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Are iPhones Better for Privacy? Comparative Study of iOS and Android Apps

arxiv.org

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Re: Are iPhones Better for Privacy? Comparative Study of iOS and Android Apps

#41

Post by wtallis »

spansoa wrote: post #21

One thing you have to consider when debating i0S versus Android in the context of privacy is: you can have the best of both worlds and own an Android phone and an i0S device (if you can afford that, and I'm aware many citizens in third world countries don't have the luxury of owning two phones). It's like the old Chrome versus Firefox debates that happen every other month now on Hackernews & Reddit. I own a Chromeboo…

> i0S

Slightly OT, but: is there a reason why you're spelling that with a numeral zero?

Re: Are iPhones Better for Privacy? Comparative Study of iOS and Android Apps

#43

Post by zsmi »

spansoa wrote: post #21

One thing you have to consider when debating i0S versus Android in the context of privacy is: you can have the best of both worlds and own an Android phone and an i0S device (if you can afford that, and I'm aware many citizens in third world countries don't have the luxury of owning two phones). It's like the old Chrome versus Firefox debates that happen every other month now on Hackernews & Reddit. I own a Chromeboo…

"First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?" - S.R. Hadden, Contact

https://www.quotes.net/mquote/20237

Re: Are iPhones Better for Privacy? Comparative Study of iOS and Android Apps

#44

Post by imchillyb »

Look how we selectively choose information and how that is bad for consumers!

iOS 14 released anti-tracking features in April of 2021. This article is released at the end of september, almost october, of 2021.

Yet, the authors choose to specifically use a version of iOS that was prior to these changes.

This is proof enough for me that the authors purposely skewed the data. This skewed data does not reflect reality, and so the data from this study is not data.

I hope the rest of this community is savvy enough to realize this article is attempting to dupe the readers into a false conclusion.

Re: Are iPhones Better for Privacy? Comparative Study of iOS and Android Apps

#45

Post by aomobile »

Jeaye wrote: post #29

It's tough to diff the privacy between Android and iOS, as an OS. However, as an app ecosystem, it's not tough at all. For example, there is not a single open source email app on iOS which supports GPG email. In the iOS app ecosystem, privacy and FLOSS is an afterthought, since iOS users are more likely to pay for proprietary software. On Android, there are a lot more options, including things like F-Droid which are…

Feels safer though to pay than to get something for free.

Re: Are iPhones Better for Privacy? Comparative Study of iOS and Android Apps

#46

Post by PaulBGD_ »

Jeaye wrote: post #29

It's tough to diff the privacy between Android and iOS, as an OS. However, as an app ecosystem, it's not tough at all. For example, there is not a single open source email app on iOS which supports GPG email. In the iOS app ecosystem, privacy and FLOSS is an afterthought, since iOS users are more likely to pay for proprietary software. On Android, there are a lot more options, including things like F-Droid which are…

While it would be nice to be able to ensure that the source is what's exactly on the app store, protonmail does have their iOS app open sourced. Not quite the same as a generic email client, but is probably the next closest thing.

Re: Are iPhones Better for Privacy? Comparative Study of iOS and Android Apps

#47

Post by simion314 »

imchillyb wrote: post #44

Look how we selectively choose information and how that is bad for consumers! iOS 14 released anti-tracking features in April of 2021. This article is released at the end of september, almost october, of 2021. Yet, the authors choose to specifically use a version of iOS that was prior to these changes. This is proof enough for me that the authors purposely skewed the data. This skewed data does not reflect reality, a…

Or maybe the date of the publication does not imply that the data and the work was done exactly in the week before, sometimes a study might take more work then a blog post.

Re: Are iPhones Better for Privacy? Comparative Study of iOS and Android Apps

#48

Post by judge2020 »

Jeaye wrote: post #29

It's tough to diff the privacy between Android and iOS, as an OS. However, as an app ecosystem, it's not tough at all. For example, there is not a single open source email app on iOS which supports GPG email. In the iOS app ecosystem, privacy and FLOSS is an afterthought, since iOS users are more likely to pay for proprietary software. On Android, there are a lot more options, including things like F-Droid which are…

If you're talking just about FOSS software availability, sure, but that's not grading the privacy of the app ecosystem nor does it grade the privacy posture of a typical user/the userbase on average.

Re: Are iPhones Better for Privacy? Comparative Study of iOS and Android Apps

#49

Post by jjj123 »

mcguire wrote: post #32
spansoa wrote: post #21

One thing you have to consider when debating i0S versus Android in the context of privacy is: you can have the best of both worlds and own an Android phone and an i0S device (if you can afford that, and I'm aware many citizens in third world countries don't have the luxury of owning two phones). It's like the old Chrome versus Firefox debates that happen every other month now on Hackernews & Reddit. I own a Chromeboo…

How would that not give you the worst of both worlds? You would be tracked by the weakest aspect of both devices.

I don’t do this and it seems like a hassle but it is an interesting question: would this be more or less private than a single device?

One thing I can think of is most tracking algorithms probably assume each user has a single cell phone (either explicitly or the ML data is biased in that direction). So splitting your time across two devices probably messes with whatever user-behavior buckets they place you in. They might think you’re two people in the same household, for example.

Re: Are iPhones Better for Privacy? Comparative Study of iOS and Android Apps

#50

Post by acdha »

dartharva wrote: post #8

>In this paper, we present a study of 24k Android and iOS apps from 2020 along several dimensions relating to user privacy. >We find that third-party tracking and the sharing of unique user identifiers was widespread in apps from both ecosystems, even in apps aimed at children. In the children's category, iOS apps used much fewer advertising-related tracking than their Android counterparts, but could more often acces…

This is like saying the solution to widespread obesity is to tell people to eat better. Kids use phones / tablets for many reasons and most of them are real (e.g. keep in touch with parents, travel using services like Uber, communications and other school apps, etc.) — the platform needs to protect people because it’s unrealistic to expect individual choices to hold up against massive industry.
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