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If Apple is the only organisation defending our privacy, it is time to worry

theguardian.com

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Re: If Apple is the only organisation defending our privacy, it is time to worry

#151

Post by joemi »

procombo wrote: post #127
slver wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

App Store has double the revenue of Play Store despite Play Store serving a much bigger audience (more Android phones) and having the same 15%/30% cut as the App Store. This directly means the Play Store is a lot less used by its users. They buy way less from it relative to App Store. You can attribute this to less trust, or more piracy, more likely both. In part because of this, Play Store is less funded, and less r…

As a consumer and shareholder I expect Apple to provide both security and choice. Apple regularly uses security to justify eliminating choice. Which if you're paying attention isn't always true in every circumstance --so then I'd assert the motivation isn't coming from a place wholesome to the consumer. Apple says I bought their device so I should follow their patterns. I disagree. Think Different. Having additional…

> Having additional marketplaces available for me doesn't affect you.

The comment you said this in reply to talked about how it affects _everyone_ both using the platform and developing for the platform.

Re: If Apple is the only organisation defending our privacy, it is time to worry

#152

Post by emptysongglass »

slver wrote: post #103
emptysongglass wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that we already know what that landscape looks like on Android and... it's fine. Everyone still uses the Play Store.

App Store has double the revenue of Play Store despite Play Store serving a much bigger audience (more Android phones) and having the same 15%/30% cut as the App Store. This directly means the Play Store is a lot less used by its users. They buy way less from it relative to App Store. You can attribute this to less trust, or more piracy, more likely both. In part because of this, Play Store is less funded, and less r…

> App Store has double the revenue of Play Store despite Play Store serving a much bigger audience (more Android phones) and having the same 15%/30% cut as the App Store. This directly means the Play Store is a lot less used by its users. They buy way less from it relative to App Store. > You can attribute this to less trust, or more piracy, more likely both.

I don't attribute it to either: it's pure demographics. Apple users are wealthier.

Nobody is asking for the destruction of anything, that's pure hyperbole. Opening up a marketplace in which you are both a participant and controller is not "destruction". It's what's fair for everyone.

Re: If Apple is the only organisation defending our privacy, it is time to worry

#153

Post by [deleted] »

willis936 wrote: post #102
Gaelan wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That tweet's been deleted, so it's hard to judge it exactly, but my recollection is that someone else pointed out "payment data" here is just App Store, iTunes, etc purchases. "Apple targets ads on the app store based on previous app store purchases" is, IMO, much less of a privacy invasion than "Facebook targets ads based on your friends list, messages, browsing history, real-life purchases, and other things I can't…

>Apple's profile of me, I imagine, is much less detailed than Facebook's Apple certainly is not shy about collecting biometrics. They have the most complete set of biometrics of the FAANGs. I'm not certain what their motive is.

[deleted]

Re: If Apple is the only organisation defending our privacy, it is time to worry

#154

Post by sofixa »

supernova87a wrote: post #65
Synaesthesia wrote: post #17

There's still a huge elephant in the room. How are we supposed to trust Apple, Microsoft or any other tech company when it emerged that they fully cooperated with the NSA and their PRISM program. We have to just assume that's still running. Businesses could keep a lot of secrets from us and they're not transparent or accountable to the public.

Look, if you're worried about that, I don't know how you get through life without being totally paralyzed. You live in the USA. All persons and companies are subject to whatever intelligence activities that we got a glimpse of which are happening. You adjust your life accordingly and live on. Because I don't know where else you can go that has the similar benefits of being a US citizen and the environment we enjoy. O…

> You live in the USA. All persons and companies are subject to whatever intelligence activities that we got a glimpse of which are happening

No, I don't, yet i use tech made by American companies, and my (meta)data was also probably lumped in there for use by american intelligence agencies, who have zero jurisdiction over me.

Re: If Apple is the only organisation defending our privacy, it is time to worry

#155

Post by procombo »

okamiueru wrote: post #146
theturtletalks wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's marketing is quite genius. They spun iOS being a closed system into a plus. You can't install your own apps. Safari is not fit for PWAs. Repairability is not encouraged. All of this is for your own benefit and privacy. Want those things? Go to Android and sacrifice your privacy. With this approach, Apple comes out looking privacy-focused, justified for their App Store fees, and their stance on right to repair…

And at the same time, MacOS phones home every time you run anything, and logs exactly what you ran, on what you ran it, and where you ran it. Inb4: "This isn't a privacy issue, it's a security feature".

It's a great read. Why not link to it?

https://sneak.berlin/20201112/your-computer-isnt-yours/

Re: If Apple is the only organisation defending our privacy, it is time to worry

#157

Post by techrat »

dheera wrote: post #117
techrat wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I deny functions to apps in Android all the time. I've yet to run into an app that will refuse to run unless that denied function is explicitly needed for that app to do what it was designed to do: eg, location for maps.

There are plenty. Try getting a Roborock vacuum cleaner and getting it to vacuum your floor without giving away GPS permissions on your phone, it's impossible unless you take the damn thing apart and solder some wires to the RX/TX and root it with its dev serial port. Wechat also for a while didn't even allow logging in without location permissions. They may have changed that but there are lots and lots of offending…

That sounds more like a hardware cost cutting measure than an issue to do with Android itself.

Re: If Apple is the only organisation defending our privacy, it is time to worry

#158

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

dannyw wrote: post #140
theturtletalks wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's marketing is quite genius. They spun iOS being a closed system into a plus. You can't install your own apps. Safari is not fit for PWAs. Repairability is not encouraged. All of this is for your own benefit and privacy. Want those things? Go to Android and sacrifice your privacy. With this approach, Apple comes out looking privacy-focused, justified for their App Store fees, and their stance on right to repair…

It's more of an opportunity left by Google. If Google wasn't a spyware company masquerading as a search engine company, their team of brilliant engineers could create the most open, most reputable, most user friendly, and most privacy protecting system on the planet.

I still hope something like this happens one day. There is definitely a need for privacy-enabled Android that is compatible with major brands. I'd gladly pay €50 more for it. This system would have to be mostly API-compatible with Android so that developers could easily recompile their apps for it. There is a huge smoking hole waiting to be filled. Librem 5 (when it's released...) is simply not enough and frankly speaking simply too expensive for a popular privacy solution.

Re: If Apple is the only organisation defending our privacy, it is time to worry

#159

Post by bni »

okamiueru wrote: post #146
theturtletalks wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's marketing is quite genius. They spun iOS being a closed system into a plus. You can't install your own apps. Safari is not fit for PWAs. Repairability is not encouraged. All of this is for your own benefit and privacy. Want those things? Go to Android and sacrifice your privacy. With this approach, Apple comes out looking privacy-focused, justified for their App Store fees, and their stance on right to repair…

And at the same time, MacOS phones home every time you run anything, and logs exactly what you ran, on what you ran it, and where you ran it. Inb4: "This isn't a privacy issue, it's a security feature".

I think the distinction nowadays is what happens with the data after it has been collected. We are way past data being collected.

Re: If Apple is the only organisation defending our privacy, it is time to worry

#160

Post by gampleman »

I'm surprised to not see too much discussion about GDPR here.

But the question I have is under what legal basis do companies use the tracking identifiers? Surely the only legal basis available to them is consent? So Apple has kindly made the consent collection infrastructure part of iOS (and therefore standardised and therefore user friendly).

So are the complaints about Apple forcing them to obey the law? That seems pretty strange to me.

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