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iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

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341–350 of 461 posts

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#341
post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The joys of the Android vendor ecosystem. Even when going with official Google phones: my Nexus 5 is way out of date OS-wise.

Your Nexus 5 came out 7 years ago, it's unreasonable to expect that the latest Android would even run properly on it when the rest of the world has moved on.

> it's unreasonable

Is it? Slower than on more recent ones I agree. But processors architecture and components has not changed a lot.

If Microsoft manages 10 years on wildly more diverse hardware with their OS, I don't see why it is not possible on official Google phones.

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#342
post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The joys of the Android vendor ecosystem. Even when going with official Google phones: my Nexus 5 is way out of date OS-wise.

Your Nexus 5 came out 7 years ago, it's unreasonable to expect that the latest Android would even run properly on it when the rest of the world has moved on.

Why? A 7 year old midrange PC or laptop will run latest Windows or Linux just fine.

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like lots of things about Apple software, but feel a lot less respected than with Google's. While the price you pay with Google is annoyances through ads, the price you pay for Apple (besides the hardware being 3x as expensive as comparable Android hardware) is just not being able to do things . You can't side load apps without some people with years of experience putting all of their time and energy into breaking…

Lightning cables are more popular than USB-C cables at this point. If I'm at a party or something usually someone has an iPhone cable, USB-C, not so much. To be honest with an iPhone there's not much reason to want to sideload anything. Sideloading on Android is dodgy enough with dodgy APKs. Who knows what they're doing in the background? At least with the App Store (and Play Store for that matter) being a walled gar…

Funny, it's the exact opposite for me.

What happens now? Do our anecdata cancel each other out, or?

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They just magically start appearing after a while

And once they start they don't stop again, which is also kinda annoying. I wish there was some way to permanently allow it, and not be bugged by the alerts again. Something the app cannot set by itself, but i can set. I have some apps, i.e. Unifi Protect, that requires access to background location to send activity alerts when nobody is home, and i frequently get alerts that this app has used my location in the backg…

You get the popups until you accidentally block the app. Since the probability for blocking accidentally is greater than zero, over time all such apps get blocked.

This might hurt for example Tile. I think their “network effect” is somewhat depending on this kind of background location tracking.

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like lots of things about Apple software, but feel a lot less respected than with Google's. While the price you pay with Google is annoyances through ads, the price you pay for Apple (besides the hardware being 3x as expensive as comparable Android hardware) is just not being able to do things . You can't side load apps without some people with years of experience putting all of their time and energy into breaking…

I understand what you're saying, but at least for me it's not so bad. I started using Android from the G1, and was a massive fun of customising my phone with custom ROMS, etc. I eventually switched to iPhone and whilst I have jailbroken my phone before, I reverted it when I realised I didn't have much reason to need a jailbreak on my phone. I would still love the ability to sideload, but if that's my tradeoff for not…

How do you backup your photos to your home network? Been wanting to do this for ages!

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#346

I'm probably saying the complete obvious, but Apple can completely crush Google if they execute this angle properly. Google has no choice but to support ads. They're an ad company. Apple has to keep hammering how bad the ad and privacy experiences are with Android. Make iOS an absolute delight to use in contrast. I'd pay a premium for that. Android has done a great job making me want an iOS device again, these last t…

When an Android app wants my location, I get prompted to Deny, Allow while using the app, or Always Allow.

With iOS 13, Apple removed the "Always Allow" option from that prompt. If you really want to always allow location access, you'll have to go to the system settings and enable it. You'll also get the "App XYZ has used your location in the background 123 times in the last three days, do you want to continue allowing this?" prompt along with a map of where the app requested your location.

According to the article, that really works.

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#347
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And you know what? Not letting you side load is a feature. Apps released under the GPL are banned from the App Store.

Not true, VLC is GPL and on the app store

Not true. VLC had to change its license to be allowed on the app store https://www.openlogic.com/blog/vlc-license-change-lesson-per...

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#348
post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason I still strongly prefer the look and feel of Android over iOS, but at this point my next phone will be an iPhone. Why? Because Google recently stepped up its notification spam in their official apps. They're using a mechanism that's supposed to exist to notify me of things _I_ want/need to know about urgently instead to advertise products and services to me that I have no interest in. It's tedious to…

I use Lineage OS + microg with no Google apps on a compatible phone and I experience zero Google. Else, I seem to be able to enjoy Android to its fullest, using the Aurora app store. Lineage OS might be a viable alternative for people who prefer Android but disdain Google.

I had no idea about microg. That's very useful.

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#349
On the other hand recently I restored my iPhone as new. The default settings may give users prompts to disable tracking but Siri is now a big tracker itself. Siri now learns from apps how you use them by default. While this may not be advertising and data may be on your device or with a trusted company like Apple, the idea of privacy should be that by default everything is opt in only. Who’s to say Apple is tailoring your iPhone behaviour ‘to your needs’ when in reality they are just trying to make you invest more into their ecosystem by learning from you ? That might sound like that’s helpful and might make the experience better but the main idea of tracking is still the same.

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a slippery slope. In this case, is turning down the volume during ads also stealing? Is looking away stealing? Etc. Downloading files for later has been a basic feature of computers since decades. If Google is now giving us defective-by-design tools it shouldn't be considered stealing to fix them or replace them with something non-defective.

It sure is, but I think it's pretty clear that "using YT Vanced/other apps to watch all of my YT content" (or ad blockers for that matter) is effectively stealing by using Google's bandwidth, server time, data redundancy, etc. without giving them anything. Maybe you're fine with that, maybe even Google is fine with that (since, at least with only ad blockers, they still get the data to build their human-level intelli…

Google gives you the data, you do not take it. If they give you the data without showing you adds, that is their problem, not yours.
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