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iPhone = Privacy?

kerkour.com

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Re: iPhone = Privacy?

#61

Post by [deleted] »

esotericimpl wrote: post #30
matai_kolila wrote: post #20

> Thus, anyone who has access to your iCloud account, whether it be a hacker, an Apple employee, or a government agency, has also access to that data. Lost a lot of credibility here by including Apple employees, as that’s not a thing. Honestly this just reads as a bunch if FUD for what appears to be no reason. There’s no new info, no new perspective, no attempt at fair explanation of why those things might actually b…

Honestly would an apple employee be able to access my icloud account? I understand that the icloud data is encrypted in the cloud and the decryption key is part of signing onto icloud via 2 factor to authorize the device. Would an apple employee be able to view icloud without the 2nd factor to pull down the decryption key?

[deleted]

Re: iPhone = Privacy?

#62

Post by sbuk »

fsflover wrote: post #2

> With all that information, I think it's reasonable to say that iPhones are far from private. But, as the alternatives are even worse Android smartphones are indeed worse, but it's not the only alternative. Consider GNU/Linux phones if you care about privacy and want to support it: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5 and https://pine64.org/pinephone . There are also things like /e/OS (Edit: and GrapheneOS), but they a…

Didn’t you just challenge someone for ‘shifting goalposts’ and being off topic? What has GrapheneOS got to do with Apple?

Re: iPhone = Privacy?

#63

Post by spideymans »

v0idzer0 wrote: post #13

iPhone = Not perfect but better than all comparable alternatives Perhaps the biggest advantage of the iPhone, aside from Apple making most of their money selling real products not your data, is that every concern he had was accompanied by a setting to disable it

> Perhaps the biggest advantage of the iPhone, aside from Apple making most of their money selling real products not your data

This is the reason why I have a certain degree of confidence in Apple’s privacy aspirations. Apple makes their money primarily by selling cool stuff to end users. Their business model heavily disincentives mass tracking.

Google and Meta couldn’t ever be as privacy-friendly as Apple, due to their business models.

Re: iPhone = Privacy?

#64

Post by michaelt »

esotericimpl wrote: post #30
matai_kolila wrote: post #20

> Thus, anyone who has access to your iCloud account, whether it be a hacker, an Apple employee, or a government agency, has also access to that data. Lost a lot of credibility here by including Apple employees, as that’s not a thing. Honestly this just reads as a bunch if FUD for what appears to be no reason. There’s no new info, no new perspective, no attempt at fair explanation of why those things might actually b…

Honestly would an apple employee be able to access my icloud account? I understand that the icloud data is encrypted in the cloud and the decryption key is part of signing onto icloud via 2 factor to authorize the device. Would an apple employee be able to view icloud without the 2nd factor to pull down the decryption key?

icloud data isn't end-to-end encrypted, so there are undoubtedly some employees who can view icloud data.

In a well-run organisation this power would only be available to a small number of employees, would require a good reason and multiple people's authorisation, and would produce audit records. Is Apple such an organisation? Nobody knows.

Re: iPhone = Privacy?

#65

Post by fsflover »

sbuk wrote: post #59
fsflover wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The topic is about Apple knowing your data, please do not shift goals.

Correcting an incorrect assertion is not shifting goalposts.

I don't see where an incorrect assertion was corrected. "They" was about Apple, not someone else.

Re: iPhone = Privacy?

#66

Post by spideymans »

saiya-jin wrote: post #56
bb123 wrote: post #37

For me it's a question of incentives. Apple makes the vast majority of its income selling hardware to people. That makes me the customer. Google makes the vast majority of its income selling user data to advertisers. That makes me the product and advertisers the customer. Which company has more of an incentive to compromise my privacy by accessing my data in a dishonest way?

Thats a bit naive approach. Both (and other) companies exist primarily to earn money to owners. If Apple will find it can extract even more money from consumers on top of hardware, ie overpriced forced walled gardens called app shops, it will. As long as it doesn't affects its main money pipeline which are devices. Like it or not, most folks don't care about nor understand privacy, so Apple has a lot of leeway there.…

On the contrary, I’d say access to user data is a liability for Apple.

Apple saw how damaging the iCloud privacy scandal and Cambridge Analytica were. They responded by fully hitching Apple’s brand to the privacy train.

If Apple were to be caught intentionally violating user privacy now, the damage to the brand would be immense.

Apple makes their money primarily by selling cool stuff to people. If they tarnish their brand by violating people’s privacy like Google or Meta, end users have far less incentive to buy Apple’s products.

Re: iPhone = Privacy?

#67

Post by jeffbee »

HunterWare wrote: post #51
jeffbee wrote: post #38

The place where Apple is the most dishonest is in their scaremongering popup dialogs that constantly prompt me to re-authorize Google Maps, which I use daily, to access my location. They exempt themselves from this authorization by laundering Apple Maps location access through "System Services". iOS will never, ever pop up a dialog asking if you were aware that "System Services" has accessed your location on behalf o…

Huh, I use Google Maps daily too and have never had a popup since the first time I used it and picked "While using". I could have picked "Always", which worked too, but choose not to for reasons outlined in other posts here. You can also easily turn off "Maps" tracking or limit it the same way if you choose. I got to admit that I don't see the meat in this burger, so to speak.

If you go into privacy settings and try to disable the “system services” it will prompt you, twice, with a big scary warning about how nothing on your iPhone will ever work again.

Re: iPhone = Privacy?

#68

Post by scarface74 »

fsflover wrote: post #11
scarface74 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that phone also sends your IMEI and your location to the carrier. It has to enable to work.

It does only if the hardware kill switch is on. You control it. Also, it doesn't send anything else to anyone.

If the cellphone carrier has your IMEI and location so do third parties that they sell it to and law enforcement.

https://9to5mac.com/2022/07/22/carrier-location-data/

Re: iPhone = Privacy?

#69

Post by jeffbee »

fsflover wrote: post #48
jeffbee wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason airplane mode exists is a radio 30000 feet above the ground violates assumptions baked into the terrestrial cellular architecture. If iPhones were regularly flying around with their radios enabled we would have heard about it by now.

It doesn't have to do this "regularly", only when someone (not you) wants it.

How would the baseband get the signal to reenable itself?

Re: iPhone = Privacy?

#70

Post by fsflover »

sbuk wrote: post #62
fsflover wrote: post #2

> With all that information, I think it's reasonable to say that iPhones are far from private. But, as the alternatives are even worse Android smartphones are indeed worse, but it's not the only alternative. Consider GNU/Linux phones if you care about privacy and want to support it: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5 and https://pine64.org/pinephone . There are also things like /e/OS (Edit: and GrapheneOS), but they a…

Didn’t you just challenge someone for ‘shifting goalposts’ and being off topic? What has GrapheneOS got to do with Apple?

I said that GrapheneOS is a relatively good alternative to Apple, although with a downside. Where is shifting goals? It's important to discuss solutions to the problem, not to say "you are also spied by other people and companies".
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