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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

#61

Post by Yhippa »

bushbaba wrote: post #18

Ssh stop telling the world about the adtech data collection tricks. In all honesty this is just one of the many ways companies feed the ads monster. coal is to steam train as user data to adtech.

Maybe you might know. I assume most webpages and native apps are harvesting all data available that they can get their hands on that the users/OS will let them take and then selling that off to the highest bidder. Including information that is completely unrelated to the operation of the application.

Seems like you can make correlations with almost any type of data these days so I imagine even things that seem useless to capture could be valuable in the future.

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

#62

Post by drewg123 »

MaxikCZ wrote: post #21
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.

Whats the problem of simply uninstalling the app once it does that?

I used to uninstall food delivery apps when not using them, but found that just killing their ability to notify me was equally effective without the hassle of re-signing in every time I needed to use them.

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

#63

Post by basch »

piva00 wrote: post #16
function_seven wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My feature request for iOS: Allow me to disable notifications from an app unless I have opened it within the last X hours. I’d set it to a couple hours. My food apps could then tell me the order is ready, but can’t spam me with “Special Offers For You” days later. Maybe I can do this with an automation?

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.

I just got an AD (one with four proper nouns I didn't recognize, an offer to win a $15 reward, and free movies for a year, all in one sentence!) as a notification from Sports Engine, the app (owned by NBC!) you use to check your kids sports schedule. This is an app the association pays to use.

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

#64

Post by basch »

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…

Did they change it back? Reading the guidelines themselves...

2.5.16 Widgets, extensions, and notifications should be related to the content and functionality of your app.

2.5.18 Display advertising should be limited to your main app binary, and should not be included in extensions, App Clips, widgets, notifications, keyboards, watchOS apps, etc.

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

#65

Post by basch »

cqqxo4zV46cp wrote: post #40
yreg wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 m…

An ad for the product itself is very different than an app sending a third party app as a notification. They absolutely need to enforce the latter as not ok.

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

#66

Post by yreg »

cqqxo4zV46cp wrote: post #40
yreg wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 m…

Making marketing notifications a separate permission doesn't really nerf the casino games much.

And I believe the "we" refers to far more people than you describe. It's ultimately a question of UX.

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

#67

Post by Tepix »

piva00 wrote: post #16
function_seven wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My feature request for iOS: Allow me to disable notifications from an app unless I have opened it within the last X hours. I’d set it to a couple hours. My food apps could then tell me the order is ready, but can’t spam me with “Special Offers For You” days later. Maybe I can do this with an automation?

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.

I think there should be a spam complaint button for notifications. I used to have the "KaufDa" app on my smartphone but they would send me spam notifications in addition the useful ones and when contacting support they would feign ignorance.

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

#68

Post by pimlottc »

gumby wrote: post #34
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.

You could invert it and make a focus for “I’m expecting a delivery soon”, with a whitelist of delivery/service apps. And with Shortcuts, you could create a script to turn it off after a set amount of time.

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

#69

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

"This isn't the first time Mysk's tests have uncovered data problems at Apple, which has spent untold millions convincing the world that "what happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone.""

The safest "app store" would be one where all "apps" must be open sourced so that, optionally, if a customer dislikes a certain "feature" or other behaviour of the software, she can remove it from the source and compile her own version. Additonally, the customer could add "missing features". As it stands owners of Apple computers have no control over anything really . They delegate all of it to Apple. That is why every thread about these issues includes futile pleas to Apple. (That will go unaswered.) There is no DIY. That would be "unsafe" according to Apple's media spin. Perhaps the closest we have to an "open" app store is f-droid.org.

https://world.hey.com/dhh/apple-s-new-extortion-regime-to-ke...

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

#70

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

cqqxo4zV46cp wrote: post #47
A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this is not how the comment is originally intended, but I am slowly starting to throw in the towel with regards to trying to convincing others. Best I can do is my immediate family. I don't even dream about my social circles anymore. I just want a relatively safe digital space for my family.

Okay. This is very realistically your hobby horse, and you aren’t respecting that people might want a relationship with you without you lecturing them about this thing that you just care a lot more about than they do. I don’t think that people should be lining up to show sympathy in this scenario.

I am not looking for sympathy. Everyone is advocating for their favored position all the time. X good. Y is bad. We should do Z. We shouldn't do W. Why is my position so much different than everyone else's?

The question is whether I am able to convince anyone, but that is a separate part. I assume since you used word 'lecture', you are not convinced it is an issue worth discussing among your family, friends and peers?

edit: I thought a little more about what you wrote in:

'people might want a relationship with you without you lecturing them'

I am starting to wonder. Should humans have EULAs?

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