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Keeping your data from Apple is harder than expected

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Re: Keeping your data from Apple is harder than expected

#101

Post by lrvick »

jzzskijj wrote: post #72
lrvick wrote: post #50

I remain shocked anyone trusts Meta, Google, or Apple marketing on privacy. These companies are all fundamentally similar in that their proprietary software collects an insane amount of data that will end up in the hands of your enemies either by sale, court order, or security compromise. It is relatively easy to opt out of all of these companies and take some actual control over your privacy.

What is the easiest way to get comparable smartphone experience with some actual control over your privacy?

There is no comparable option.

I have not carried a phone in 3+ years. In spite of what some would have you believe, it is actually relatively easy to live an active and socially engaged life in the modern world without a phone.

Major mental health wins from being offline when you are away from your desk too.

Re: Keeping your data from Apple is harder than expected

#102

Post by ByQuyzzy »

rcarmo wrote: post #76

For privacy-conscious people, the authors certainly picked an outlet with plenty of cookies and trackers - this is what the popup shows me when I pick "customise": 17 necessary cookies 7 functional 34 statistics 49 marketing 10 unclassified This kind of thing makes the article seem... ridiculous, really. Their site is much worse at privacy than Apple.

Heh, don't like some aspect of society, kiddo? Well you have no right to criticize it - you're IN a society!

Re: Keeping your data from Apple is harder than expected

#103

Post by Clubber »

zakki wrote: post #24
walterbell wrote: post #9

Apple should provide an option to opt-out of Siri "learn from app" for ALL applications. At present, this must be done individually for every app, https://www.imore.com/how-stop-siri-learning-how-you-use-app... . When you later install new apps after setting up the device, you have to remember to go into Settings and opt-out again, for every app, forever. How many people know that iOS devices will default to Siri rea…

The best solution is to set this as opt-in instead.

I haven't setup an iPhone in a while, but last time I setup a Mac, it asked me to configure Siri or Skip/Later, etc. That's opt in to me.

Re: Keeping your data from Apple is harder than expected

#104

Post by maxwellito »

rcarmo wrote: post #76

For privacy-conscious people, the authors certainly picked an outlet with plenty of cookies and trackers - this is what the popup shows me when I pick "customise": 17 necessary cookies 7 functional 34 statistics 49 marketing 10 unclassified This kind of thing makes the article seem... ridiculous, really. Their site is much worse at privacy than Apple.

At least they have a "Reject all" button, easy to access (it should be the norm). Not some dodgy dark pattern that takes a good minute to find.

Re: Keeping your data from Apple is harder than expected

#105

Post by Terretta »

jocaal wrote: post #38
threeseed wrote: post #8

[flagged]

Information doesn't have to be explicitly linked to a person in order to identify them. Search browser fingerprinting as an example. The best policy is really to not collect this information.

> The best policy is really to not collect this information.

Quoting from the flowchart:

"Touch ID or FacelD are stored locally and cannot be accessed by the operating system or applications."

Called out as if it's a bad thing??? It's a really weird flow chart.

Meanwhile, Apple did more work on differential privacy than anyone, famously sandbagging their Maps directions / routing by refusing to collect your route A to B, instead segmenting the trips and disassociating them.*

Across the board, they create incredible hurdles for themselves at great expense.

One wonders why, when Apple have to compete head to head with firms that do not sandbag themselves.

Perhaps it's because Apple has to get most of its revenue from device sales and user subscriptions, while the others get almost all of their revenue from turning user data into ads, so they actually are fundamentally different in mindsets?

* https://www.idownloadblog.com/2019/03/13/apple-maps-navigati...

Re: Keeping your data from Apple is harder than expected

#106

Post by folmar »

geokon wrote: post #92
poochkoishi728 wrote: post #52

Always wanted the option to disable network access for an app. The lack of this made me suspect that Apple had too much to lose (in harvesting data) to allow this.

Android has this in the app manifest, but of course Google doesn't expose this to users Are they're any ROMs that do?

On Android it is typically done with a firewall app, like AFWall+

Re: Keeping your data from Apple is harder than expected

#107

Post by [deleted] »

lrvick wrote: post #93
madeofpalk wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if this is your threat model - that you have no trust of the operating system or the vendor - then all of this is pointless because at any time they can just backdoor themselves. Apple could just never ask or collect this, but still they're one update away from starting to collect it. Of course that's always a threat with any computer, but you must place some amount of trust somewhere .

If Apple did not collect the data today, then a court order in the future will not allow them to collect data that was not stored today. Personally I only use reproducibly built FOSS software and I isolate most of my hardware and workloads from each other with virtual machines via QubesOS. Proprietary software is not at all required to be well integrated into modern society.

[deleted]

Re: Keeping your data from Apple is harder than expected

#108

Post by lrvick »

Terretta wrote: post #100
lrvick wrote: post #50

I remain shocked anyone trusts Meta, Google, or Apple marketing on privacy. These companies are all fundamentally similar in that their proprietary software collects an insane amount of data that will end up in the hands of your enemies either by sale, court order, or security compromise. It is relatively easy to opt out of all of these companies and take some actual control over your privacy.

They are fundamentally different in that two of them derive revenue solely* from exploiting your data, and one of them doesn't. * by-and-large

They became as successful as they are by collecting massive amounts of data to learn to effectively psychologically manipulate people into buying their products, convincing them they are the most secure, fastest, most private option that will make people like them more for using.

Apple is above all else a data driven marketing and advertising firm just like Google and Meta. They are profitable because they are effective at using data to change user purchasing behavior.

Re: Keeping your data from Apple is harder than expected

#109

Post by matheusmoreira »

threeseed wrote: post #13
walterbell wrote: post #9

Apple should provide an option to opt-out of Siri "learn from app" for ALL applications. At present, this must be done individually for every app, https://www.imore.com/how-stop-siri-learning-how-you-use-app... . When you later install new apps after setting up the device, you have to remember to go into Settings and opt-out again, for every app, forever. How many people know that iOS devices will default to Siri rea…

[flagged]

> that personalised information never leaves your device

Doubt. Show me the source code and prove to me that the binaries currently executing were derived from it. Then I might believe such a claim.

Re: Keeping your data from Apple is harder than expected

#110

Post by cout »

dagaci wrote: post #98
rcarmo wrote: post #76

For privacy-conscious people, the authors certainly picked an outlet with plenty of cookies and trackers - this is what the popup shows me when I pick "customise": 17 necessary cookies 7 functional 34 statistics 49 marketing 10 unclassified This kind of thing makes the article seem... ridiculous, really. Their site is much worse at privacy than Apple.

The point is that there are so many commentators who assert that Apple is great on privacy issues, so that many people (including me) automatically believed that buying (expensive) Apple products will automatically lead to improved privacy vs other vendors. This post is calling that BS. Attacking the article/website for have cookies, is a distraction from the actual point. And anyway if you want to see tracking cooki…

I am as concerned about security as I am about privacy, and Apple has the best track record for long-lived devices that are still receiving security updates.

As for privacy I don't know any major vendor that is privacy-focused. Not only is it a hard technical problem to solve, it's also leaving money on the table. I don't see things changing any time soon.

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