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Google hasn’t updated their iOS apps for 2 months to avoid new privacy labels
- leokennis 6y agoPart one of the title is true. Part two of the title is probably true but we don’t know.
- barnaclejive 6y ago"Quite a few of these apps (Drive, Docs, Sheets, Keep, Duo) were updated on December 7, the very last day to get in app updates before the new privacy requirements"
- ThePadawan 6y agoAs others pointed out, this might not mean "Google is deliberately trying to avoid defining the applicable privacy labels", it could mean "Google has prohibited developers from pushing updates until they legally figured out what the applicable privacy labels are".
- johannes1234321 6y agoIf they need such a time, they haven't their house in order. At that size and the sensitivity of the data Google deals with, there must be constant monitoring or they act irresponsible.
- mouzogu 6y agoHow can I move away from Google. All my millions of accounts and services (even ones I've forgotten and may one day need) are linked to my Gmail. And frankly, I find it hard to trust many others with some of my secure information (passwords) etc that I keep on my account...I feel like Google probably have some of the best of "anti-hacking" for lack of a better term. I find MS services a pita to use and Apple, I just don't want to pay for their HW, it's not good value (to me).
- cute_boi 6y agoI just forwarded all the email to fast mail and it has worked properly.
- mamon 6y agoSo Google is still getting all your email, you're just never logging in to Gmail UI... Don't see the point.
- m-p-3 6y agoThe end-goal is to gradually update your email adress in your third-party account to FastMail, and you keep the email forward enabled just in case you forgot to migrate one or someome tries to reach you through Gmail by mistake.
- atraac 6y agoI did the same but that's not really moving away from google. They still know what emails you receive, what you buy, who you write with, what websites you use. I slowly, one by one, move each website that I use whenever I notice it goes to my old email or I login using my old email.
- majormjr 6y agoThis is also how I transitioned to Fastmail. Forward all mail from gmail to your own domain and then slowly unsubscribe or update the email on any that you receive. Eventually you will have most of your accounts and subscriptions moved over to your own domain. I still keep the email forwarding enabled just in case any old accounts send me something.
- patentatt 6y agoYou can set up pop3 access on fast mail to grab your legacy gmail mail while you transition to a domain and address that you own and control. I still have mine but only get 1-2 messages a month to my old gmail address.
- macintux 6y ago
- cute_boi 6y agoLooks like Google is embarrassed to admit what they collect from user. Fortunately Google makes Android so they can hide the facts.
- SquareWheel 6y ago> Making it easy to understand what data we collect and why https://safety.google/privacy/data/ https://safety.google/privacy/data/
- Darmody 6y agoThat's the part they tell you about.
- hn_throwaway_99 6y agoGoogle doesn't need to have some nefarious, hidden tracking program. They're pretty transparent about it and everyone still uses Google products. That's what I think is so great about Apple's stance: they're forcing providers to give users a choice, because I think most people would greatly prefer NOT to have all the off-site surveillance but still be able to use Google products.
- izacus 6y agoSo you think they'll magically declare to Apple what they've been hiding from you as the user? :D
- Nextgrid 6y agoGiven that Apple's changes have riled up Facebook like nothing else (not even regulations such as the GDPR), it's not that far-fetched to believe that Apple has more leverage here and Google may choose to tread very carefully.
- bogwog 6y agoWhat would be the consequences for Google if that page was inaccurate, misleading, or untruthful?
- Traster 6y agoI wonder if some of the developers are feeling a bit uneasy "What happens if senior management realises that we've not realised anything on iOS for a month and no one cares?" What exactly are Google paying the people writing these apps for? What happens if you fire half of Google's app dev staff and it has no effect on revenue.
- nowherebeen 6y agoBig tech prefers overpaying programmers to stay in their job than be their potential competitors in the future.
- v7p1Qbt1im 6y agoExactly. It might for example make (business) sense for Google and Facebook to round up every single ML PHD and just keep them busy so they don‘t work for anyone else. That way other companies are dependent on them and they keep resources from competitors. I actually love the Silicon Valley (HBO Show) analogy of engineers hanging out on the roof being „unassigned“.
- rafale 6y agoThe rooftop thing was a "rest and vest" situation. Different from keeping talent busy. Something Microsoft did by letting their top engineers build a brand new OS that was never meant for market. Forgot its name, Singularity OS?
- qwerty1234599 6y agoOne month is NOTHING. Companies do not care about a month. Users do not care about a month. Nothing changes within a month of development anyways. Now go 2 years without an update, and it would start to show. 5 years, and the general consensus would be "the app is outdated" This is what happened to IE, btw. They stopped updating it for 5 years. We all know what happened afterwards once the momentum was lost.
- 6y ago
- karlzt 6y agoPrevious discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26096320 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26096320
- mchusma 6y agoI think it's possible this is driven by legal, and not marketing. I found the app store privacy label questions very confusing if you think about it for too long. Their legal teammay want the product teams to wait until they get more clarity on how these questions will be commonly answered, etc before releasing. Otherwise they may face a flood of legal claims.
- seanieb 6y agoNot to mention that the labels might read different depending in the user or context. For example Google Apps Gmail vs free consumer email.
- blunte 6y agoInteresting how far we've come. There was a time when a new version of an application came along every 2-3 years or longer; or never (it was fully baked and did what it said on the package, from day one). Now we suffer from update fatigue, where half the time we fire up an app or turn on a device, it must spend a few minutes updating apps. I'm not convinced that we always get value from these updates. (Security updates are indeed important, but sometimes their need is evidence of pushing out features too soon, without proper testing and review.) Google Calendar seems to do everything I need and more; same with Gmail. I don't want new versions of them unless there's a really compelling reason. I sure don't want < 2 month release cycles.
- Icathian 6y agoIn fairness, I think that while you mention security as a main source of this, you have it a bit out of order. Security pressures and expectations are substantially higher these days. Applications written thirty years ago faced far fewer attacks, and with generally less consequence for failure, than they do today. Probably by orders of magnitude though that would be hard to actually measure. Increased patching to address this reality seems unavoidable, at least until we understand how to produce truly secure software on the first try far better than we currently do.
- adkadskhj 6y agoAlso applications written 30 years ago today were often self contained applications. Something you can test in a variety of environments as a reasonable proxy to the end user. Today with SaaS/etc offerings you have very different difficulty spikes. Imagine only rolling out an update once a year to 1B customers. Especially with all the big changes that might entail. I can't imagine the fear. Releasing often irons out small problems before they become massive problems. Or, at least, is a strategy to attempt that.
- pca006132 6y agoAccording to the post website, the Google Search app updated 27 times this year... is that really this insecure? And honestly, I don't get the idea of making an app for every service where a simple web app suffices. Why making a native app that requires installation when you can do it through the browser?
- ch4s3 6y agoThis might be what gets me to switch to fastmail.
- draw_down 6y agoDo it or don’t, friend
- mechnesium 6y agoThey’re probably trying to figure out a workaround.
- john_alan 6y agoStill no PIP in the app, so annoying.
- kmfrk 6y agoFeels like a wild ride going from DoubleClick getting flagged as literal spyware back in the day to everyone normalizing tracking to iOS cracking down on stuff like this
- powerapple 6y agoGoogle Maps, YouTube and gmail are the three products I still use. I will try to use Apple Maps more, but I dont see how I can replace other two.
- 93po 6y agoI've used fastmail instead of gmail for years and much prefer it even if it's an inferior product. I still use google calendar and youtube (vanced) and google voice (still not any good way to text using my carrier on a browser that I know of)
- herf 6y agoThe day after this article (i.e. yesterday), some things are updating again: https://9to5google.com/2021/02/12/google-youtube-iphone-update/ https://9to5google.com/2021/02/12/google-youtube-iphone-upda...