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iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

gizmodo.com

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Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#31

Post by scarface_74 »

thebestmoshe wrote: post #22
piva00 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconding that I'd love this. At the same time, has App Store's guidelines/rules changed to allow spammy ads notifications? It used to be 100% disallowed and I worked for a company that got an app denied because of it until changed, nowadays it seems to just be completely common. I fucking hate it.

This guideline has been revised in 2020. > Apple updated its App Store guidelines today with a change to its traditionally strict restrictions around push notifications. Apple has long banned apps from using notifications for “advertising, promotions, or direct marketing purposes,” but that changes today. Apps can now send marketing notifications when “customers have explicitly opted in to receive them.” Users must a…

And yet, I’m constantly getting advertisements from Uber and Instacart

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#32

Post by ta988 »

drewg123 wrote: post #7

How much information do app devs get when customers disable app notifications from their app entirely? Some apps (especially food delivery.. doordash, i'm looking at you) have such spammy notifications, I tend to disable notifications from the app entirely unless I'm actively using it (eg, an order is pending).

Door dash is breaking their website on purpose (pretty clear how they force hiding things when they detect them) for it to not work properly in phone browsers. This should be illegal.

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#33

Post by saintfire »

wackget wrote: post #13

How much data is Gizmodo harvesting from you when you read this article? uBlock Origin shows 16 domains connected; most of them loading JavaScript. The real number is probably far higher when no ad-blocker is used.

This is how I feel every time I see any mainstream news outlet copy-pasting any privacy related piece.

All the outrage companies and people have is posturing in almost every case, in my opinion.

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#34

Post by gumby »

drewg123 wrote: post #7

How much information do app devs get when customers disable app notifications from their app entirely? Some apps (especially food delivery.. doordash, i'm looking at you) have such spammy notifications, I tend to disable notifications from the app entirely unless I'm actively using it (eg, an order is pending).

You can do this with a custom "focus" which allows you to block notifications from specific apps (or make an allow list which is probably not what you want). Then you use that focus by default most of the time.

Unfortunately I don't know how to do the same with notifications that are sent via SMS.

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#35

Post by cqqxo4zV46cp »

wackget wrote: post #13

How much data is Gizmodo harvesting from you when you read this article? uBlock Origin shows 16 domains connected; most of them loading JavaScript. The real number is probably far higher when no ad-blocker is used.

And you’re on a VC company’s advertising “social network”. Whataboutism does nobody any good.

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#36

Post by scarface_74 »

vdaea wrote: post #4

The article is absolutely all over the place. The gist of it is that apps are allowed to run a bit of code when they receive a notification and they can use that bit of code to send some telemetry back to the mothership.

And the craziest part is

> What many people don’t realize is that targeted advertising and other invasions of digital privacy are all about figuring out your identity.

And then they interviewed Facebook and LinkedIn. They already know who you are. Facebook knows a lot more about you because of what people voluntarily tell them about your personal life and LinkedIn already knows everything about your professional life.

As often as people tag exactly where they are real time in posts, it seems unnecessary to gather more information via IP addresses.

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#37

Post by cqqxo4zV46cp »

ta988 wrote: post #32
drewg123 wrote: post #7

How much information do app devs get when customers disable app notifications from their app entirely? Some apps (especially food delivery.. doordash, i'm looking at you) have such spammy notifications, I tend to disable notifications from the app entirely unless I'm actively using it (eg, an order is pending).

Door dash is breaking their website on purpose (pretty clear how they force hiding things when they detect them) for it to not work properly in phone browsers. This should be illegal.

That would be absurd to legislate.

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#38

Post by edgyquant »

cqqxo4zV46cp wrote: post #35
wackget wrote: post #13

How much data is Gizmodo harvesting from you when you read this article? uBlock Origin shows 16 domains connected; most of them loading JavaScript. The real number is probably far higher when no ad-blocker is used.

And you’re on a VC company’s advertising “social network”. Whataboutism does nobody any good.

HN is not a social network

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#39

Post by lxgr »

wackget wrote: post #13

How much data is Gizmodo harvesting from you when you read this article? uBlock Origin shows 16 domains connected; most of them loading JavaScript. The real number is probably far higher when no ad-blocker is used.

I’m not usually reading a Gizmodo article with my screen locked and my phone in my pocket as I walk around the city, with the article able to determine (at a minimum) my IP address, which can tell them whether I’m at home, work, the mall, or the doctor etc.

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#40

Post by cqqxo4zV46cp »

yreg wrote: post #20
piva00 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconding that I'd love this. At the same time, has App Store's guidelines/rules changed to allow spammy ads notifications? It used to be 100% disallowed and I worked for a company that got an app denied because of it until changed, nowadays it seems to just be completely common. I fucking hate it.

Yeah, Apple should properly write/enforce App Store rules on this. Make marketing notification a separate permission if necessary and be strict about it. After all, topics like this are why we succumb to their curation and App Store monopoly instead of using more open devices.

Apple with its current incentives will never do this. I’m sure they know quite well which % of their services revenue comes from enticing push notifications from casino games.

But with all that said, don’t kid yourself with any thoughts that the “we” in your sentence refers to anything more than a practically immaterially small contingent of nerds. Poll 100 people off the street and for the vast majority of them, a more “open” mobile platform is—at best—some nebulous advantage of owning an Android phone that some dweeby family member ranted to them about. In reality, they are reality not directly making use of any of that “openness”, instead just using a worse, malware-infested iPhone alternative.

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