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

Apple Turns on iPhone Tracking in iOS6

schneier.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 58 posts

Re: Apple Turns on iPhone Tracking in iOS6

#21

Post by astral303 »

betageek wrote: post #18

Just to be clear, Apple used to allow the use of the UDID for tacking which was directly tied to your device and non-deletable. They now use an anonymous, temporary, random ID that can be turned off. How is this not an improvement?

I can't seem to find Apple's official wording on it within a few minutes, and I don't trust the shit writing of tech blogs online, but some have written that with the new IFA ad networks "can now see if you actually purchased anything, or downloaded an app."

Somehow, all mentions of this on tech blogs that I could find are completely devoid of links to Apple's official documentation on this.

Re: Apple Turns on iPhone Tracking in iOS6

#22

Post by untog »

wmf wrote: post #20
betageek wrote: post #18

Just to be clear, Apple used to allow the use of the UDID for tacking which was directly tied to your device and non-deletable. They now use an anonymous, temporary, random ID that can be turned off. How is this not an improvement?

Wasn't there a period of time where UDID tracking was banned and the IFA had not yet been introduced? Some people were probably hoping that situation was permanent.

The UDID was deprecated, but not actually banned, I believe. So, part of the transition process to using the IFA.

Re: Apple Turns on iPhone Tracking in iOS6

#23

Post by greggman »

flxmglrb wrote: post #19

From the bottom of the article: > EDITED TO ADD (10/15): Apple has provided a way to opt out of the targeted ads and also to disable the location information being sent. Ok, why is that "edited to add"? Seriously. The page he links to on apple.com says it was last modified more than a month prior. Why did Schneier post his article, get some hits, and only then add this little tidbit which basically turns the whole th…

The story is "you are being tracked". That there is a way to opt out is great but it's still important, as in best to have a sensational headline so people read it and are informed

Re: Apple Turns on iPhone Tracking in iOS6

#24

Post by detaer »

flxmglrb wrote: post #19

From the bottom of the article: > EDITED TO ADD (10/15): Apple has provided a way to opt out of the targeted ads and also to disable the location information being sent. Ok, why is that "edited to add"? Seriously. The page he links to on apple.com says it was last modified more than a month prior. Why did Schneier post his article, get some hits, and only then add this little tidbit which basically turns the whole th…

This just in - American slaves mistreated.

*EDIT: Slavery has been illegal for a while. My bad.

Re: Apple Turns on iPhone Tracking in iOS6

#25

Post by delinka »

flxmglrb wrote: post #19

From the bottom of the article: > EDITED TO ADD (10/15): Apple has provided a way to opt out of the targeted ads and also to disable the location information being sent. Ok, why is that "edited to add"? Seriously. The page he links to on apple.com says it was last modified more than a month prior. Why did Schneier post his article, get some hits, and only then add this little tidbit which basically turns the whole th…

Schneier does this often enough that I kind of expect it. He's not a journalist- that's not an excuse for him to lack research before writing, but it does mean I take a different quantity/flavor of salt with his writings.

When it comes to general advice, he's spot on. When it comes to commenting on actual implementations, he does miss details. Hell, it's not like he's Chuck Norris.

Re: Apple Turns on iPhone Tracking in iOS6

#27

Post by wmf »

scubaguy wrote: post #26

From Apple's press release http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/04/27Apple-Q-A-on-Locat... 1. Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone? Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.

Scheier's not talking about location.

Re: Apple Turns on iPhone Tracking in iOS6

#28

Post by moron »

flxmglrb wrote: post #19

From the bottom of the article: > EDITED TO ADD (10/15): Apple has provided a way to opt out of the targeted ads and also to disable the location information being sent. Ok, why is that "edited to add"? Seriously. The page he links to on apple.com says it was last modified more than a month prior. Why did Schneier post his article, get some hits, and only then add this little tidbit which basically turns the whole th…

Because laziness (intellectual, and otherwise). And because Apple Is Evil is the narrative.

Re: Apple Turns on iPhone Tracking in iOS6

#29

Post by ralfd »

4 weeks ago:

> "Apple adds new "Limit Ad Tracking" feature to iOS 6"

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4545602

3 weeks ago:

> "Google implements Apple's Ad Identifier for mobile tracking choice"

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4581781

Both hacker news submissions have zero comments. Why is it that a month ago no one cared, but now everyone is grabbing his tin-foil hat?

Also I am pretty sure at least some of the more extensive iOS 6 reviews have mentioned the new "limit Ad tracking" feature. And aren't we presumed to be developers who uses this stuff? I did know that Apple had a replacement for the UDID.

PS: On Schneiers blog one commentator claims that he/she was notified of the Ad tracking by a prompt in the iOS update. Sadly I have no updateable iOS 5 device here to examine that. But I think this was only an info for the new privacy pane, wasn't it?

Re: Apple Turns on iPhone Tracking in iOS6

#30

Post by ljoshua »

It's always a quandary--I will most likely be seeing ads, so would I rather that they are targeted to me and possibly even helpful, or do I want to tighten down as much as possible all possible data dumps of me?

I'm still trying to figure out when I want to turn off these sorts of things, versus when I'd rather keep them on.

Post reply on HN