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Google is now telling users its apps are out of date. No updates are available
- jarym 6y agoGoogle are so unfocused on users nothing shocks me anymore. The most likely reason they haven’t updated the apps yet are because they don’t need to; their profits come from other things. It’s becoming a huge liability - Google have their tentacles in so many things that average users take for granted. Just letting them wither on the vine seems irresponsible but honestly why are we complaining? It was all free so Google could get all the personalisation and tracking data and now they have it there’s what reason to actually invest in user experience (not in the design sense)
- dfabulich 6y agoI don't reproduce this. Did Google fix the issue?
- 8note 6y agoIs this actually a big deal? It seems like they accidentally updated some servers before the rollout?
- dfabulich 6y agoThe "big deal" is that Google hasn't updated any of its apps since Dec 8, due to ongoing privacy war with Apple over Google's iOS apps. Google refuses to admit, as Facebook has, to tracking everything you do in every possible way. This is "just" the first big thing to break as a result.
- hn_throwaway_99 6y agoI see articles like this with a semi-conspiratorial angle and I just roll my eyes. They had a bug, and they fixed it. Not everything is part of some master plot.
- dessant 6y agoWhat other angle is more plausible for Google not updating any of its iOS apps for the past two months, than the one presented in the article? https://apps.apple.com/us/developer/google-llc/id281956209 https://apps.apple.com/us/developer/google-llc/id281956209
- aaomidi 6y agoLack of good API s from Apple to set privacy levels programmatically? I can see that as an issue.
- gerash 6y agoA non conspiratorial interpretation is if an app uses a bunch of upstream libraries that change their behavior every time someone checks in a change you want these labels to be automatically updated because you don't want media articles for every mistake. All these need some new release process.
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- tehlike 6y agoThe very likely explanation is google is trying to do a cleanup - either removing the data from the mentioned apps from ads systems, or building transparency tools to give you more control. disclaimer: ex-googler in ads.
- dfabulich 6y agoI think this is a case of Google's security team saying "we should automatically warn apps that are two months out of date that they need to update," incorrectly assuming that their own apps would always update at least once every 60 days. Can you imagine being an iOS developer working on Gmail right now, having shipped literally nothing this year? I'd be requesting an internal transfer (and/or polishing my resume).
- tehlike 6y agoYou are right, i was more talking about why google might be stalling.
- dataflow 6y ago> Can you imagine being an iOS developer working on Gmail right now, having shipped literally nothing this year? "This year" as in 6 weeks? Is that a lot in Google or iOS-land?
- jasonv 6y agoPrevious to this the Google apps got frequent updates. It’s documented out there. Nothing since Dec 8 is probably as notable for devs working on features (but not this effort) as it is to us wondering when the apps are going to be updated.
- esrauch 6y ago"Frequent updates" would still only be 1-2 releases by now for each app. The graph of updates stopping above overlays all the different apps which have offset releases
- altitudinous 6y agoMy unpopular opinion is that these specific Google apps are advertising supported, and Apple are cutting them off from advertising revenue with the unavailability of IDFA on iOS14.5. What is the motivation for Google to maintain these apps on iOS if these expensive apps no longer earn revenue for the company? It will harm Apple iPhone sales if these apps are no longer available on iOS as they are some of the most popular in the world, so I'd say there is either wheeling and dealing behind the scenes to cut a deal where Apple pay Google to maintain these apps, or Apple are in panic mode trying to bring their own apps up to the level of the Google ones. Google Maps and Apple Maps may be near equivalents in the USA, but in the rest of the world Apple Maps is far behind.
- notatoad 6y agoI guess Google maps might use the IDFA, but photos doesn't have ads and Gmail only works when you're signed in, so a theory that this is related to the IDFA doesn't really hold water.
- frongpik 6y agoThe iOS app may collect data, so ads would be displayed in Chrome on another device. The actual scheme is probably much more complicated.
- notatoad 6y agoBut if you're signed in with your google account, they don't need apple to allow them to access an anonymized advertiser id. They have everything they need to track you across iOS and Chrome. The IDFA is completely irrelevant to them here. Somebody broke something. It's kinda funny for us and embarrassing for Google, but its not a conspiracy
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- minikites 6y agoThis policy was announced in June, what is taking Google so long? Do they really have that much to hide or is the iOS developer team really that incompetent?
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoGoogle believes in running out the clock. In it's antitrust investigations it always responds on the last day allowed... after requesting as many extensions as possible. The truth is that the status quo of Google being a privacy-violating unregulated monopoly is incredibly profitable, so they're going to drag out changing that to the last possible moment.
- justapassenger 6y agoHave you ever worked on really big complex app, working on top of even more complex backend, where suddenly big set of requirements changes? Especially, as getting update right is really critical. People give big tech no credit for trying to be honest (and for often good reason - lots of their decision are shady/have more details that are omitted), but they won’t intentionally straight out lie about how they use your data - that’s a legal suicide. Huge amount of due diligence is needed when scope of what’s allowed is changing.
- zwily 6y agoWhy not just update the app and check every user-tracking box on the form like Facebook did? We already know we are tracked at insane levels by Google.
- minikites 6y agoExactly, doing what this comment describes should not have taken eight months no matter how dysfunctional the organization is.
- ArtTimeInvestor 6y agoDoes anybody trust these privacy labels? What keeps companies from submitting some labels and be done with it? While still track everything for whatever purpose they like? Nobody can check what they are doing on their servers.
- spenvo 6y agoCompanies hoping to avoid the shame of answering the questions truthfully have allegedly misled users about their collection practices, according to the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/29/apple-privacy-nutrition-label/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/29/apple-p...
- coddle-hark 6y agoBut you can check what your device is sending to their servers. Intentionally lying about data collection seems like an easy way to get kicked off the App Store entirely.
- ArtTimeInvestor 6y agoAll traffic is encrypted these days. So you cannot check it. Also the labels are not so much about what data is sent but about what the companies do with the data. Example: Do they just use your position once to show you relevant search results, or do they create a location history of you? Do they sell that history? Do they combine it with other data about you? There is no way to know.
- coddle-hark 6y ago> All traffic is encrypted these days. So you cannot check it. Of course you can, just configure your phone to use a MITM proxy (e.g. burp). This won’t work for apps that use certificate pinning but most apps don’t. Of course, you still don’t know what data they really store and/or sell.
- welder 6y agoWhen looking at my app's settings, it's using the honor system for these labels. Apple is giving companies a way to display privacy info on their app's page, but the labels aren't verified. Think of it the same as the app's description field.
- sfgweilr4f 6y ago...Unsupported legacy apps like these are usually full of security holes and other nasty surprises... (This is a likely comment if this was to go on for 6 months). Given I have an ipad and don't see these messages about these apps, eg gmail, I'm not sure what to make of this article. Is this a region based thing? Automated expiry notice because they (rightly) deliberately release often?
- jay_kyburz 6y agoEverybody is piling on Google here, but this is just a lag in Apples store. Google pushed and update, the sever tests if you have the required update, if not directs you to the app store. Apple haven't made the update available in the store. We see it all the time in games. It sucks. You have to go play something else for a while.
- jjcon 6y agoNot what is happening > https://twitter.com/Thomasbcn/status/1356645088697454596/photo/1 https://twitter.com/Thomasbcn/status/1356645088697454596/pho...
- Traubenfuchs 6y agoThis proves Google doesn't have control over the big picture. They got badly surprised by their own security warning. They are lying about the situation while knowing we know they are lying. No message control / (social) media control. Does Google even have a public relations teams? A press officer? Is anyone managing all of this? Hello? Is somebody home? 6 + 2 months without progress from a company with infinite money -what is going on at Google? Fits right in with what happened to Terraria.
- bloqs 6y agoWhat happened with Terraria?
- detaro 6y agoGoogle banned the devs Google account and after 3 weeks of being unable to talk to a human about it and get it fixed he cancelled the Stadia port.
- 2pEXgD0fZ5cF 6y agoHe is still banned by the way: https://twitter.com/Demilogic/status/1359610849674088449 https://twitter.com/Demilogic/status/1359610849674088449
- purplecats 6y agosadly, he seems bitter, which goes against his "This is ridiculous, I'm leaving" attitude
- ceejayoz 6y agoWhy can’t one be bitter about being impacted by something ridiculous?
- cnlp10 6y agoThis new "bitter" meme that started some time last year is the latest way that people use to discredit dissenters even more. There is anger, righteous anger, biblical fury, disappointment, inner emigration, reacting strongly while actually being amused, reacting strongly while not caring and about 50 more shades of underlying feelings. "bitter" is appropriate for the feeling when a spouse cheats after 20 years of marriage and it actually affects you. "bitter" as currently used on the internet is just propaganda that tries to inflict maximum damage on dissenters. It often comes from corporate-adjacent developers.
- Havoc 6y agoGoogle scrambling behind the scenes to rip privacy invasive code out of their apps seems like the most likely explanation to me
- josefx 6y agoOthers mention they had 8 months time for that. Maybe they just want to give Apple users a worse / less secure experience and hope Apple gives in.
- FridgeSeal 6y agoGiven how google web properties have behaved towards non-chrome browser-headers in the past, that would be absolutely in the realms of plausibility.
- seanieb 6y agoThis seems like a difficult position for Google. Take Gmail for example. For GSuite users vs free personal users, the privacy handling and the information needed to be disclosed will be far different in Gmail. I wonder will the end up creating a separate Gsuite Gmail app?
- seddin 6y agoIt might be the best time to download a copy of your Google Drive data, plus your emails, just in case...
- theandrewbailey 6y agoA link might be helpful: https://takeout.google.com https://takeout.google.com
- swiley 6y agoWhy is this down voted? I've been locked out of my google account because of misbehaving AI and I seriously regret not downloading my photos and emails.
- hypertele-Xii 6y agoAlso set up a non-Gmail email and redirect your account recovery across all services there, because if Google suddenly bans you from Gmail and it's your only recovery email for a service, you may get locked out of it permanently.
- danlugo92 6y agoThis is one of the reasons why I don't buy digital assets. And when I buy them I ensure they are not tied to automated faceless recovery mechanisms. I use google photos, and I will have to pay for it starting june, but I keep offline backups. Of course, I pay for non-critical from big tech like Spotify which I don't care if I suddenly lose my account tomorrow.
- IshKebab 6y ago> While Google stalls on pushing updates to its apps, it’s notable that its rivals like Apple Maps, are continuing to innovate with new features in their apps. Ha, I actually followed that link, curious what new features Apple Maps has. The only update listed there is this: > Apple Maps update to add Google Maps and Waze-like incident reporting Ok then.
- johnchristopher 6y ago> Presumably, this was an automatic notice that pops up when Google's app updates hit a certain age and are meant to catch people who haven't been to the App Store in a while So, statements in the screenshot like "the version you are using doesn't include the latest security features” are lies, uh ?