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I'm not sure as to what Apple could even do here. Make AccuWeather disclose this and be honest with its users in the app description? When we give away location
by newscracker 9y ago
I'm not sure as to what Apple could even do here. Make AccuWeather disclose this and be honest with its users in the app description? When we give away location information to any app, that information may go anywhere. It's probably a matter of luck that this particular app was sending it to a third party site directly and was "caught", but other apps may as well be sending it to their own servers, which in turn send them to many data brokers and ad targeters. We wouldn't know anything for the rest of them.
This seems like a complex problem to me, and it seems like the solutions cannot be technical alone. We would need to push for better policies and laws too.
- SentientNo4 9y agoWe don't have to entirely rely on Apple doing something. The users have a voice also. I went on and left a 1 star review, explaining that the apps tracks your location and sells this data. If enough users would do this, it will send a strong signal to the developers that this shit in unacceptable. As to what can be done to proactively prevent this kind of behaviour: eliminating the "use you location even when not using the app" option should be enough. I believe iOS 11 will have this.
- willstrafach 9y agoWorth noting: If you deny it GPS access, the app will send your Wi-Fi BSSID and (apparently) uses Bluetooth beacons to track your location.
- walterbell 9y agoCan any app access Wi-Fi BSSID? Why isn't this restricted under location or another permission? Presumably apps can also use IP address for geolocation.
- willstrafach 9y agoIP address is not too reliable, but you are correct, they could. I do agree that BSSID should be shielded behind a permission, I believe Apple is deprecating that API anyway though, so it may be a non-issue in iOS 12.