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Many popular iPhone apps are recording user sessions without asking

techcrunch.com

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Re: Many popular iPhone apps are recording user sessions without asking

#21

Post by octocode »

spicymaki wrote: post #13

Acquiring end-user telemetry by recording inputs and sending them to the app developer is not great especially if they don't ask for your permission. This is quite different than the sensational headline. update: fixed wording

Telemetry implies capturing data in the form of measurements. Stuff like "touchscreen swipe: element, location, and duration". A click heat-map would be an example of telemetry.

This isn't the same thing. This is an actual recording of a user's entire session. While it doesn't capture a rendered image like a "screen recorder" would do, it captures every change in real-time, so it can play it back perfectly, and the end result is the same: you can watch a video of your user's session.

And I can personally confirm that people definitely stand around the water cooler and talk about the stuff they watched. It's creepy.

Re: Many popular iPhone apps are recording user sessions without asking

#22

Post by octocode »

somebodynew wrote: post #20
octocode wrote: post #16

Why does this article specifically single out iPhones? This happens on all platforms, even web apps.

Apple has enough of a history responding to things like this to make publishing an article about bad app behavior on iPhones a plausible way to bring it to an end. If your goal is to change app store policies, including Android phones is just going to dilute the possibility that Apple responds to an iPhone article for no additional gain because Google is unlikely to do anything.

A fair point!

Re: Many popular iPhone apps are recording user sessions without asking

#23

Post by germinalphrase »

jrockway wrote: post #10
fitzroy wrote: post #8

"Record the screen" could be more precise. I assumed the article was saying apps were literally recording a video of the screen, complete with alert popups etc (like the Screen Recorder app). I realize there isn't functionally much difference within an app. But unless I'm reading it incorrectly, it's not recording the screen it's just the UI of the app. That's not nothing, but I always assumed (sadly?) that a lot of…

Yeah. An equally hysterical article could be written about web servers recording your IP address and what page you visited. Maybe this is a bit much, but developers do need some data as to how their app is performing in the real world. You might have some metrics that says 0% of visitors to your order checkout page on FooPhone 1.0 are completing orders successfully. With a screenshot, you can immediately see that tha…

It’s a trust issue. Until we have a proper reckoning about privacy in the US, much of the trust in software is predicated on ignorance. There’s minimal outrage because people don’t know that the app is recording their every swipe and typed word (even if deleted before sending a la Facebook).

Re: Many popular iPhone apps are recording user sessions without asking

#24

Post by lawnchair_larry »

MagicPropmaker wrote: post #17

Users are very bad at describing what they did when an app crashed. Recording application state and logging it is a wonderful aid to debugging. I did this routinely when deploying in-house applications.

I’m not sure what gave you the idea that you don’t need permission. Why don’t we go ahead and put a camera in your bathroom in case the plumber ever needs to diagnose a leak?

Re: Many popular iPhone apps are recording user sessions without asking

#25

Post by xenadu02 »

threatofrain wrote: post #7

> Apps like Abercrombie & Fitch, Hotels.com and Singapore Airlines also use Glassbox, a customer experience analytics firm, one of a handful of companies that allows developers to embed “session replay” technology into their apps. > These session replays let app developers record the screen and play them back to see how its users interacted with the app to figure out if something didn’t work or if there was an error.…

> effectively screenshotted

IMHO that is deceptive. System alerts, notifications, etc are presented in a protect system context the application can't see so there is in fact a very big difference between recording button taps and "screenshott[ing]".

Re: Many popular iPhone apps are recording user sessions without asking

#26

Post by [deleted] »

threatofrain wrote: post #7

> Apps like Abercrombie & Fitch, Hotels.com and Singapore Airlines also use Glassbox, a customer experience analytics firm, one of a handful of companies that allows developers to embed “session replay” technology into their apps. > These session replays let app developers record the screen and play them back to see how its users interacted with the app to figure out if something didn’t work or if there was an error.…

[deleted]

Re: Many popular iPhone apps are recording user sessions without asking

#27

Post by vokep »

jrockway wrote: post #10
fitzroy wrote: post #8

"Record the screen" could be more precise. I assumed the article was saying apps were literally recording a video of the screen, complete with alert popups etc (like the Screen Recorder app). I realize there isn't functionally much difference within an app. But unless I'm reading it incorrectly, it's not recording the screen it's just the UI of the app. That's not nothing, but I always assumed (sadly?) that a lot of…

Yeah. An equally hysterical article could be written about web servers recording your IP address and what page you visited. Maybe this is a bit much, but developers do need some data as to how their app is performing in the real world. You might have some metrics that says 0% of visitors to your order checkout page on FooPhone 1.0 are completing orders successfully. With a screenshot, you can immediately see that tha…

Nope, this kinda thing should be limited to opt-in beta testing.

Re: Many popular iPhone apps are recording user sessions without asking

#28

Post by cordite »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #24
MagicPropmaker wrote: post #17

Users are very bad at describing what they did when an app crashed. Recording application state and logging it is a wonderful aid to debugging. I did this routinely when deploying in-house applications.

I’m not sure what gave you the idea that you don’t need permission. Why don’t we go ahead and put a camera in your bathroom in case the plumber ever needs to diagnose a leak?

The same applies to web applications. Fullstory (developed by ex Googlers) and others are in this market too, but I don’t see them monetizing what they get to parties outside of charging the app maker.

Re: Many popular iPhone apps are recording user sessions without asking

#29

Post by cglace »

paxys wrote: post #11

> Many major companies, like Air Canada, Hollister and Expedia, are recording every tap and swipe you make on their iPhone apps. In most cases you won’t even realize it. And they don’t need to ask for permission. The key phrases here are "recording every tap and swipe" and "on their iPhone apps". I'm not saying it is okay, but the sensationalist headline takes away from the real issue.

I worked in this space and its definitly possible https://uxcam.com/ and https://appsee.com/ are other players in the space. They record the full screen by default. Much like fullstory for desktop.

Re: Many popular iPhone apps are recording user sessions without asking

#30

Post by kbenson »

kovrik wrote: post #19
jrockway wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. An equally hysterical article could be written about web servers recording your IP address and what page you visited. Maybe this is a bit much, but developers do need some data as to how their app is performing in the real world. You might have some metrics that says 0% of visitors to your order checkout page on FooPhone 1.0 are completing orders successfully. With a screenshot, you can immediately see that tha…

It is all good until you start sending credit card details and all other personal and sensitive information without even asking user about it. As a user, I don't care at all if it makes dev's life easier. I bought the app and don't want my personal info to be leaked.

So, we're supposed to trust the application's main process to accept a credit card securely, but not trust their system which tracks UX?

It might be one more place to screw up, but so is just having more actions your app can do.

I'm not sure I see any difference between an app recording all I traction within it (for single purpose apps, but not browsers) and a store video recording everything in it.

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