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

New iOS privacy feature may end an era of personalized ads

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 385 posts

Re: New iOS privacy feature may end an era of personalized ads

#81

Post by raxxorrax »

Yetanfou wrote: post #53
raxxorrax wrote: post #9

Maybe the open source promise of Android was indeed a lie. To me this industry has no value to society at all. Not a fan of Apple, but they seem to be serious about privacy showing other companies how it is done. Microsoft could have really established itself as an alternative to Google on the same front, but they utterly failed by mirroring the worst aspects of the disastrous landscape we see on mobile devices. I ho…

In what way is open source Android a lie? I never used any other version, I do not have a Google account, nor do I have any Google-proprietary software on my devices yet they still run all software - including the Swedish "BankID" electronic ID app which is needed for just about any interaction with anything official nowadays. That "BankID" is, together with Firefox Preview, the only software which I got from the pla…

True, Android itself doesn't have to be horrible, but most distributions are full of adware.

Wouldn't want to minimize the work going into the core of the OS, I meant the critique to be directed against Android + gapps. I love Lineage, but you are dependent on other maintainers for your device or you have serious work ahead of you. It is quite simple to install for experienced users, but way too complicated for most people. Kudos to those that actually do maintain images for numerous devices. Granted, the problem are the hardware manufacturers here and lacking openness of viable drivers, also not the fault of Android developers.

Smartphone could have been really awesome tools. Instead we have toys that spy on you by default. I get that techies tend to make it hard for casual users to use modern devices, but I feel like I am scamming people when fixing their devices and not waste countless hours by making sure at least some privacy is protected.

I don't like closed ecosystems like Apple, but functions such as these actually do offer more worth. While I wouldn't buy Apple for myself, I started to recommend it to others for this reason.

Re: New iOS privacy feature may end an era of personalized ads

#82

Post by t0mas88 »

kohtatsu wrote: post #56
t0mas88 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that the ad industry has taken it too far, I also disagree with your statement. Because users pay for free apps with their data, Apple isn't asking them "do you want to pay $ 0.99 or accept ad tracking?" Apple asks "Do you want to use this app without ad tracking" of course the user will choose to disable ad tracking because there is no downside to them. But if all users do that it will be the end of a…

The downside is not having personalized ads. They will still see ads. I'm vehemently against invasive tracking for personalized ads, but more than happy to see clearly marked, clean context-based ads.

True, but the price paid for personalized ads is about 4-5x higher than for non-personalized. So to keep their revenue free apps would either have to add a lot more ads or become less free.

Re: New iOS privacy feature may end an era of personalized ads

#83

Post by t0mas88 »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #67
t0mas88 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that the ad industry has taken it too far, I also disagree with your statement. Because users pay for free apps with their data, Apple isn't asking them "do you want to pay $ 0.99 or accept ad tracking?" Apple asks "Do you want to use this app without ad tracking" of course the user will choose to disable ad tracking because there is no downside to them. But if all users do that it will be the end of a…

> Apple isn't asking them "do you want to pay $ 0.99 or accept ad tracking?" It was Apple who popularised the "pay $0.99 to get content on your mobile" business model, and thousands of websites have a banner that appears at the top inviting you to do just that.

Jup, and I suspect part of Apple's policy isn't written by an altruistic "let's make privacy better" motive but more by the fact that they move some of the mobile app revenue from ads to app store and they get 30% of that app store revenue.

Re: New iOS privacy feature may end an era of personalized ads

#84

Post by SllX »

t0mas88 wrote: post #54
SllX wrote: post #20

If an entire industry dies because users were given an explicit upfront choice, because of one popup like the article says, then it wasn’t a productive industry. We’ll see what really happens.

While I agree that the ad industry has taken it too far, I also disagree with your statement. Because users pay for free apps with their data, Apple isn't asking them "do you want to pay $ 0.99 or accept ad tracking?" Apple asks "Do you want to use this app without ad tracking" of course the user will choose to disable ad tracking because there is no downside to them. But if all users do that it will be the end of a…

Apple isn’t banning apps from the App Store for serving ads or collecting data; they’re telling users upfront about an identifier that Apple included in the operating system, giving them the option to allow apps to collect that identifier or not allow, with OS-level support if they choose to allow. This might make data collection and retargeting less effective on iOS, but it doesn’t stop collection or ads outright.

I stand by my statement, if one pop-up is enough to kill an industry, then it isn’t a productive industry.

Re: New iOS privacy feature may end an era of personalized ads

#85

Post by murermader »

supernova87a wrote: post #22

But doesn't this privacy setting get nullified anyway by companies tracking your device at the cellular network level? I'm not too familiar with it, but regardless of whether you accept cookies, etc., they are able to ID you through your carrier anyway?

Yeah, I think you are right. Apps don't need access to GPS, internet or bluetooth to know your location. They can just log what cell tower you are connected to, and use that information to "estimate" your location every time you switch cell towers.

I think that method even works in flight mode, as your phone is still listening for cell towers, but just not responding. But I think this info is limited to the OS, and can't be used by apps.

Re: New iOS privacy feature may end an era of personalized ads

#86

Post by AlexTrask »

jyriand wrote: post #39
walrus01 wrote: post #7

I've been using the full desktop version of the ublock origin plugin on firefox mobile for quite some time, and it's dramatically improved my mobile experience.

This plugin works only in android, right? Tried to install it on my iPhone but it said it’s not compatible with my browser although i have Firefox installed.

If you are interested in improve privacity on iPhone and user Firefox you can user Firefox focus but i will seed ads

Re: New iOS privacy feature may end an era of personalized ads

#87

Post by harpratap »

fwn wrote: post #77
harpratap wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What will really happen is ads get more sinister and hidden. Product placements in movies will seem childish in comparison. Astro-turfing is already huge on Reddit, it will spread to all parts of media now, blurring the lines between genuine opinions and forced narrative. Ads, marketing and branding are integral part of capitalism, it's never going to go away from consumption focused societies.

I don't think that there is currently any evidence that adding consent to ad tracking will have a significant impact on "sinister and hidden" advertisement. ..and it does not seem intuitive to me either, as it's a completely new set of companies launching those dubious ad formats and strategies. It's not likely that Google will start crafting a hard to scale astro turfing API or something, just because their ad netwo…

> and it does not seem intuitive to me either, as it's a completely new set of companies launching those dubious ad formats and strategies

No it's really not. You can see it happening all the time on celebrity and "influencer" Twitter/Instagram/Tiktok. Most are pretty obvious, some are honest and use disclaimers that it's a paid ad but majority are just ads inside regular content without any disclaimers and such.

Re: New iOS privacy feature may end an era of personalized ads

#88

Post by mvanbaak »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #69
mvanbaak wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They do not care about >80 % world popln? They too need smartphones. nobody needs a smartphone. It's a gadget.

You seem to be implying it's a frivolous luxury that delivers little real value. That's not the case. Much has been written on telephony in the developing world.

Telephony can be handled by dumb phones

Re: New iOS privacy feature may end an era of personalized ads

#89

Post by b112 »

raxxorrax wrote: post #81
Yetanfou wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way is open source Android a lie? I never used any other version, I do not have a Google account, nor do I have any Google-proprietary software on my devices yet they still run all software - including the Swedish "BankID" electronic ID app which is needed for just about any interaction with anything official nowadays. That "BankID" is, together with Firefox Preview, the only software which I got from the pla…

True, Android itself doesn't have to be horrible, but most distributions are full of adware. Wouldn't want to minimize the work going into the core of the OS, I meant the critique to be directed against Android + gapps. I love Lineage, but you are dependent on other maintainers for your device or you have serious work ahead of you. It is quite simple to install for experienced users, but way too complicated for most…

How about the elephant in the room?

Radio firmwares.

It is meaningless if you install firewalls, if you compile android on your own, only to have to turn around and use proprietary, closed source libs to access proprotary, closed source radio firmwares.

Radio firmwares which often have full RAM access, parallel CPU control, GPS and full hardware access, and make intel's management engine, and closed source bioses look sane in comparison.

On my samsung phone, I often wonder what the radio firmware might be phoning home about.

And how that may be exploited down the road...

Re: New iOS privacy feature may end an era of personalized ads

#90

Post by MaxBarraclough »

mvanbaak wrote: post #88
MaxBarraclough wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be implying it's a frivolous luxury that delivers little real value. That's not the case. Much has been written on telephony in the developing world.

Telephony can be handled by dumb phones

A smartphone is far more capable than a 'dumb' mobile phone, especially to someone who doesn't own any other computer.
Post reply on HN