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

Post by solarkraft » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 9:04 AM UTC

aggregator-ios wrote: post #68

One correction to some comments here: an iOS app cannot list all apps that are installed. You can only check for specific apps/schemes (LSApplicationQueriesSchemes) by specifying apps you are looking to query for installation status or open. You cannot provide a large list of unrelated applications since Apple rejects that during app review. Apple added these restrictions because installed app lists can be used for f…

Post by solarkraft » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 9:13 AM UTC

echoangle wrote: post #78

nomilk wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Post by deanishe » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 9:13 AM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #94

hellcow wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

See my comment upthread, it helps a bit, but does not close this hole since apps within the same profile can communicate through IPC, so other apps could provide network access on their behalf. I think the best example is probably Play Services, which provides functionality for a lot of apps and will communicate with Google, etc. (Yes, you can disable network access to Play Services, but it sometimes breaks things an…

Post by deanishe » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 9:23 AM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #55

camkego wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. This is why everyone who wants to fingerprint and collect tons of data on end users pushes them hard on installing an app. The amount of valuable data is 10x what’s available in the browser

And it is not just the fingerprinting, it is also that a good number of people will install an ad/tracker blocker in their browser, but almost nobody knows or cares about the multiple trackers that most apps have. To make it worse, Apple's naming undermines consciousness about this issue, since they have an option to block cross-app/site tracking (which IIRC blocks access to the advertising identifier), but called it…

Post by microtonal » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 9:39 AM UTC

deanishe wrote: post #105

microtonal wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See my comment upthread, it helps a bit, but does not close this hole since apps within the same profile can communicate through IPC, so other apps could provide network access on their behalf. I think the best example is probably Play Services, which provides functionality for a lot of apps and will communicate with Google, etc. (Yes, you can disable network access to Play Services, but it sometimes breaks things an…

I'm not an Android user. What's a profile? Is that a user thing or a developer thing?