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When Apple launched iOS 6, it was the first operating system to include per-app privacy controls around access to things like microphone, camera, photos, etc. C

When Apple launched iOS 6, it was the first operating system to include per-app privacy controls around access to things like microphone, camera, photos, etc. Controls we consider fundamental today. It did not mention it a single time in any of its PR or marketing at all. The first reference you find to it will be from Apple blogs who were surprised to stumble upon it in the iOS 6 beta. It took Android two more years to launch a similar feature. Yes, Apple is doubling down on its competitive advantage here. But to claim it does not and never cared for privacy is just ignoring the facts and the history. It moved the industry forward.

conradev 6y ago
If you’re curious about more of the history (now, almost a decade ago), this was the scandal that likely motivated the above: https://www.theverge.com/2012/2/7/2782947/path-ios-app-user-information-collected-privacy https://www.theverge.com/2012/2/7/2782947/path-ios-app-user-... Congresspeople sent letters to app developers as a result (not even Apple, ha). iOS 6 was then seeded to the public four months after that article. But! It actually goes earlier than this. Apple started phasing out access to device identifiers used to track users across apps in iOS 5: https://techcrunch.com/2011/08/19/apple-ios-5-phasing-out-udid/ https://techcrunch.com/2011/08/19/apple-ios-5-phasing-out-ud... (again, none of this was marketed to anyone)
- samisaviv 6y ago
  If it was seeded 4 months after the article, it had absolutely nothing to do with the article.
  - conradev 6y ago
    Yes, that makes sense, development timelines for these features are often far longer than we imagine.
tonyb 6y ago
The first except for Blackberry. Before IOS or Android even existed Blackberry had granular per app permissions. I don't disagree with your argument though, of the modern mobile OSs Apple moved to towards the per-app model before everyone else. I just find it interesting when Apple or Android gets coverage/credit for a feature that has long existed but was forgotten or ignored.
- zymhan 6y ago
  The problem is BB wasn't around by the time smartphones became more than a niche product. The list of prior work that influenced Apple, or any tech company, is usually far too long to list.
  - itsoktocry 6y ago
    >The list of prior work that influenced Apple, or any tech company, is usually far too long to list. Agreed, but that doesn't mean we should default to "Apple was the first" simply because we can't wrap our heads around the pre-iPhone days.
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
  Actually, BB10 had an even better feature, you could provide dummy data to wrapped Android applications. So you could fill the Android contact data with an empty contact list and the app would be none-the-wiser. This feature was never advertised. But noone bought the phones so who cares?
- conradev 6y ago
  I did not know this, thanks for teaching me something new! It goes at least back to BlackBerry OS 4, running on the BlackBerry Pearl, released in 2008 (but likely further back): > You can set permissions that control how third-party applications on your BlackBerry device interact with the other applications on your device. For example, you ca control whether third-party applications can access data or the Internet, make calls, or use Bluetooth® connections. https://www.t-mobile.com/support/public-files/images/legacy/legacy-blackberry-devices/BlackBerry_8100_User_Manual.pdf https://www.t-mobile.com/support/public-files/images/legacy/...
the_duke 6y ago
That's not true at all. Even early Nokia (Symbian) or Blackberry phones had fine grained permission prompts. As did early Android, actually, but they were deemed to annoying for users. Apple does deserve credit for leading and influencing Android in this regard, but neither the concept nor the implementation is new.
- conradev 6y ago
  Do you have a link to the Android thing? I'd be curious to learn more. I always thought early Android had transparency (showing what an app uses) but no control over changing it.
nojito 6y ago
This comment has no basis of truth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39iKLwlUqBo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39iKLwlUqBo Jobs @ D8 People are quick to forget because back then everyone (including HN) was praising Google for everything under the sun.
- conradev 6y ago
  In that video, Steve mentions the fact that iOS had location permission prompts before iOS 6 – is that what you are referring to as incorrect? Because that is a good catch, permission prompts were present at least as early as iOS 4.2: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corelocation/cllocationmanager/1423523-authorizationstatus https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corelocation/clloc... EDIT: Oh, I see, if you are referring to the PR or marketing portion, I think it is certainly clear that Apple had a pro-privacy stance, but that did not make its way into the company's _consumer_ marketing: https://web.archive.org/web/20120718122643/http://www.apple.com/ios/ios6/ https://web.archive.org/web/20120718122643/http://www.apple....
fomine3 6y ago
Android had permission system before iOS implement it, but it was just a prompt for list of permissions at install time so not much worth like current one.

conradev 6y ago

If you’re curious about more of the history (now, almost a decade ago), this was the scandal that likely motivated the above: https://www.theverge.com/2012/2/7/2782947/path-ios-app-user-information-collected-privacy https://www.theverge.com/2012/2/7/2782947/path-ios-app-user-... Congresspeople sent letters to app developers as a result (not even Apple, ha). iOS 6 was then seeded to the public four months after that article. But! It actually goes earlier than this. Apple started phasing out access to device identifiers used to track users across apps in iOS 5: https://techcrunch.com/2011/08/19/apple-ios-5-phasing-out-udid/ https://techcrunch.com/2011/08/19/apple-ios-5-phasing-out-ud... (again, none of this was marketed to anyone)

samisaviv 6y ago
If it was seeded 4 months after the article, it had absolutely nothing to do with the article.
- conradev 6y ago
  Yes, that makes sense, development timelines for these features are often far longer than we imagine.

tonyb 6y ago

The first except for Blackberry. Before IOS or Android even existed Blackberry had granular per app permissions. I don't disagree with your argument though, of the modern mobile OSs Apple moved to towards the per-app model before everyone else. I just find it interesting when Apple or Android gets coverage/credit for a feature that has long existed but was forgotten or ignored.

zymhan 6y ago
The problem is BB wasn't around by the time smartphones became more than a niche product. The list of prior work that influenced Apple, or any tech company, is usually far too long to list.
- itsoktocry 6y ago
  >The list of prior work that influenced Apple, or any tech company, is usually far too long to list. Agreed, but that doesn't mean we should default to "Apple was the first" simply because we can't wrap our heads around the pre-iPhone days.
WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
Actually, BB10 had an even better feature, you could provide dummy data to wrapped Android applications. So you could fill the Android contact data with an empty contact list and the app would be none-the-wiser. This feature was never advertised. But noone bought the phones so who cares?
conradev 6y ago
I did not know this, thanks for teaching me something new! It goes at least back to BlackBerry OS 4, running on the BlackBerry Pearl, released in 2008 (but likely further back): > You can set permissions that control how third-party applications on your BlackBerry device interact with the other applications on your device. For example, you ca control whether third-party applications can access data or the Internet, make calls, or use Bluetooth® connections. https://www.t-mobile.com/support/public-files/images/legacy/legacy-blackberry-devices/BlackBerry_8100_User_Manual.pdf https://www.t-mobile.com/support/public-files/images/legacy/...

the_duke 6y ago

That's not true at all. Even early Nokia (Symbian) or Blackberry phones had fine grained permission prompts. As did early Android, actually, but they were deemed to annoying for users. Apple does deserve credit for leading and influencing Android in this regard, but neither the concept nor the implementation is new.

conradev 6y ago
Do you have a link to the Android thing? I'd be curious to learn more. I always thought early Android had transparency (showing what an app uses) but no control over changing it.

nojito 6y ago

This comment has no basis of truth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39iKLwlUqBo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39iKLwlUqBo Jobs @ D8 People are quick to forget because back then everyone (including HN) was praising Google for everything under the sun.

conradev 6y ago
In that video, Steve mentions the fact that iOS had location permission prompts before iOS 6 – is that what you are referring to as incorrect? Because that is a good catch, permission prompts were present at least as early as iOS 4.2: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corelocation/cllocationmanager/1423523-authorizationstatus https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corelocation/clloc... EDIT: Oh, I see, if you are referring to the PR or marketing portion, I think it is certainly clear that Apple had a pro-privacy stance, but that did not make its way into the company's _consumer_ marketing: https://web.archive.org/web/20120718122643/http://www.apple.com/ios/ios6/ https://web.archive.org/web/20120718122643/http://www.apple....

fomine3 6y ago

Android had permission system before iOS implement it, but it was just a prompt for list of permissions at install time so not much worth like current one.