Could this be the reason why on iPhones, nearly everything we search for in Google Chrome is advertised to us on Instagram?
Why, on any device… or group of devices you own and/or operate.
Google, Meta 'break' Apple's device fingerprinting rules
21–30 of 78 posts
Re: Google, Meta 'break' Apple's device fingerprinting rules
#22Could this be the reason why on iPhones, nearly everything we search for in Google Chrome is advertised to us on Instagram?
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Re: Google, Meta 'break' Apple's device fingerprinting rules
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, this is much clearer than The Register's attempt to summarize/explain/sensationalize it. And the meat seems... pretty bland. They caught a bunch of "plausibly fingerprinty"[1] tokens (that a reasonable interpretation of Apple policy would require being stored on the device) being sent unobfuscated in later requests. That looks a lot more like a genuine mistake by developers than a real attempt to evade tracking…
Uptime can be pretty long on iOS devices, and the developers have no legitimate use for that information.
Not sure why you're being downvoted for this, iOS devices aren't servers, apps have very little control over their lifecycle, and the existing time APIs for an app's internal sense of time are plenty. There is no reason at all an app would need to know this random piece of global state. I'm not even sure why Apple offers the real uptime instead of an offset starting when the app first called the API.
It's the first thing that talk about in the docs https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/nsproce...
Re: Google, Meta 'break' Apple's device fingerprinting rules
#24Well I never! Side note: I wonder how much harm Apple is doing to it's brand with it's Pious Attitude and Arrogant Behaviour? Even as a long time, but relatively small shareholder, I'm on the fence about Apple right now. I cant see the iPhone failing to lay golden eggs anytime soon. But the Apple Vision Pro feels like they took those golden eggs and gold platted a toilet seat. Tim Cook runs a tight shop, but he's bee…
Interesting to see this downvoted. I've been on Apple for over 15 years and feel exactly the same. The ice is getting a lot thinner and I've been looking at options how to move out of their ecosystem.
It's not that Linux on the desktop is closing the gap to Windows and MacOS, but that the latter two are aggressively shitting in the wine and gaslighting long-term users about the incredible improvements delivered every year. See: multi-monitor support, display management in general, window management, the accursed Spaces conceits, relocation of menubar toggles for sound and Bluetooth every OS release, pointless shuffling of the Settings app every release, comical degradation of iTunes over time... the list goes on.
My kids are coming up on Linux, and are never going to have the hallowed halls of 10.6 to look back on fondly.
It's sad, but every year I feel in a new way that we're merely strolling through a once-glorious cathedral built and abandoned by great engineers from a different era.
I felt this way at Google ~5 years ago, and left as soon as I could slip the golden handcuffs.
Re: Google, Meta 'break' Apple's device fingerprinting rules
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Devil's advocate: People using Android accept (for whatever reason) a less fluid, subpar UI and UX, while iPhone users are less likely to tolerate it (by nature of not using Android). Thus, using an iPhone could actually suggest a more sophisticated sense of taste i.e. being cooler.
Devil's advocate or just trolling?
I can't bloody stand using Apple's unintuitive garbage. I have great admiration for the hardware, but trying to drive their O/S I've always found to be a horribly frustrating experience.
Re: Google, Meta 'break' Apple's device fingerprinting rules
#26Could this be the reason why on iPhones, nearly everything we search for in Google Chrome is advertised to us on Instagram?
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Re: Google, Meta 'break' Apple's device fingerprinting rules
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, this is much clearer than The Register's attempt to summarize/explain/sensationalize it. And the meat seems... pretty bland. They caught a bunch of "plausibly fingerprinty"[1] tokens (that a reasonable interpretation of Apple policy would require being stored on the device) being sent unobfuscated in later requests. That looks a lot more like a genuine mistake by developers than a real attempt to evade tracking…
Uptime can be pretty long on iOS devices, and the developers have no legitimate use for that information.
It could be useful if you want to prompt a user to reboot their phone because something isn't working and a reboot often helps. But if they just rebooted, telling them to reboot if they've just rebooted is going to annoy them for no reason.
Things like the user gave permission for camera or microphone and is trying to use them but there's no data coming through. Or really most anything with Bluetooth. Or sometimes their mobile network is being weird.
That probably doesn't justify sending it off the device as a raw value, but Meta really likes driving UI from the server instead of letting the phone be smart. And they have a habit of pushing Apple's limits.
(Disclaimer: I worked for a subsidiary until the end of 2019)
Re: Google, Meta 'break' Apple's device fingerprinting rules
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Devil's advocate: People using Android accept (for whatever reason) a less fluid, subpar UI and UX, while iPhone users are less likely to tolerate it (by nature of not using Android). Thus, using an iPhone could actually suggest a more sophisticated sense of taste i.e. being cooler.
Devil’s brother advocate: People prefer using iOS over Android because they cannot handle having complete control over their UI and UX. They prefer having strict rules on what they can and cannot do and what apps they can and cannot use.
Re: Google, Meta 'break' Apple's device fingerprinting rules
#29The software stack on a modern cellphone, or of a browser, is about as likely to stop fingerprinting as a sticky-fingered burglar already in the police database can, in an oil and sugar factory, prevent his identification after touching every knob and lever in a warehouse of machines by wiping off the door handle on the front door alone. Rules are important because we cannot prevent crime from occurring at all. Though a truly isolated, truly privacy-preserving technology may seem on the horizon - whether it be through statelessness, homomorphic encryption, distributed governance, or some other odd and yet unproven technology, I can only hope we can one day look back on the sorry state of affairs today with nostalgia as the rash and haphazard painful afflictions of passion for the stars and the unlimited potential we set ourselves out for today.
Re: Google, Meta 'break' Apple's device fingerprinting rules
#30This shouldn’t be a cat and mouse game. Google and Meta should be subject to a class action lawsuit for gross privacy violations and sued into smithereens. All the developers whose livelihood depends on surveillance capitalism can go do something more productive with their lives.