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FYI, that API requires entitlements to be used, which are only available if you request them from Apple and justify their use. It's not a general-purpose API any app can use.
I understand it’s not ubiquitous.
Like most here, I don’t have Wechat or Alipay installed. But I’m interested in e.g. Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Tiktok, Snapchat, Chrome, Firefox, Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.
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> com.apple.developer.networking.HotspotHelper Where do you revoke this entitlement on iOS? Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network? Or is this something else?
General > Reset > Reset Location and Privacy Settings
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Why does apple get to decide which app gets automatic access to my private data, on my device, without needing to ask me?
FWIW I used WeChat a few years ago and at that point it definitely asked for local network access (which is what this article is about; a mechanism for collecting SSIDs which can then later be correlated to locations). If there is an entitlement, it is as of yet unclear whether it means a consent dialog/privacy toggle or not. IIRC an entitlement only means you can ask for this sort of access, not get it automatically…
Is that what "local network access" means? I thought that was for controlling network connections to LAN ips and/or to send multicast packets (eg. mdns).
> NEHotspotHelper allows your app to participate in the process of authenticating with hotspot networks, that is, Wi-Fi networks where the user must interact with the network to gain access to the wider Internet.
> NEHotspotHelper is only useful for hotspot integration. There are both technical and business restrictions that prevent it from being used for other tasks, such as accessory integration or Wi-Fi based location. Before using NEHotspotHelper, you must first be granted a special entitlement (com.apple.developer.networking.HotspotHelper) by Apple.
Which makes sense, but then why exactly are apps like WeChat and Alipay granted this entitlement?
Whether the user is aware and opt _in_ is the issue, right? But all of the network signals that are triggered by web applications, phone apps, OS, isn't it almost always possible to get SOME information about a user's geo location? There's a theory that Silk Road's Ross Ulbricht leaked his location via a Captcha on a website, despite actively covering his tracks. I think Bitcoin's Satoshi is/was an Australian bloke l…
How?
TL;DR: Apps can access the nearby Wi-Fi hotspot SSID and MAC addresses through an API that is intended to help with connecting to hotspots. Then they can use this info to look-up in databases that collect SSIDs based on their locations. Seems like a valid concern, though the author's writing style can be off putting since has a tone with an agenda. However, AFAIK apps need to declare the use of this API and have a go…
i wouldn't be worried about my flashlight app tracking me, i'd be worried about the large players who probably GET the use of this API, google facebook etc etc.
FYI, that API requires entitlements to be used, which are only available if you request them from Apple and justify their use. It's not a general-purpose API any app can use.
Lately I've witnessed a number of apps asking for Local Network permission ("Foo would like to find and connect to devices on your local network") when they have no business doing so in any possible way that I can think of.
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At least in the early days, every iPhone maintained a local lookup table between ssids and gps coordinates in a SQLite database. https://www.networkworld.com/article/752872/security-apple-o...
That doesn’t mean seeing an SSID means you are at exactly that location. If you are in a city you see 50 SSIDs at any given moment. Are you at those 50 locations at the same time? No. Is there a way to triangulate where you are exactly? No, its unreliable and not an exact science.
are you trolling?
Reading through the linked docs, this API seems to specifically be for apps created by owners of WiFi hotspots to help users connect to those hotspots ( https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/h... ). > NEHotspotHelper allows your app to participate in the process of authenticating with hotspot networks, that is, Wi-Fi networks where the user must interact with the network to gain access to the wid…