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

Loupe – A iOS app that raises awareness about what native apps can see

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 263 posts

Re: Loupe – A iOS app that raises awareness about what native apps can see

#71

Post by echoangle »

nomilk wrote: post #60

Why does a random app (with no special permissions given to it) get access to so much info, and why doesn't Apple tell users this (important) info? Why can't Apple make a long list of check boxes so users can dis/allow on a per-category and per-app basis? E.g. I had no idea a random app you install (and give no permissions to) instantly has a list of every app installed on the device (e.g. can infer whether you're da…

And how would the is-my-partner-cheating get their app onto the victims device to detect the other apps?

Re: Loupe – A iOS app that raises awareness about what native apps can see

#72

Post by echoangle »

xenator wrote: post #22
RedComet wrote: post #18

Volume creation date is pretty egregious. I don't see any reason that and Pasteboard changeCount should be so granular. The "Installed Apps Probe" leak also surprised me. It is better than the current state of Android, though.

Pasteboard counter exists to help apps to not ask again about the same item in the buffer. And nothing stops from using reset it every day.

Why do you need a count for that? Couldn’t they just generate a UUID every time the clipboard changes?

Re: Loupe – A iOS app that raises awareness about what native apps can see

#73

Post by echoangle »

RedComet wrote: post #38
xenator wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pasteboard counter exists to help apps to not ask again about the same item in the buffer. And nothing stops from using reset it every day.

I think something like a per boot delta added to a (per app?) random base would preserve such functionality.

Just generate a new random value instead of incrementing

Re: Loupe – A iOS app that raises awareness about what native apps can see

#74

Post by nomilk »

echoangle wrote: post #71
nomilk wrote: post #60

Why does a random app (with no special permissions given to it) get access to so much info, and why doesn't Apple tell users this (important) info? Why can't Apple make a long list of check boxes so users can dis/allow on a per-category and per-app basis? E.g. I had no idea a random app you install (and give no permissions to) instantly has a list of every app installed on the device (e.g. can infer whether you're da…

And how would the is-my-partner-cheating get their app onto the victims device to detect the other apps?

They don't, utilise the fact that every single iPhone app has access to what other apps are installed! - purchase that info from literally any iPhone app or aggregator that has it for that user. Curious how much this would cost to purhcase - a working credit card goes for $5-10 on the black market so 'apps installed on X's iphone' might be, like, 10c?

Re: Loupe – A iOS app that raises awareness about what native apps can see

#75

Post by RedComet »

echoangle wrote: post #73
RedComet wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think something like a per boot delta added to a (per app?) random base would preserve such functionality.

Just generate a new random value instead of incrementing

Even that is overkill if all you're interested in is if a change occured.

Re: Loupe – A iOS app that raises awareness about what native apps can see

#76

Post by wiseowise »

nomilk wrote: post #60

Why does a random app (with no special permissions given to it) get access to so much info, and why doesn't Apple tell users this (important) info? Why can't Apple make a long list of check boxes so users can dis/allow on a per-category and per-app basis? E.g. I had no idea a random app you install (and give no permissions to) instantly has a list of every app installed on the device (e.g. can infer whether you're da…

[flagged]

Re: Loupe – A iOS app that raises awareness about what native apps can see

#77

Post by gyomu »

throwaway27448 wrote: post #62

I don't understand why internet access isn't opt-in for apps. Preventing exfiltration would prevent much of this harm, and most apps don't have any need to access the internet in the first place. Why am I creating a GE account to read my blood pressure? At least I know it's taking advantage of me. But this is clearly abusive behavior

Better yet, a tool like Little Snitch should be built into the OS. Give me a detailed log of every network requests, to which domains, with what data.

Re: Loupe – A iOS app that raises awareness about what native apps can see

#78

Post by echoangle »

nomilk wrote: post #74
echoangle wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how would the is-my-partner-cheating get their app onto the victims device to detect the other apps?

They don't, utilise the fact that every single iPhone app has access to what other apps are installed! - purchase that info from literally any iPhone app or aggregator that has it for that user. Curious how much this would cost to purhcase - a working credit card goes for $5-10 on the black market so 'apps installed on X's iphone' might be, like, 10c?

Which even halfway credible app developer would sell you that info? You know that’s illegal right? You might get some stupid indie developer to do this but no chance for anything even half big.

But if you can get actually get this data, maybe try to do this on yourself and write a blogpost about it. I highly doubt you’ll be able to.

Re: Loupe – A iOS app that raises awareness about what native apps can see

#79

Post by backscratches »

hellcow wrote: post #63
throwaway27448 wrote: post #62

I don't understand why internet access isn't opt-in for apps. Preventing exfiltration would prevent much of this harm, and most apps don't have any need to access the internet in the first place. Why am I creating a GE account to read my blood pressure? At least I know it's taking advantage of me. But this is clearly abusive behavior

GrapheneOS lets you restrict the internet access of any app on install. But yes, agreed it should be everywhere.

And you can limit which contacts you share with nosy app like WhatsApp, and give access to only specific scope of file folders. Horrifying to think all the years every app got everything it wanted and did not have to ask and couldn't be stopped (I had a rooted phone for firewall capability for a while )

Re: Loupe – A iOS app that raises awareness about what native apps can see

#80

Post by nomilk »

wiseowise wrote: post #76
nomilk wrote: post #60

Why does a random app (with no special permissions given to it) get access to so much info, and why doesn't Apple tell users this (important) info? Why can't Apple make a long list of check boxes so users can dis/allow on a per-category and per-app basis? E.g. I had no idea a random app you install (and give no permissions to) instantly has a list of every app installed on the device (e.g. can infer whether you're da…

[flagged]

Loupe itself can see if you have tinder/bumble/hinge installed (verify for yourself: install tinder, then install loupe, don't give it any permissions, and it can tell if you have tinder installed or not). So the answer is: buy the data from any app your partner has installed! Or more easily, a data aggregator which will have already combined data from hundreds/thousands of apps.

So your partner only needs to have had 1 single app from the list that sells user data to a data aggregator for this to work. They do not need to have installed some special app.

Here's a random Slate article about apps getting your data and selling it to aggregators/brokers, who sell it to third-parties (you, or I, could be one of those third parties).

> How Shady Companies Guess Your Religion, Sexual Orientation, and Mental Health And sell that data to the highest bidder.

https://slate.com/technology/2023/04/data-broker-inference-p...

Post reply on HN