnerable to a flaw that allows background camera use: https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/7/17091104/android-p-prevent... That might actually be the majority of active Android devices if you look at the marketshare statistics. I think it's actually somewhat embarrassing that the tech industry hasn't been able to provide a low cost, reasonably secure smartphone platform that can be used f…

There was windows phone, but the market wanted apps!

Related to this, I almost wanted to mention the “sins” of the major platforms.

Android: not fixing fragmentation after all this time. Essentially, people with less money get less security.

Apple: not making true budget phones with the same lengthy support windows, though this might change as they emphasize services.

Microsoft: leaving the smartphone market entirely. I used to use Windows Phone and it was clearly better than Android. Android was slow and getting updates was a pipe dream. Windows Phone was like a less locked-down iPhone, and around Windows Phone 8.1 the app marketplace wasn’t half bad.

Had Microsoft put out quality flagship phones consistently on a yearly basis on all four major US carriers, they’d still be making smartphones. But people who wanted windows phones were stuck waiting for Microsoft to reorganize Nokia while they mostly crapped out budget phones and had one or two outdated flagship exclusive to a particular carrier.

Windows Phone 10 arrived too late, it wasn’t as good of an update as 8.1, and it arrived after a long drought of phones.

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

#393

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

acdha wrote: post #375
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that the reason for this is dependencies. People don't just write apps anymore. They write CocoaPods frameworks. I was just looking at something that someone wrote that does basically the same thing as one of my open-source utilities. The one I wrote is a 300-line file. It's so small that it isn't even worth writing a pod for it. The more popular one has over a dozen source files, and also brings in t…

Are you aware of any common libraries which aren’t ad packages but do ask for Bluetooth or Location Services by default? I’ve had a handful of apps which legitimately need to talk to devices but all of the inexplicable ones were clearly using ads and had privacy policies a mile long before I deleted them.

No. I tend to avoid dependencies. When I do use them, I'm very careful, and I don't use CocoaPods for release software (only for development utilities, like SwiftLint). I use Carthage (or even -ick- submodules) for the rare dependencies that make it into my shipping software.

I'm told that Bluetooth is used for location tracking. I suspect that advertisers also like to use it.

I write Bluetooth software. You need to jump through a couple of hoops to make it work. Not a big deal.

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

#394

Post by gear54rus »

SXX wrote: post #378
gear54rus wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there is no way at all to make your own legit "hacker" apps trusted to use elevated privileges Of course there is. To circumvent this closed apple-esque bullshit you can just install magisk.

My point is that Android as platform don't have this feature and it's vendor only care about interests of carriers, pro-DRM media companies and own ads business. Magisk is never ending cat and mouse game and at any moment Google can just add some hardware-backed privileged rootkit that not going to be easy to bypass. So it's not always usable for every app out there.

Well yes it's another toxic business, that only cares about profits, news at 11.

The difference is that the good part of the community tries to unlock the platform's true potential instead of chanting "walled garden means safety" and "you don't actually have that use case".

And that part of the community has advanced tremendously. It's in the mindset.

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

#395

Post by scarface74 »

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…

I’m an iOS user but Apple will never be the dominant phone vendor. The average selling price of an Android phone is $248. The cheapest iPhone is $475. Apple doesn’t have the stomach to compete on price and the vast majority of consumers aren’t going to pay Apple prices.

If people cared about privacy, the majority of them wouldn’t be on Facebook. They know that FB tracks them and advertises based on the data they collect.

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

#396

Post by kofejnik »

gdxhyrd wrote: post #388
fluffything wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I love Slopes and its lone developer deserves all the praise, and yet a week ago I've received an unwarranted ad for the paid subscription disguised as a notification... Not cool. You just need to notify Apple that a particular App in the store violates their ToS. I've done this before, and in a matter of a few days, the App is removed from the store, and the other apps of that dev are scanned for ToS violations. T…

Apple should not have that kind of power, though. They have been wrong before. Instead, the scrutiny and investigations should be public so that the developer can defend themselves.

> Apple should not have that kind of power, though.

Oh, but I’m happy they do

Also, notifications go via apple’s servers, you can’t really force them to deliver everybody’s notifications for free and without any discretion

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

#397

Post by damnyou »

benbristow wrote: post #306
solarkraft wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 gar…

Good job signaling that both you and your social circles have a certain degree of affluence.

I live in the SFBA, hang out with people at all income levels, and I'd say over 70% use Android. Among richer people it's more 50-50.

It's pretty easy to get USB-C chargers among my friends.

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

#398

Post by givinguflac »

deergomoo wrote: post #382
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I use an AppleTV, and don't give my TV the wifi password.

This is my next step. I don't current have any 4K/HDR devices, so the built-in apps do actually have some benefit to me. As soon as I pick up a compatible streaming device, I'll be factory resetting the TV and setting it back up without ever connecting it to the network.

This is what I do and it works well. Once or twice a year I’ll update the tv firmware via usb

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

#399

Post by scarface74 »

jvzr wrote: post #288
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…

Just a heads up: Apple in their guidelines tell developers not to do that, and yet they do send some notifications advertising their products and/or services sometimes (recently for Apple TV+). They also do not police developers' notifications, so some developers abuse it. Just an example: I love Slopes and its lone developer deserves all the praise, and yet a week ago I've received an unwarranted ad for the paid sub…

Especially with the last two versions of iOS, Apple has made it easy to turn off and change the notification types when you get a notification from an app. Almost all of my notifications are silent on my phone.

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

#400

Post by givinguflac »

kmnns wrote: post #337
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 use Lineage OS + microg with no Google apps on a compatible phone and I experience zero Google. Else, I seem to be able to enjoy Android to its fullest, using the Aurora app store. Lineage OS might be a viable alternative for people who prefer Android but disdain Google.

This is great for technical people but it’s easy to forget most people have no ability to achieve what you describe by themselves.
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