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"To date Apple have responded only with silence," So business as usual for Apple. I suppose they have no fear of losing market share from losing their "privac

by AwaAwa 5y ago

"To date Apple have responded only with silence," So business as usual for Apple. I suppose they have no fear of losing market share from losing their "privacy" moniker. Too many folks that are locked in to the brand, and who will now happily switch to saying Apple's data collection is 'better/ok'.

MrWiffles 5y ago
And it’s not like there’s a viable alternative available anyway. Yet another reason I strongly support antitrust measures against both these companies.
- ekianjo 5y ago
  Antitrust wont solve the privacy problem at all. Its the wrong tool for the job.
  - Jcowell 5y ago
    Exactly , in this case it’s like the Tower of Babel except you’re not addressing why the people started building a tower in the first place . Eventually , once they get their shit together, another tower will be built.
- brundolf 5y ago
  This is the real problem. All they really have to be is a razor's edge better than Google, which it sounds like they still (arguably) are.
- reginold 5y ago
  No viable alternative...today. Donate to open source, support Linux, buy a Pinephone!
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - amelius 5y ago
    Or Librem.
shkkmo 5y ago
The funny part is that Apple (unlike google) refused to respond to Leithman's numerous requests for comment/clarification but then is happy to have their PR trash the accuracy of the paper to journalists.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
throwme159 5y ago
Privacy is just a bonus. I like not having to fuck with my stuff to have it work, or see ads in my “Start menu”.
threeseed 5y ago
> "To date Apple have responded only with silence," Not sure what more Apple could add that hasn't been thoroughly documented in their security [1] and privacy [2] overviews. It's not like something new has been discovered by TomsGuide that people weren't aware of before. [1] https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1902/en_US/apple-platform-security-guide.pdf https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1902/en_US/app... [2] https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/pdfs/apple-privacy-policy-en-ww.pdf https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/pdfs/apple-privacy-polic...
- dannyw 5y ago
  Give an opt out for location sharing, how about that? The location collection described in this paper cannot be turned off, and it happens every 4-5 minutes even if you have disabled location services!
  - barsonme 5y ago
    The paper uses IP addresses as a proxy for location. They’re not sharing (fuzzy) coordinates unless you enable location sharing. The only way to prevent that is that is to never make network requests. That’s probably a reasonable expectation, but it’s certainly not the same thing as sending your lat/long every few minutes.
    - kamray23 5y ago
      Well they do log surrounding network hardware which are broadcasting, so visible Bluetooth, devices on the same wifi, the APs themselves, etc. This allows a rough estimate of the locations of visible devices which are not made by Apple. The only way to opt out of that is to not be visible on public networks and to not bring an iPhone onto your house network.
  - neuronic 5y ago
    Don't use a product which has "ecosystem" as a feature then. Sending MAC addresses and their locations sounds like Apple devices try to establish a consistent local awareness of surrounding devices, e.g. for "Find My".
resonious 5y ago
Indeed. And when it comes to something invisible like software, a company doesn't really need to implement real privacy in order to uphold a "privacy" moniker. It's a similar story with "security", as Zoom demonstrated somewhat recently. 99% of users have no way to actually check a smartphone to see "how private" it is, or "how secure" it is. And I imagine another large portion of users doesn't read tech news, and so they won't see these kinds of articles. So all Apple needs to do is put on a show about privacy, since that's what users actually see.

by AwaAwa 5y ago

MrWiffles 5y ago

And it’s not like there’s a viable alternative available anyway. Yet another reason I strongly support antitrust measures against both these companies.

ekianjo 5y ago
Antitrust wont solve the privacy problem at all. Its the wrong tool for the job.
- Jcowell 5y ago
  Exactly , in this case it’s like the Tower of Babel except you’re not addressing why the people started building a tower in the first place . Eventually , once they get their shit together, another tower will be built.
brundolf 5y ago
This is the real problem. All they really have to be is a razor's edge better than Google, which it sounds like they still (arguably) are.
reginold 5y ago
No viable alternative...today. Donate to open source, support Linux, buy a Pinephone!
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- amelius 5y ago
  Or Librem.

shkkmo 5y ago

The funny part is that Apple (unlike google) refused to respond to Leithman's numerous requests for comment/clarification but then is happy to have their PR trash the accuracy of the paper to journalists.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

throwme159 5y ago

Privacy is just a bonus. I like not having to fuck with my stuff to have it work, or see ads in my “Start menu”.

threeseed 5y ago

> "To date Apple have responded only with silence," Not sure what more Apple could add that hasn't been thoroughly documented in their security [1] and privacy [2] overviews. It's not like something new has been discovered by TomsGuide that people weren't aware of before. [1] https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1902/en_US/apple-platform-security-guide.pdf https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1902/en_US/app... [2] https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/pdfs/apple-privacy-policy-en-ww.pdf https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/pdfs/apple-privacy-polic...

dannyw 5y ago
Give an opt out for location sharing, how about that? The location collection described in this paper cannot be turned off, and it happens every 4-5 minutes even if you have disabled location services!
- barsonme 5y ago
  The paper uses IP addresses as a proxy for location. They’re not sharing (fuzzy) coordinates unless you enable location sharing. The only way to prevent that is that is to never make network requests. That’s probably a reasonable expectation, but it’s certainly not the same thing as sending your lat/long every few minutes.
  - kamray23 5y ago
    Well they do log surrounding network hardware which are broadcasting, so visible Bluetooth, devices on the same wifi, the APs themselves, etc. This allows a rough estimate of the locations of visible devices which are not made by Apple. The only way to opt out of that is to not be visible on public networks and to not bring an iPhone onto your house network.
- neuronic 5y ago
  Don't use a product which has "ecosystem" as a feature then. Sending MAC addresses and their locations sounds like Apple devices try to establish a consistent local awareness of surrounding devices, e.g. for "Find My".

resonious 5y ago

Indeed. And when it comes to something invisible like software, a company doesn't really need to implement real privacy in order to uphold a "privacy" moniker. It's a similar story with "security", as Zoom demonstrated somewhat recently. 99% of users have no way to actually check a smartphone to see "how private" it is, or "how secure" it is. And I imagine another large portion of users doesn't read tech news, and so they won't see these kinds of articles. So all Apple needs to do is put on a show about privacy, since that's what users actually see.