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Oh, the Places Your Apple ID Will Go

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Re: Oh, the Places Your Apple ID Will Go

#81
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that justify logging user actions? Just because you can log customer requests does not mean it is morally right to do so.

I am responding to a specific argument. That argument is that App Store is not an internet service. I say it is.

The point is not that the App Store isn't an online service (although I would argue that it more "relies on" an online service), but that its role as part of the OS supersedes that.

I can't go back and edit my comment now, but to make it more clear I probably should have written something like:

> I strongly disagree that the iOS App Store should be treated as ___only___ an "internet service" rather than...

Re: Oh, the Places Your Apple ID Will Go

#82
post #68
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A cookie is not a PII identifier, it is an "identity discriminator". In other words cookies let them tell you the _same_ person 104898 that was already here in March, welcome back!, and not any other person e.g. 298472, but without telling them your actual name etc. In contrast, a PII identifier is a unique ID that is linked to personal attributes in real life like a person's name ("John Doe"), address ("6400 Bouleva…

> VISA 4879 5223 6537 9935 I'm curious where that number came from. It passes the Luhn check so it probably isn't just some random number, and has the right first few digits for Visa but doesn't match any of the Visa test card numbers that I happen to know. Looking up the issuing bank from the first 6 digits gives inconsistent results. Half of the several BIN lookup sites I tried just say it is from the US. The other…

Credit card number generator websites exist: https://randommer.io/Card

Re: Oh, the Places Your Apple ID Will Go

#83
post #31
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A cookie is not a PII identifier, it is an "identity discriminator". In other words cookies let them tell you the _same_ person 104898 that was already here in March, welcome back!, and not any other person e.g. 298472, but without telling them your actual name etc. In contrast, a PII identifier is a unique ID that is linked to personal attributes in real life like a person's name ("John Doe"), address ("6400 Bouleva…

Apple ID is still a cookie and that is enough for me to avoid them like the plague.

Cookies are a required part of any login system. Your Apple ID is used to identify you, just as @amelius identifies you here.

Re: Oh, the Places Your Apple ID Will Go

#84
post #26

> I may be getting something wildly wrong here, but I am not sure I see the presence of this Apple ID proxy in Apple’s services logs to be a violation of either its own policies or users’ expectations for using internet services in general. I strongly disagree that the iOS App Store should be treated as an "internet service" rather than a part of the device. The iOS App Store only comes on iOS devices, it comes on al…

Finally, someone puts words on the irks I felt the last times this came up. Thank you. Apple is basically loopholing all the shitty ad-tech engagement surveillance bs that plagues the rest of the industry through the app store, pretending like it's any other app. Of course they can, but a lot of the hard-line privacy stuff goes down the drain with the hypocrisy. What bothers me is that Apple really doesn't have to mo…

[deleted]

Re: Oh, the Places Your Apple ID Will Go

#85
post #84
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finally, someone puts words on the irks I felt the last times this came up. Thank you. Apple is basically loopholing all the shitty ad-tech engagement surveillance bs that plagues the rest of the industry through the app store, pretending like it's any other app. Of course they can, but a lot of the hard-line privacy stuff goes down the drain with the hypocrisy. What bothers me is that Apple really doesn't have to mo…

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: Oh, the Places Your Apple ID Will Go

#86
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t, they try to obscure it but you can still install without a Microsoft Account.

And obscuring it in a way that you need to disconnect from the internet for the local account installation to become available.

That's a dark pattern, but even so, Windows is useful without the internet. App Store doesn't demand a data connection on a whim, it fundamentally needs it for all of its functionality.

Re: Oh, the Places Your Apple ID Will Go

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows is now entirely an internet service as you need a microsoft account and internet connection to install it.

You don’t, they try to obscure it but you can still install without a Microsoft Account.

At some point, when you have to go find the disassembler and start monkey patching binaries, some people will still say "but there's still a workaround!".

Re: Oh, the Places Your Apple ID Will Go

#88
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Devil's advocate: Contrary to explorer.exe, App Store is an internet service in the sense that it requires sending requests to backend for pretty much any user action. There is zero functionality without a data connection.

Uninstall requires a backend? If uninstall doesn't require a backend then it's not an internet service. It's manipulating things on-device. It's a package manager and tracker designed in such a way that it only talks to Apple's backend. It's still the system package manager though.

There is no functionality for uninstalling software in the App Store app.

Users uninstall apps directly from the homescreen (springboard), without going through the App Store app.

Re: Oh, the Places Your Apple ID Will Go

#89
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Devil's advocate: Contrary to explorer.exe, App Store is an internet service in the sense that it requires sending requests to backend for pretty much any user action. There is zero functionality without a data connection.

Uninstall requires a backend? If uninstall doesn't require a backend then it's not an internet service. It's manipulating things on-device. It's a package manager and tracker designed in such a way that it only talks to Apple's backend. It's still the system package manager though.

Every app can have iCloud associated data that would be deleted when you uninstall the app. Also push notifications go through Apple’s servers and then Apple bundles them for different apps. Apple would need to know not to send push notifications to an app that is no longer installed.

Also of course Apple keeps a record of installed apps. If you drop your phone in the ocean and go to the Apple Store to buy a new one, your installed apps are reinstalled.

Re: Oh, the Places Your Apple ID Will Go

#90
post #52
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finally, someone puts words on the irks I felt the last times this came up. Thank you. Apple is basically loopholing all the shitty ad-tech engagement surveillance bs that plagues the rest of the industry through the app store, pretending like it's any other app. Of course they can, but a lot of the hard-line privacy stuff goes down the drain with the hypocrisy. What bothers me is that Apple really doesn't have to mo…

The public dismissal of the evidence these researchers presented in the last few weeks was surprising. It isn't truly important whether the App Store is an integral component of iOS, which it practically is until Apple becomes compliant with the provisions of the Digital Markets Act, it merely compounds their legal issues due to ignoring user intent when iOS analytics are disabled. The main issue here is that Apple h…

> when the reality is that one needs to hack an iPhone to see how this data is being syphoned off

The author of the article wrote that all he had to do was request his data from Apple.

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