The iPhone maker knows a lot about what a user does on their phone
Over the past couple of years, Apple has centered its focus on user privacy. The iPhone maker has sparred with other Big Tech companies, most notably Facebook-owner Meta, about the issue. Apple's efforts to protect users' data has cost platforms like Facebook billions of dollars in revenue.
[...] App developers and security researchers Tommy Mysk and Talal Haj Bakry from the software company Mysk recently found that iOS sends "every tap you make" to Apple from inside one of the company's own apps. According to the developers, attempts to turn this data collection off, such as selecting the Settings option "disable the sharing of Device Analytics altogether" did not affect the data from being sent.
The data being collected is quite detailed, too. As Gizmodo points out, a user looking at the App Store app on their iPhone would have their search data, what they tapped on, and how long they were checking out an app all sent to Apple in real-time. Using Apple's Stocks app? Apple will receive a list of the user's watched stocks, any articles they read in-app, and the names of any stocks they searched for. The timestamps for which a user viewed stock information will be sent over too. Some of Apple's apps even collect detailed information about the user's iPhone such as the model, screen resolution, and keyboard language.
[...] A class action lawsuit was filed on Thursday claiming that Apple's actions violate the California Invasion of Privacy Act. The lawsuit doesn't focus so much on the fact that Apple is collecting this data. The suit hones in on Apple's settings, such as "Allow Apps to Request to Track" and "Share Analytics," that give users the perception that they can disable such tracking.
It shouldn't be too surprising that Apple, or any tech company, collects user data. However, as the team at Mysk discovered, Apple is collecting this data regardless of a user's settings where they are given the option to turn data collection off, possibly giving them a false sense of privacy.
(Score: 4, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday November 15 2022, @01:31PM (2 children)
Oops, that's the other company that just settled for $340M with 40 states over their "accidental" collection of tracking data.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 15 2022, @03:01PM (1 child)
I know there's the Xiaomi Browser too (which you should not trust), but my default phone browser is Firefox and there are ways of turning off services and various ads too (using suitable DNS servers can help).
So the way I see it a fair bit of my data goes to Google, some to Firefox, some to FB (via WhatsApp), a fair bit to the DNS provider (not Google) and some to Xiaomi and perhaps the Chinese Gov.
In theory I could reflash my phone but as it is I would be flattered and amused if someone took the trouble to get my data from more than 2 of them.
If you use Huawei you'd be even less tied to Google?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday November 15 2022, @04:05PM
I am getting more and more tempted to try something like this:
https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/ [ubuntu-touch.io]
Too many other unfinished projects around me at the moment, but if things slack off that will be next.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by helel on Tuesday November 15 2022, @01:31PM (4 children)
I've found that my web browser sends every link I click here back to sylentnews! Why are you tracking me?
From my understanding the only apps affected are those that are loading data from apples servers. It's real shocking that when you look up a stock in their stocks app it sends a request with that stock back to apple, isn't it? "Why is my search query in the App Store sent to apple?" Maybe because you want some results to that search?
That said they may be sending more data than required, including a unique device id. That's real sketchy from a company that's just made a big deal about stopping everyone else form doing that exact thing, but then again the data being discussed is from a version of the OS before they stopped apps from collecting that unique ID and it's entirely possible they stopped collecting it at the same time they stopped Facebook from collecting it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by pkrasimirov on Tuesday November 15 2022, @01:54PM (2 children)
> every tap you make
When you write an email to your doctor, change your mind and don't send it, but that gets sent to Soylentnews in full anyway, then it will be related news with the topic here.
(Score: 2) by helel on Tuesday November 15 2022, @01:57PM
Every tap you make in the App Store! When you click a link on Soylent, change your mind, and then close the tab I guarantee you the request is sent back to the server anyway.
(Score: 2, Troll) by pkrasimirov on Tuesday November 15 2022, @01:59PM
Sorry, you were right. It is "every tap you make" but only in the App Store app. So no mails to doctor, they just track which app are people staring. Still creepy but nowhere near "every tap you make".
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Freeman on Tuesday November 15 2022, @02:43PM
I mean, if you expect them not to record what you've clicked on. You're in an alternate utopian world. This is reality, we monetize everything. How better to do that than to know exactly what you want?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Tuesday November 15 2022, @07:18PM
A feature in settings that can turn off Tracking Users Activity.
What the feature is intended to do is to make it so that the user is now UNAWARE that their activity is being tracked. If this feature worked, then users would actually be unaware their activity is being tracked. Hence, this lawsuit would not have existed because nobody would be aware. Thus the feature in "settings" is useless because when turned off, users are still somehow able to discover that their activity is being tracked. QED
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.