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

appleinsider.com

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

#451

Post by jvzr »

parrots wrote: post #433
jvzr wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a heads up: Apple in their guidelines tell developers not to do that, and yet they do send some notifications advertising their products and/or services sometimes (recently for Apple TV+). They also do not police developers' notifications, so some developers abuse it. Just an example: I love Slopes and its lone developer deserves all the praise, and yet a week ago I've received an unwarranted ad for the paid sub…

Hi, developer of Slopes here. Wait, what!? I do not use push for marketing (I hardly have a working push server). I haven't ever sent out any push notification for any reason (the recording reminders are local notifications, not server-side ones). I do have a little in-app banner at the top of the logbook screen for messaging like prompting to create an account, or upselling premium, or other things. It has grey back…

Hey,

Sorry for the kerfuffle, I mean no harm to you, your reputation & your app. I wish I had screenshotted that. I remember almost reaching out to you on Twitter about it, but thought "hey it's the first one I'll let it slide". I vaguely remember it about the premium subscription, which I found odd. I was not pissed, just surprised. Was it push or local notification? I can't say if I can accurately tell them apart, in my opinion a notification is a notification. It was definitely not in-app as unfortunately I won't get to ride this season so I haven't opened the app in a year :( It was around Christmas or New Year IIRC

Also, I used Slopes as an example because it's the most recent one but frankly it's far from the egregious stuff others pull, especially Apple and the few other developers mentioned in this thread.

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

#452

Post by DagAgren »

emptybits wrote: post #444
DagAgren wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just turn off the tracking identifier?

I suppose part of me hopes that spotty or misleading data disrupts advertising models more than an absence of data. I may be wrong.

Fair enough!

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

#453

Post by prox »

akudha wrote: post #446
prox wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other options. My next phone will either be a Librem 5 or a zerophone.

Librem 5 isn't ready for public use, is it not? checking out zerophone, haven't heard of it, thank you

It will ship in 6 months, about the time my contract is done, so would be perfect. The zerophone is amazing as well, since you can pretty much build it yourself!

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

#454

Post by croon »

libria wrote: post #187
kelnos wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This was the reason I was an android guy until my wife told me to just get a phone that works. I have not heard anything that suggests Android phones work less than iPhones. That's certainly not been my experience, anyway. I've been using Android phones for 10 years now and they've always worked just fine. And I can sideload things, which I still do, and wouldn't want to give up. > Not letting you side load is a fe…

Android user 8 years, iPhone 6 months. > > Not letting you side load is a feature. > I absolutely do not see it that way. This is the key. Not having this option frees me from having to worry about the whole issue which is liberating. Either it's in the AppStore or it's not and I move on. With Android I spent days/weeks following whispers/rumors of such an app and trying different alternatives, rooting, etc. It depen…

To draw the example to the extreme you might as well put a brick in your pocket. You can't do anything with it so it's liberating!

Obviously I'm being facetious, but only to illustrate that there of course is a balance between features and mind liberating. There's nothing inherent to the device, or removing functionality that liberates you. You can do that regardless of device.

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

#455

Post by dijit »

wor3q wrote: post #380
judge2020 wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"FUD" isn't so uncertain when there is known widespread android malware. iOS malware only happens in extreme cases (like ransomware via a bad profile https://i.blackhat.com/briefings/asia/2018/asia-18-Zhu-and-L... ), via something like XcodeGhost, or via safari tech support scams. Just look at how stark of contrast there is between the lists of malware for both devices - https://www.cyber.nj.gov/threat-profiles/andro…

Have you read what types of malware is on the list? "Download and install this app from sketchy place" kind of thing...

My partner has downloaded malware from the play store.

or is the play store sketchy? Where is the official repository of safe applications?

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

#456

Post by terminaljunkid »

algesten wrote: post #305
wewake wrote: post #304

Apple already collects all the data of their users heavily and moves like these are simply meant to annoy their competitors (mostly Google) and keep the data to themselves while looking like a good kid in the valley. The number of gullible people aka Apple fanboys is staggering here who actually think Apple is trying to _save_ their privacy from advertisers after reading this highly biased article. Hah.

Any sources for this?

The blog is one of biggest apple fanboy bullshits out there. And given the bias against google in HN / reddit, it is quite simple why apple is heralded as preserver of privacy.

Hell, one can disable most of google stuff and install f-droid, or even go lineageOS route. that's much, much more private than buying an overpriced, locked-in phone.

If Google is evil because it tracks some (easily hide-able) data that only few zealots care, then apple is much more evil, because they patent trivial things (such as optional chaining in swift, or rounded corners of phones) and do misleading marketing.

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

#457

Post by htfu »

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #436
htfu wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why stop using the app, let one report it, and not just turn the unwanted feature off? And I think the app is covered since it's saying "enabling location data means you can plot on a map where you've connected to a host" or something like that in settings - good enough a bs feature for Apple to let it slide, evidently.

> Why stop using the app Because they have clearly demonstrated they do not deserve your trust or support.

That's what I'm taking issue with. I don't like the feature, hence I don't use it. But why default to faulting them for adding a feature that's clearly useful enough for some to justify being hackily implemented?

As someone presumably technically capable wouldn't the first step be ensuring sync is off, routing through a pi or whatever and firing up Wireshark to check whether it's even possible that something malicious is going on? I'm not saying it's not - I have no idea. But I'd certainly have a look before making any claims.

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

#458

Post by parrots »

jvzr wrote: post #451
parrots wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, developer of Slopes here. Wait, what!? I do not use push for marketing (I hardly have a working push server). I haven't ever sent out any push notification for any reason (the recording reminders are local notifications, not server-side ones). I do have a little in-app banner at the top of the logbook screen for messaging like prompting to create an account, or upselling premium, or other things. It has grey back…

Hey, Sorry for the kerfuffle, I mean no harm to you, your reputation & your app. I wish I had screenshotted that. I remember almost reaching out to you on Twitter about it, but thought "hey it's the first one I'll let it slide". I vaguely remember it about the premium subscription, which I found odd. I was not pissed, just surprised. Was it push or local notification? I can't say if I can accurately tell them apart,…

No worries, if I was a bad actor you'd be doing the right thing, and as many have already pointed out more often than not it is a bad actor. It's tough (trying to be) of the good guys not abusing the system chasing revenue at all costs, no worries.

I don't use local push notifications for advertising, either. I use them for A) location-based recording reminders created by users and B) notifications when a recording from the Watch is synced to your phone and ready to view, since that can take a minute or so if you're off wifi.

I remember one person reaching out shortly after the iOS 13 launch that I trigged the "Slopes has been using your location in the background" notification when I wasn't recording, which was an error on my side and I fixed that right away.

I did have an email or two go out around Christmas for a giveaway, so I certainly had some email marketing in play then. Maybe Slopes appeared in a notification from your mail client? But Slopes itself did not trigger any notification, push or local, for that campaign.

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

#459

Post by fierarul »

Krasnol wrote: post #311
fierarul wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is you buy expensive/vanilla-OS Android phones. Lots of other Android phones have Facebook apps that can't be deleted.

The cheapest western Android phones like by Motorola, Nokia or Xiaomi (the around 150€ models) don't have this and you can uninstall everything that IS on there. Actually the expansive ones like Samsung are the really bloated ones.

Maybe I should have said non-mainstream ones. I never saw an Android One phone unless it was specifically bought for pure Android.

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

#460

Post by machello13 »

quotemstr wrote: post #180
ReverseCold wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be a necessary evil. If you could turn it off (even in a convoluted way), people would do it - which is what led to the issue of such a large proportion of Americans having their location data streamed 24/7 in the first place. Unlike Windows 10 updates not giving people a choice in the matter, this only helps you, so I really don't see the problem here.

No, it does not "only help me". My attention is finite, and spurious warnings waste it. Constant unwanted nagging is paternalistic and disrespectful of the user's time.

I have several apps with always-on location permissions and I must have seen maybe half a dozen of these alerts since I installed iOS 13 back in the fall. It's nowhere near "constant unwanted nagging".
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