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iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

gizmodo.com

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Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#21

Post by MaxikCZ »

piva00 wrote: post #16
function_seven wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My feature request for iOS: Allow me to disable notifications from an app unless I have opened it within the last X hours. I’d set it to a couple hours. My food apps could then tell me the order is ready, but can’t spam me with “Special Offers For You” days later. Maybe I can do this with an automation?

Seconding that I'd love this. At the same time, has App Store's guidelines/rules changed to allow spammy ads notifications? It used to be 100% disallowed and I worked for a company that got an app denied because of it until changed, nowadays it seems to just be completely common. I fucking hate it.

Whats the problem of simply uninstalling the app once it does that?

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#22

Post by thebestmoshe »

piva00 wrote: post #16
function_seven wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My feature request for iOS: Allow me to disable notifications from an app unless I have opened it within the last X hours. I’d set it to a couple hours. My food apps could then tell me the order is ready, but can’t spam me with “Special Offers For You” days later. Maybe I can do this with an automation?

Seconding that I'd love this. At the same time, has App Store's guidelines/rules changed to allow spammy ads notifications? It used to be 100% disallowed and I worked for a company that got an app denied because of it until changed, nowadays it seems to just be completely common. I fucking hate it.

This guideline has been revised in 2020.

> Apple updated its App Store guidelines today with a change to its traditionally strict restrictions around push notifications. Apple has long banned apps from using notifications for “advertising, promotions, or direct marketing purposes,” but that changes today. Apps can now send marketing notifications when “customers have explicitly opted in to receive them.” Users must also be able to opt out of receiving the ads.

> The change follows a couple incidents over the past two years in which Apple bent its own rules by sending out push notifications that read a lot like ads. Since other companies’ apps could be banned or have their push notification privileges revoked for that behavior, the moves were criticized as another example of Apple getting away with special treatment because it controls the platform.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/4/21165087/ios-apple-push-no...

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#23

Post by bluetidepro »

> For example, the tests showed that when you interact with a notification from Facebook, the app collects IP addresses, the number of milliseconds since your phone was restarted, the amount of free memory space on your phone, and a host of other details.

I feel like "...when you interact..." is a very key part of this. If I understand it correctly, that to me really makes the headline seem less bad. So if you just delete the notification and never tap it, do they not get any data? That part is unclear but very important to this context.

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#24

Post by acosmism »

ubermonkey wrote: post #12
function_seven wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My feature request for iOS: Allow me to disable notifications from an app unless I have opened it within the last X hours. I’d set it to a couple hours. My food apps could then tell me the order is ready, but can’t spam me with “Special Offers For You” days later. Maybe I can do this with an automation?

I'd LOVE this. I also want something else that I wonder if I could dummy up myself. I want to change certain phone behaviors based on whether or not a given Bluetooth device is connected. My use case is "when I'm on my motorcycle, connected to headset audio, I want (a) the phone to read me texts and (b) to turn on navigation audio." I do not want either of these things UNLESS I'm on the motorcycle with the Cardo turn…

it might be possible to get this together using apple's "shortcuts" app

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#25

Post by daveoc64 »

MaxikCZ wrote: post #21
piva00 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconding that I'd love this. At the same time, has App Store's guidelines/rules changed to allow spammy ads notifications? It used to be 100% disallowed and I worked for a company that got an app denied because of it until changed, nowadays it seems to just be completely common. I fucking hate it.

Whats the problem of simply uninstalling the app once it does that?

Some apps provide genuinely useful notifications (like shipping updates), but also send spammy notifications that are just ads.

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#26

Post by Larrikin »

delecti wrote: post #14
drewg123 wrote: post #7

How much information do app devs get when customers disable app notifications from their app entirely? Some apps (especially food delivery.. doordash, i'm looking at you) have such spammy notifications, I tend to disable notifications from the app entirely unless I'm actively using it (eg, an order is pending).

Does iOS not have anything akin to the concept of Android's notification channels? Using Doordash as the example, at the OS level I can independently disable "General" notifications, which cuts out all the advertising spam, Delivery Status, and Payment Status. Long-pressing on an offending notification displays a button that takes you directly to the channel which that notification went through, potentially so you ca…

Android had a good idea that the scumbag MBAs and marketers ruined.

Whenever I get a spammy notification from an app I'd prefer to not uninstall, it's always logged under a general category that is mixed in with notifications that I want. Amazon for example has channels for Alexa, account authentication, and then a notifications category.

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#27

Post by inquirerGeneral »

delecti wrote: post #14
drewg123 wrote: post #7

How much information do app devs get when customers disable app notifications from their app entirely? Some apps (especially food delivery.. doordash, i'm looking at you) have such spammy notifications, I tend to disable notifications from the app entirely unless I'm actively using it (eg, an order is pending).

Does iOS not have anything akin to the concept of Android's notification channels? Using Doordash as the example, at the OS level I can independently disable "General" notifications, which cuts out all the advertising spam, Delivery Status, and Payment Status. Long-pressing on an offending notification displays a button that takes you directly to the channel which that notification went through, potentially so you ca…

[dead]

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#28

Post by NotYourLawyer »

zadokshi wrote: post #6

Not saying some companies aren’t up to no-good. But, collecting timezone (or ip to infer timezone), as long as it’s done with user consent in the privacy policy and or notifications setup process is actually helpful for end users. Most of us want (for example) our exercise reminder or our news update to arrive at breakfast even when we travel across Timezone boundaries. I don’t want to have to sign in to an app or go…

Not clear why the app needs location info for this. Notifications should just be relative to the current local time.

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#29

Post by bdcravens »

ubermonkey wrote: post #9

Yet another reason to deny notification rights to pretty much everything nonnative, and to restrict the native stuff. I mean, first, they're disruptive. You don't need to know every time you get an email. Even on my laptop, I only get an email ding if it's from (a) a coworker (and it's a small company) or (b) my wife. Second, the notification-spam ship has sailed. Apps behave TERRIBLY and abuse the privilege. DoorDas…

That's why I'm pretty aggressive about white-listing my notifications. Apple would do well to make this the default. The default answer is that they wouldn't for financial reasons, but over the past few years, I've been pleasantly surprised by changes they've implemented that I thought weren't in their best interests for those same reasons.

Re: iPhone apps harvest data when they send you notifications, researchers find

#30

Post by ubermonkey »

acosmism wrote: post #24
ubermonkey wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd LOVE this. I also want something else that I wonder if I could dummy up myself. I want to change certain phone behaviors based on whether or not a given Bluetooth device is connected. My use case is "when I'm on my motorcycle, connected to headset audio, I want (a) the phone to read me texts and (b) to turn on navigation audio." I do not want either of these things UNLESS I'm on the motorcycle with the Cardo turn…

it might be possible to get this together using apple's "shortcuts" app

No hooks for what I want there, sadly.
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