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Apple cracking down on applications that send location data to third-parties

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Re: Apple cracking down on applications that send location data to third-parties

#11

Post by Someone1234 »

parthdesai wrote: post #6
maire wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple always took location privacy seriously. I remember an interview between Steve Jobs and Walt Mossberg years ago on this subject. I looked it up again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39iKLwlUqBo

Explain China then. Apple is being hypocritical in this case. Giving in to the demands of government when it hurts their business ( if it did take privacy as seriously as HN makes it out to be, they would take a stand in China) while advocating privacy in Western world.

Explain what with China?

Apple are legally required to follow the law of countries they do business in. In China the law requires that the government, not third party apps, gains access to additional information. Apple can limit third party app privacy violations while still following the law.

The only stand Apple could take here is:

- Stop selling in China

- Have executives go to jail

Just as if they violated US law or EU-member's law.

Re: Apple cracking down on applications that send location data to third-parties

#14

Post by fiblye »

parthdesai wrote: post #6
maire wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple always took location privacy seriously. I remember an interview between Steve Jobs and Walt Mossberg years ago on this subject. I looked it up again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39iKLwlUqBo

Explain China then. Apple is being hypocritical in this case. Giving in to the demands of government when it hurts their business ( if it did take privacy as seriously as HN makes it out to be, they would take a stand in China) while advocating privacy in Western world.

With China, there's literally no option aside from having their products being barred from being sold or manufactured there.

The fact they're standing up for user rights when given a legal possibility is a good sign, compared to most major companies which are harvesting anything and everything even going beyond the scope of what's legally permissible.

Re: Apple cracking down on applications that send location data to third-parties

#15

Post by gepeto42 »

saagarjha wrote: post #10
gepeto42 wrote: post #7

They need to be much more aggressive towards apps that request access to the SSID of the current network. This is supposed to be limited, but in my experience, apps you would not expect to be doing that are doing it, and it's basically the same thing as location data.

Limited? This is public and unrestricted API, to my knowledge: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/systemconfiguratio...

Yeah, it was supposed to be - https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/n...

Around iOS 9, Apple deprecated some of the Captive Portal APIs, then re-instated them, a lot of changes that went back and forth, but my conclusion is that today, years later, way too many apps seem to read my SSID. Doesn't really matter how they do it, but I wish there was a prompt for it and no way for an app to directly fetch it.

Re: Apple cracking down on applications that send location data to third-parties

#16

Post by julianozen »

Hey, are there any other developers experiencing this besides the one in the article?

We noticed a few weeks ago that Apple has changed their static analysis tool and has been more aggressive with rejections. Has anyone else actually seen their app retroactively pulled from the App Store?

Re: Apple cracking down on applications that send location data to third-parties

#17

Post by walterbell »

gepeto42 wrote: post #15
saagarjha wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Limited? This is public and unrestricted API, to my knowledge: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/systemconfiguratio...

Yeah, it was supposed to be - https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/n... Around iOS 9, Apple deprecated some of the Captive Portal APIs, then re-instated them, a lot of changes that went back and forth, but my conclusion is that today, years later, way too many apps seem to read my SSID. Doesn't really matter how they do it, but I wish there was a prompt for it and no way for an app to directly f…

Any downside to using a common SSID, https://www.wigle.net/stats#ssidstats?

Re: Apple cracking down on applications that send location data to third-parties

#18

Post by bob_theslob646 »

AznHisoka wrote: post #12

Does this include apps like Foursquare/Swarm that sell aggregated location data to hedge funds? [1] ...or are the big players exempt from the rules of the game? [1] https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/290543

This is another article that talks about how they actually do what the parent comment talks about.

> When someone checks in to a place on Swarm, Foursquare's newer app, the company records the user's coordinates, helping it determine all the different coordinates associated with a single business or other place.

> Foursquare says it can't disclose who its partners are, or how many different smartphone users' data it has acquired. But Rosenblatt says the company could, for example, create a list of "millions" of smartphone owners who frequently visit fast food restaurants by taking a pool of location data collected by its partners and comparing that to its database of fast food restaurant coordinates.

> Advertisers could then use that data to show those users ads for fast food chains, or perhaps healthier alternatives or gym memberships—all without those people ever having to install a Foursquare app.

[1](https://www.wired.com/2016/01/foursquares-plan-to-use-your-d...)

Re: Apple cracking down on applications that send location data to third-parties

#19

Post by chimeracoder »

walterbell wrote: post #17
gepeto42 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it was supposed to be - https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/n... Around iOS 9, Apple deprecated some of the Captive Portal APIs, then re-instated them, a lot of changes that went back and forth, but my conclusion is that today, years later, way too many apps seem to read my SSID. Doesn't really matter how they do it, but I wish there was a prompt for it and no way for an app to directly f…

Any downside to using a common SSID, https://www.wigle.net/stats#ssidstats ?

> Any downside to using a common SSID, https://www.wigle.net/stats#ssidstats?

From the documentation, it's not clear to me if apps have permission to see either other nearby SSIDs or the names of other networks that the device has previously connected to.

If the app has access to either one of those, it's equivalent to being given location data.

Furthermore, last I checked, both iOS and Android broadcast the list of previously-connected SSIDs to nearby routers when connecting. That enables companies which track people's physical location over time without them having to download an app (yes, these companies exist[0]).

[0] e.g. http://axper.com/

Re: Apple cracking down on applications that send location data to third-parties

#20

Post by throwaway080383 »

gepeto42 wrote: post #7

They need to be much more aggressive towards apps that request access to the SSID of the current network. This is supposed to be limited, but in my experience, apps you would not expect to be doing that are doing it, and it's basically the same thing as location data.

A few years ago, the FTC fined InMobi for doing precisely this: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2016/06/...
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