The title seems inaccurate, and the outrage seems based on the title rather than the actual content. The article text explicitly says that the data is "anonymized and aggregated". How is that tracking?
Where's this 'outrage' that you speak of?
Facebook and Snapchat iOS Apps Still Tracking Users Despite Opt-Out
41–50 of 92 posts
Re: Facebook and Snapchat iOS Apps Still Tracking Users Despite Opt-Out
#42How are the apps still not removed?
Apple fighting it on a technical level or playing tough in private negotiations is one thing, but do you truly expect Apple's customers would be pleased if Tim decides in their stead that Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are off-limits? They have their own profit motives and you can be damn sure they will not hurt them in the name of a privacy crusade. Walling out small time apps with marginal use from your garden is…
They could just disable new device installs and allow existing users to continue using it. That would be enough to motivate them to correct behavior without causing an uproar. Existing users wouldn't even notice.
Re: Facebook and Snapchat iOS Apps Still Tracking Users Despite Opt-Out
#43The elephant in the room here is the GDPR. None of this is compliant (has never been) and yet is allowed to continue out in the open despite the regulation going into effect almost 4 years ago now. In fact, an argument could be made that Apple is complicit. Apple has a history of removing/rejecting apps that are used for illegal activities such as copyright infringement or even just breaking some company's ToS. Yet,…
Facebook is incorporated in Ireland for tax purposes, as are many other US tech companies. This means that Facebook's GDPR violations are enforced by the Irish DPA. This is a conflict of interest for the Irish government: if they are not hospitable to US tech giants, they may lose their status as a favored tax haven. The Irish DPA has given all indications that it is compromised, and this is a sore point for the regulators in other major EU countries, notably France and Germany.
Re: Facebook and Snapchat iOS Apps Still Tracking Users Despite Opt-Out
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Clearly they're only serious about privacy until it could impact the bottom line. Despite the removals only helping users in the long run, removing two of their most popular apps (Snapchat is routinely #1 overall) would result in blowback towards Apple.
Yep, but let us also remind our self how stupid that line of argumentation is. Apple needs to let at least Facebook track us, if they don’t Apple will lose millions of customers. Even if Apple truly want to be serious regarding privacy, the majority of their user base won’t let them.
The vast majority of users don't really understand what's going on. All they'll know is that Apple pulled two apps that they use all the time, and they'll blame Apple for it. Yes, it's stupid, but it's the unfortunate reality.
I do use Snapchat, but I would 100% support Apple pulling the app until they fall in line with proper privacy controls. Unfortunately I'm in the minority, and both Apple and Snapchat know this.
Re: Facebook and Snapchat iOS Apps Still Tracking Users Despite Opt-Out
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
No option to do that with Snapchat. So if you want to be involved with Snapchat in any way, the app is your only choice.
Honestly the only time I've seen Snapchat in the past 5 years someone was using it to buy cocaine
Snapchat? How unprofessional, everyone knows that's what Signal is for.
Re: Facebook and Snapchat iOS Apps Still Tracking Users Despite Opt-Out
#46Severe fines starting with 25% of gross and making them pay for mandatory audits, coupled with jail for executives would mitigate this.
Jail for executives haha. Has this ever happened for anything?
China. Lots to take issue with, but when they want policy followed, they back it with force (Jack Ma, delisting Didi, forcing Evergrandes’ founder to liquidate his wealth to make at risk stakeholders on shore whole).
Re: Facebook and Snapchat iOS Apps Still Tracking Users Despite Opt-Out
#47Severe fines starting with 25% of gross and making them pay for mandatory audits, coupled with jail for executives would mitigate this.
It's a prisoner's dilemma. Regulators have been made scared of the concept of having a part in making a different monopoly if they cripple the existing near monopolistic companies.
Re: Facebook and Snapchat iOS Apps Still Tracking Users Despite Opt-Out
#48I've found switching to the web version of social apps to be better anyway. Stops me visiting them as frequently if nothing else. I'm actively deciding to visit now rather than mindlessly opening the apps in order Feelin kinda smug right now
They also don't update the features a lot which has some perks. The calendar on events on facebook mobile website is a simple calendar that shows your events that you are invited to. The desktop and mobile app make it a pain to see just your friend events since they're pushing event discovery too.
This! For this reason, Facebook Marketplace for mobile web is better than the app version, because it doesn't have the useless "ship to me" option that no one wants and no one will ever use (yet Facebook makes the default and resets after every search).
Re: Facebook and Snapchat iOS Apps Still Tracking Users Despite Opt-Out
#49How are the apps still not removed?
The article says that Apple is allowing this behavior from developers - so I think the unhappiness should be addressed at Apple. Users clicked do not track but apps can still log your ip, and fingerprint you by your groups.
> an unacknowledged shift that lets companies follow a much looser interpretation of its controversial privacy policy." Apple has instructed developers that they "may not derive data from a device for the purpose of uniquely identifying it," an unacknowledged shift that lets companies follow a much looser interpretation of its controversial privacy policy." Apple has instructed developers that they "may not derive data from a device for the purpose of uniquely identifying it," which developers have interpreted to mean that they can still observe "signals" and behaviors from groups of users instead, enabling these groups to be shown tailored ads anyway.
>Apple has not explicitly endorsed these techniques, but they allow third parties to track and analyze groups of users regardless of whether or not they have given consent to user-level tracking. In addition, Apple reportedly continues to trust apps to collect user-level data such as IP address, location, language, device, and screen size, even though some of this information is passed onto advertisers.
So this makes the do not track almost worthless. Few advertisers will say show this ad to John Doe who lives at 341 maple avenue, but they will say things like show this ad to people living in Cincinnati between the ages of 20 and 30. And once you belong to enough ad groups, 6 or 7, you can be uniquely fingerprinted anyway.
Re: Facebook and Snapchat iOS Apps Still Tracking Users Despite Opt-Out
#50The title seems inaccurate, and the outrage seems based on the title rather than the actual content. The article text explicitly says that the data is "anonymized and aggregated". How is that tracking?
What the FT article claims is that Apple has shifted towards a much more lenient interpretation of App Store rules when it comes to user tracking. The original title is "Apple reaches quiet truce over iPhone privacy changes".
What Apple means by tracking is linking data from individual app users to third party data [1].
So in my view, it would indeed be a shift in Apple's position if they now accept that apps can link an individual's data to third party data as long as they somehow aggregate the result (e.g by creating cohorts) before actually targeting ads. But it's unclear to me whether they do in fact accept that.
I think merely mentioning aggregation is not enough to determine whether or not Apple has changed its position on this.
[1] https://developer.apple.com/app-store/app-privacy-details/#u...