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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

#421

Post by jorvi »

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'd pay a premium for that.

Not everyone has the money to do that, and privacy should not become another privilege that is solely meant for people of means.

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

#422

Post by JoBrad »

lostsock wrote: post #249
JoBrad wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This notification is slightly different: you still get a notification when an app asks for permission. But later on you get a notification telling you that the app has been using a given feature x times, and you have the choice of changing the permission again. For location, it also shows a map of each location gathered by the app.

The same is true on Android, at least for me on my Pixel 4[1] 1: https://www.androidpolice.com/wp-content/themes/ap2/ap_resiz...

Awesome. Can you see the locations it captured?

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

#423

Post by gengkev »

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…

Funnily enough, when I need a USB-C cable to charge my phone, I'm usually able to borrow one from a friend who uses USB-C to charge their Macbook...

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

#424

Post by damnyou »

scarface74 wrote: post #415
damnyou wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, the US is the richest country on earth. In the rest of the world Androids are more popular. I guarantee you that if most of your friends have iPhones, your friends' incomes are probably on the higher end, statistically. Don't those payment plans require good credit, anyway? A lot of my friends don't have that.

Not “good credit” just “not horrible credit”. But, after you have been a customer for awhile for a carrier, they take your on time bill payments with them into account - at least with T-mobile. https://www.t-mobile.com/customers/smartphone-equality-progr...

Many of my less well-off friends have horrible credit, unfortunately.

Good for T-Mobile.

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

#425

Post by Gatsky »

tomlockwood wrote: post #59

> A drop in advertiser spending is likely to occur from small or medium-sized advertisers, Kasamias believes, as they are clients "where cost efficiency is paramount and there is a physical footprint, as targeting the right user at the right time will become more difficult." Frankly, what a load of horse shit. The reason for the drop in spend isn't the lack of targeting potential. Ad companies talk about this, becaus…

Interesting idea.

I have noticed that after I buy something I start seeing ads for the exact item, which I have never seen before. These aren’t things you buy more than once.

I always thought it was pretty dumb if you are serving ads for something someone just bought... but maybe they do it because some small % of people will click on it and they can claim the ad was associated with the sale in some hand-wavy way. Or maybe people are just more likely to click on these post-sale ads, and that’s all that matters.

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

#426

Post by Marsymars »

KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #91
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 don't get it, where do you see ads in android? If anything I use android for the ad-less experience, youtube vanced etc.

The Play store is full of ads. (Sadly, the App Store has ads now too.)

Google Maps also has ads. I'd pay for either ad-free Google Maps, or Apple Maps on Android.

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

#427

Post by rattray »

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…

> Google recently stepped up its notification spam in their official apps

Really? Which ones? I have a pixel 2 and haven't experienced this. I have the Assistant turned off - could that be why?

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

#428

Post by ericmay »

rpastuszak wrote: post #353
privateSFacct wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

> Google has the same thing, and with apple if you care you can opt out. I'm not on Android any more, but (afair) you could reset the advertising ID, which in practice is not that different from only being able to disable it temporarily.

Yes, but the ease of use and prominence of the feature make a difference. If I have to manually reset the ID, well, forget it. If the operating system automatically does it for me - then that is far superior.

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

#429

Post by soylentcola »

jzvxkxbxjx wrote: post #95
Polylactic_acid wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never owned an ios device in my life and strongly avoid them but this makes drift slightly over considering one. If apple allowed easily sideloading apps I would consider moving over.

“ If apple allowed easily sideloading apps I would consider moving over.” This was the reason I was an android guy until my wife told me to just get a phone that works. And you know what? Not letting you side load is a feature. When you see it like that, you care a lot less about your phone, and just appreciate that it works and that you can trust it as your more intimate possessions .

In my experience, a good Android phone and a good iPhone both "just work" out of the box for 98% of my uses. The main reason I tend to use Android phones is that in the 2% of situations when something doesn't work the way I want/need it to, I have the option to do something about it.

I don't go sideloading every random app I dig up from freeappzlol.ru or whatever, but I also don't need to be restricted to a single software repo when I want something like systemwide ad blocking or a youtube app that plays with the screen off (two things Google would prefer to restrict).

And when the device gets old and slow and stops getting official support, I can flash a slimmed down ROM that allows me to use it as a basic streaming source or fancy remote control or whatever because it's possible to install another OS or build on deprecated hardware much as I would on an old laptop or desktop that gets turned into a Linux box for web browsing or network storage.

I only speak for myself and definitely see your angle, but to me, taking away options doesn't really lead to increased peace of mind. Having the ability to do something doesn't equal having to do something...but in the event that I want to do something, I like knowing I'm able.

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

#430

Post by rpastuszak »

mikestew wrote: post #2

And it’s not just location data. I am amazed at how many apps want Bluetooth, too. Umm, there isn’t a single listed feature that indicates a need for BT, why are you asking? Oh, so you can use that as a tracking vector, too. Well, not only do you not get BT, you don’t get to live on my phone anymore, either. As for the advertisers, boo-hoo. You raised a finger (or two, depending on locale) to “do not track”, you thin…

> As for the advertisers, boo-hoo. You raised a finger (or two, depending on locale) to “do not track”, you think there wasn’t a hammer that was going to fall after you were asked politely?

I wish it was that easy, but the current changes will generate a push towards non-deterministic, data driven ways of targeting, i.e. replacing the "precise" inputs such as GPS, trackingID, etc... with a set of more fuzzy parameters: geo IP, UA, fingerprinting.

Some good things are happening, but there's so much more to do. I like the WebKit approach the most:

we don't care how you target users cross-site, what tech is involved, if you track cross-site, we will treat it as exposing a security vulnerability—we'll escalate the issue and potentially include measures to prevent your domain accessing the browser.

The approach above sounds more future-proof, imo

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