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I have run both MacOS as well as iOS behind outbound firewalls, and there just isn't any data going to Apple that I cannot easily disable in settings, except ma

I have run both MacOS as well as iOS behind outbound firewalls, and there just isn't any data going to Apple that I cannot easily disable in settings, except maybe checks for updates (haven't tried). Your conspiracy is also missing any motivation Apple might have for gathering private data. They don't run an ad network > it does nothing to stop your data from "leaking" to the internet in the first place That's just blatantly false. Apple has always had restrictions on third-party software. Recently, they have tightened the screws considerably. I'm not entirely sure about outgoing net connections. But just gathering data that is valuable enough to exfiltrate is near impossible, considering apps can only access what's specified in their manifest and explicitly allowed by the user.

webmobdev 7y ago
> Your conspiracy is also missing any motivation Apple might have for gathering private data. They don't run an ad network It's called "surveillance capitalism". Please look it up on Google. You don't need an "ad network" to monetise user data. (Oh, and Apple does have an ad network, though it is in "hiatus" now - it was "shut down" right when the marketing about Apple's media campaign on increased user privacy picked up, while at the same time they started rolling out forced ios updates that had features to collect even more of your user data (all "anonymously" ofcourse - and there have been enough recent article debunking how anonymous data can still be de-anonymised). Let's not forget that as a public multi-national company, that is bound to the American philosophy of capitalism, Apple is duty-bound to make more money for it's shareholders in any way possible. (I've even heard that shareholders can otherwise sue them to in American courts). So everyone of us would be a FOOL to believe that Apple will not monetise our personal data, one way or the other, now or in the future.
webmobdev 7y ago
> That's just blatantly false ... But just gathering data that is valuable enough to exfiltrate is near impossible, considering apps can only access what's specified in their manifest and explicitly allowed by the user. I think we are talking about different things. First, I was specifically talking about ios / iPadOS. Neither platform has any outbound firewall that can stop apps from access the internet (unless you count the very basic one that allows you to restrict net access to apps when you use "mobile data"). So if you are on Wifi on your iPhone/iPad/iPod, any app you are using has free access to the internet. This has the potential to "leak" user data. E.g.: I like to use the Adobe Acrobat app to read any PDFs. But when you use the app, you have no idea if Adobe is collecting meta data information on the PDF's you have, or even uploading them. Same with Microsoft products. Or even Google's. If I could disable internet access to these apps, 90% of which don't need them in the first place, I could use them with a bit more peace of mind. That's what I meant by when I said allowing unrestricted internet access to any apps, can "leak" our personal data to the internet, on ios / iPadOS platform.

webmobdev 7y ago

> Your conspiracy is also missing any motivation Apple might have for gathering private data. They don't run an ad network It's called "surveillance capitalism". Please look it up on Google. You don't need an "ad network" to monetise user data. (Oh, and Apple does have an ad network, though it is in "hiatus" now - it was "shut down" right when the marketing about Apple's media campaign on increased user privacy picked up, while at the same time they started rolling out forced ios updates that had features to collect even more of your user data (all "anonymously" ofcourse - and there have been enough recent article debunking how anonymous data can still be de-anonymised). Let's not forget that as a public multi-national company, that is bound to the American philosophy of capitalism, Apple is duty-bound to make more money for it's shareholders in any way possible. (I've even heard that shareholders can otherwise sue them to in American courts). So everyone of us would be a FOOL to believe that Apple will not monetise our personal data, one way or the other, now or in the future.

webmobdev 7y ago

> That's just blatantly false ... But just gathering data that is valuable enough to exfiltrate is near impossible, considering apps can only access what's specified in their manifest and explicitly allowed by the user. I think we are talking about different things. First, I was specifically talking about ios / iPadOS. Neither platform has any outbound firewall that can stop apps from access the internet (unless you count the very basic one that allows you to restrict net access to apps when you use "mobile data"). So if you are on Wifi on your iPhone/iPad/iPod, any app you are using has free access to the internet. This has the potential to "leak" user data. E.g.: I like to use the Adobe Acrobat app to read any PDFs. But when you use the app, you have no idea if Adobe is collecting meta data information on the PDF's you have, or even uploading them. Same with Microsoft products. Or even Google's. If I could disable internet access to these apps, 90% of which don't need them in the first place, I could use them with a bit more peace of mind. That's what I meant by when I said allowing unrestricted internet access to any apps, can "leak" our personal data to the internet, on ios / iPadOS platform.