5 ms·

This is an OS privacy bug, and isn't specific to Facebook. If an app does not have location permissions, it should not receive the geolocation portion of photos

by jefftk 5y ago

This is an OS privacy bug, and isn't specific to Facebook. If an app does not have location permissions, it should not receive the geolocation portion of photos' EXIF metadata.

Taek 5y ago
This is also a Facebook problem. A responsible company would have disclosed a vulnerability instead of exploited it
- wartijn_ 5y ago
  Well of course, but we all know Facebook isn't a responsible company and Apple shouldn't assume that every app in its store is made by a responsible company.
  - sammorrowdrums 5y ago
    They're currently in court arguing about how they make users safer by curating the available software. Issues like this don't reflect well on that argument.
    - zepto 5y ago
      They reflect very well. Now that this vulnerability has been identified, they can fix it and solve the problem for their users.
      - thebean11 5y ago
        They could fix the problem regardless of whether the app was downloaded from the app store, a third party store, or just sideloaded, so I don't see what you're getting at.
        zepto 5y ago
        It sounds like you are saying this issue is irrelevant to the App Store. So how can it reflect badly on their case? The way it reflects well, is to notice that this is a small hole in their privacy measures which can easily be fixed, and the only reason we are talking about it is that for the most part their privacy controls work well. I.e. it demonstrates their seriousness about privacy.
        thebean11 5y ago
        > So how can it reflect badly on their case? Because these privacy violations are happening despite their locked down App Store. > The way it reflects well, is to notice that this is a small hole in their privacy measures which can easily be fixed Sure, it reflects well on Apple as a whole, but not on the app store. This issue is just as easy to fix for sideloaded apps because it's related to OS level permissions which sideloaded apps would still be subject to.
        zepto 5y ago
        >> So how can it reflect badly on their case? > Because these privacy violations are happening despite their locked down App Store. That’s an obviously false comparison. You are comparing against a perfect world, not against the real world. A valid comparison is against what privacy violations would be happening without the App Store. As a simple example, we know for certain that Facebook would be a doing a lot more tracking without the App Store, because they have told us in public that they would. Therefore the App Store is in fact protecting users against large categories of privacy concerns, and this easily corrected hole doesn’t change that.
        thebean11 5y ago
        > That’s an obviously false comparison. You are comparing against a perfect world, not against the real world. No I'm not, I'm comparing against a world where Apple allows sideloading, and this privacy issue exists in both. > because they have told us in public that they would. Source? Apple's new add tracking opt-in thing is on the OS level the same way this location tracking issue is. It would still work if the Facebook app was sideloaded from what I understand.
dan-robertson 5y ago
I don’t think that’s a sufficient fix though. E.g. many people may enable location sharing to messenger for legitimate uses like meeting up with friends in public places, and for a “15m of location shared to friend” feature they would need to turn location sharing up to at least the “allow while app is running” setting, but people doing that would surely not also intend for the app to also get the location of every photo they send to their friends (including photos that the OS(?) automatically tags with the current location when they are saved)
- jefftk 5y ago
  I'm not a privacy engineer, but the way I would expect it to work is that if you turn on location sharing for "while the app is running", then the app should get EXIF location data only for pictures you take while the app is running.
manquer 5y ago
Any bug/feature Facebook uses is also technically available to other apps on the platform, Facebook does not have privileged or first party access to the platform after all. The only difference is their size and capability to retaliate as compared to any other App developer.

by jefftk 5y ago

This is an OS privacy bug, and isn't specific to Facebook. If an app does not have location permissions, it should not receive the geolocation portion of photos' EXIF metadata.

Taek 5y ago

This is also a Facebook problem. A responsible company would have disclosed a vulnerability instead of exploited it

wartijn_ 5y ago
Well of course, but we all know Facebook isn't a responsible company and Apple shouldn't assume that every app in its store is made by a responsible company.
- sammorrowdrums 5y ago
  They're currently in court arguing about how they make users safer by curating the available software. Issues like this don't reflect well on that argument.
  - zepto 5y ago
    They reflect very well. Now that this vulnerability has been identified, they can fix it and solve the problem for their users.
    - thebean11 5y ago
      They could fix the problem regardless of whether the app was downloaded from the app store, a third party store, or just sideloaded, so I don't see what you're getting at.
      - zepto 5y ago
        It sounds like you are saying this issue is irrelevant to the App Store. So how can it reflect badly on their case? The way it reflects well, is to notice that this is a small hole in their privacy measures which can easily be fixed, and the only reason we are talking about it is that for the most part their privacy controls work well. I.e. it demonstrates their seriousness about privacy.
        thebean11 5y ago
        > So how can it reflect badly on their case? Because these privacy violations are happening despite their locked down App Store. > The way it reflects well, is to notice that this is a small hole in their privacy measures which can easily be fixed Sure, it reflects well on Apple as a whole, but not on the app store. This issue is just as easy to fix for sideloaded apps because it's related to OS level permissions which sideloaded apps would still be subject to.
        zepto 5y ago
        >> So how can it reflect badly on their case? > Because these privacy violations are happening despite their locked down App Store. That’s an obviously false comparison. You are comparing against a perfect world, not against the real world. A valid comparison is against what privacy violations would be happening without the App Store. As a simple example, we know for certain that Facebook would be a doing a lot more tracking without the App Store, because they have told us in public that they would. Therefore the App Store is in fact protecting users against large categories of privacy concerns, and this easily corrected hole doesn’t change that.
        thebean11 5y ago
        > That’s an obviously false comparison. You are comparing against a perfect world, not against the real world. No I'm not, I'm comparing against a world where Apple allows sideloading, and this privacy issue exists in both. > because they have told us in public that they would. Source? Apple's new add tracking opt-in thing is on the OS level the same way this location tracking issue is. It would still work if the Facebook app was sideloaded from what I understand.

dan-robertson 5y ago

I don’t think that’s a sufficient fix though. E.g. many people may enable location sharing to messenger for legitimate uses like meeting up with friends in public places, and for a “15m of location shared to friend” feature they would need to turn location sharing up to at least the “allow while app is running” setting, but people doing that would surely not also intend for the app to also get the location of every photo they send to their friends (including photos that the OS(?) automatically tags with the current location when they are saved)

jefftk 5y ago
I'm not a privacy engineer, but the way I would expect it to work is that if you turn on location sharing for "while the app is running", then the app should get EXIF location data only for pictures you take while the app is running.

manquer 5y ago

Any bug/feature Facebook uses is also technically available to other apps on the platform, Facebook does not have privileged or first party access to the platform after all. The only difference is their size and capability to retaliate as compared to any other App developer.