Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

krausefx.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

451–460 of 469 posts

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#451

Post by Fogest »

scrollaway wrote: post #354
Fogest wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, sure! The game is called Torn. It is a text-based MUD style game. People use lots of tools/scripts when playing it to improve things. Some mobile exclusive users do actually make use of apps like Kiwi on their Android phones in order to install userscripts and extensions. However some people have Apple devices (probably regretably) and as such are limited to less powerful solutions. Luckily someone made Torn PD…

Woah, Torn as in Torn City? One of my first freelance jobs was for that game, fixing some bug or other in the website. This must have been 15 years ago ish?

Yeah most people just call it Torn right now, but yeah the game is still going fairly strong. They released a mobile app which helped drive some more popularity to the game again. The mobile app is really just an in-app browser wrapper for the mobile version of their site, but it helped get them some extra visibility for the game via the app stores. Especially with how popular idle style games are right now on the app stores, Torn kinda fits in well with them.

It's pretty neat how long this game has been going for and how they still keep hiring more devs to work on the site! I'm sure if you checked out the game now it would look a bit different from when you worked on it 15 years ago! Though I'm sure some elements would still be a bit similar.

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#452

Post by interpol_p »

Shank wrote: post #418
interpol_p wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have started moving from an SFSafariViewController to a WKWebView in my app. In my case, we have a discussion forum that I wanted to display in a sidebar alongside the app, so people could get help while they work. I also wanted to intercept clicks on certain files to open them directly in the app — making it easier for users to check out other work on the forums. However after reading this article what I will be d…

As a user I’d like to discourage this. If you use SFSafariViewController, the user’s extensions and content blockers load automatically. If you use WKWebView they don’t load at all. I’m one of those users who depends on these and every time a developer uses WKWebView instead it drives me up a wall. Plus, the UI is shared between Safari and it’s easy to jump out.

In this case, I cannot show a SFSafariViewController side-by-side with the main app on iPad (as it can only be presented modally). On this site there are no ads, and no content to block, it is simply a discussion forum about the app.

I'd be happy to put a Safari button on the WKWebView sidebar version, but as it is a coding app and the forums are full of helpful code snippets, having it appear alongside the code editor seems like a valuable proposition.

The big advantage of using WKWebView is that when a user posts a zip file containing their project you can simply tap on the link to run the project and see the results. You can also easily share your code to the forum by tapping a button in the app's UI to post it to the thread.

These sorts of nativeweb integrations are not possible with SFSafariViewController. However I would not want these integrations on any outside domains, and so would push the user back onto SFSafariViewController if, for example, they opened a discussion and tapped a link to an external blog or article.

Edit: perhaps I am not explaining this well. Here is an example of what is happening in my app https://twitter.com/twolivesleft/status/1557378008495058944

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#454

Post by samstave »

Bellamy wrote: post #426
Roby65 wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How come that my apps get rejected if i don't use SafariViewController but they can publish them?

Exactly my thoughts too. How is that possible that Google Play and Apple store allow apps like this to get published?

Yes

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#455

Post by vanilla_nut »

Minor49er wrote: post #234
ars wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't live in today's world without a phone. All the mechanisms of the past that were geared for this no longer exist. For example: Drive on the road, get to a toll, don't have a Transponder to pay the bill? No problem - just call a phone number. Uh, what if I don't have a cell? This literally never even occurred to them, there is no alternative way to pay the bill. That's life today, and it applies to children a…

The toll roads I've seen on the east coast will just scan your license plate and mail you a bill if you don't have a transponder

Frequently at an increased rate. The garden isn’t fully walled yet, but they are closing in. I’ve already had to refuse to participate in social and work events that required me to download an app to my smartphone.

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#457

Post by CodeSgt »

d110af5ccf wrote: post #397
CodeSgt wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They said: > but then in the next breath make the assumptions that difficulty forming relationships today is significantly greater than in the past The implication being that I made the claim that it was broadly more difficult for most people today. I didn't realize that me adding "everyone" would so drastically change the meaning of their sentence. Please give me your interpretation of that if it isn't basically wha…

> I say that people with chronic porn addictions have a hard time forming relationships Well originally you used wording that would imply a significant subset of the population. But even ignoring that it remains a completely baseless claim. How are you eliminating all of the other potential explanations that exist? And how are you arriving at the conclusion that the porn addiction is the cause of the problem as oppos…

What do you mean originally? I never edited the og comment. I'm arriving at it because the reason I know people with chronic porn addictions at all is they've confessed how big of a problem it is for them and the issues it's caused them. If you think you know their lives better than they themselves do then go tell them that.

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#458

Post by xigoi »

makoto12 wrote: post #436
hollowturtle wrote: post #222

I’m not surprised and it’s really annoying apps still use in-app browsers. I remember even Telegram had that at one point, with link opening only on in-app browser(at least on iOS). But what really annoys me is that most of the users, e.g. my girlfriend, have NO IDEA about the difference, it’s just a browsing window, no matter in-app, which engine, with which privacy feature. Perhaps os vendors should show more obvio…

in-app browsers are a much better UX imo, solution is to make them safe, not get rid of them, as they solve a real ux use case

Android has “Chrome custom tabs” (terrible name, they don't have to be Chrome) which behave like an in-app browser, but use an actual browser. I assume the app can't spy on those?

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#459

Post by freedomben »

_carbyau_ wrote: post #348
freedomben wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not GP, but you first say: > Those are both very socially conservative viewpoints and I have yet to find scientific data (or anything else I'd consider even remotely reliable) that back either of them up, particularly the second one. but then go on to yourself list many probably reasons why that's the case: > how do you suppose to show that this change is due to porn instead of, say, the prevalence of dating apps…

You rightly point out that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. But then neither is it evidence. Which leaves both sides at: we don't really know. Anecdotes are worth crap all, because people will bring up examples for either side thus cancelling each other out. But your last sentence irked me. If you side with liberty and tolerance and advise friends and family not to do "bad thing", they can say they app…

OH NO!!!! I couldn't figure out why it irked you because I totally agreed with what you said, and then I realized I typo'ed in the worst place. It would have irked me too. I said:

> I don't think there's a big difference between

But I meant:

> *I DO think there's a big difference between

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#460

Post by freedomben »

d110af5ccf wrote: post #395
freedomben wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not GP, but you first say: > Those are both very socially conservative viewpoints and I have yet to find scientific data (or anything else I'd consider even remotely reliable) that back either of them up, particularly the second one. but then go on to yourself list many probably reasons why that's the case: > how do you suppose to show that this change is due to porn instead of, say, the prevalence of dating apps…

Yes, this is precisely my point. I see no obvious reason to believe the claims that were being made and no evidence for them is provided. I'm not saying "that's not the case" I'm saying "you couldn't possibly know that". > I don't think there's a big difference between a social conservative (who typically want to use government force to restrict access to "bad things") and someone who sides with liberty and tolerance…

Apologies, I typo'ed in the worst place. I said:

> I don't think there's a big difference between

But I meant:

> I do think there's a big difference between

Post reply on HN