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TL;DR: We need SDK tracking prevention at the user device level. --- > [Google and Facebook] have been working closely to help Facebook "recognize users in au

TL;DR: We need SDK tracking prevention at the user device level. --- > [Google and Facebook] have been working closely to help Facebook "recognize users in auctions and bid and win more often." > "For example, Google and Facebook have integrated their software development kits (SDKs) so that Google can pass Facebook data for user ID cookie matching," the amended complaint says. Devs flipped out when Apple put code in iCloud Photos SDK to screen images prior to encrypted storage on Apple’s servers. Gist was “it’s my phone, not Apple’s phone, they have no right…” even though this was an SDK for user intent uploads. I raised the point this isn’t ‘just’ an Apple issue, it’s an SDK issue. Referenced the weather app SDK scandal a few years back when most weather apps were selling user tracking, many without even knowing. Similar happens with user/member/location SDKs across the board. Devs are incorporating user-hostile SDKs in their apps, with Google and FB among the top two. Users have dev’s apps running in their phones with no idea they’re giving those two firms broad reach. The SDK telemetry for user tracking aggregation is much more pervasive, hostile, and unexpected by users than a hash check on image upload. Tools like NextDNS.io, AdGuard, or eero Secure help block these SDKs’ tentacles but most DNS providers refuse to help. (CloudFlare, for instance — are their ad clients too big?) Apple’s new tracker blocking doesn’t help enough either, as it blocks some trackers but not ads which track, and breaks NextDNS and AdGuard (bug they say they’ll fix). This problem of common SDKs working across apps to ensure one way or another the user is caught in the dragnet demands a technical solution at the user device level.

smoldesu 5y ago
SDKs won't solve a fingerprinting problem. We can play a reductive game where we slowly strip devices of permissions in the name of 'security' but at the end of the day, anything connected to the internet is forced to relay enough information to be identifiable on a network.
- harry8 5y ago
  And if you leave your house no amount of armor can prevent you from being assaulted. This is why we have law and social norms that ensure there are consequences for committing assault and we leave our houses mostly without wearing armor. Ban the tracking. It's like toxic waste, if it's on your servers you're responsible for it. If you do it anyway and get found guilty you are banned from selling advertising for some number of years. The hint of a problem should see a significant immediate drop in the share price. Level playing field, same for everyone, if you can't survive that you don't have a viable business model anymore than any other racketeer whose run ends.
  - Terretta 5y ago
    These laws seem ... challenged? ... to deter unsolicited telemarking and SMS spam.
indymike 5y ago
An SDK is just a library I include in my app, initialize and call. The problem is that developers are having to include user tracking SDKs to make money. This goes back to the 30% fees charged by the app stores: for many apps it's better to be free and sell data than to try to make a profit on what's left after selling an app for $2 (also, the fact the app is only worth $2 to the user is an issue too).
- Terretta 5y ago
  Totally agree on the $2 worth -- the race to the bottom on pricing that happened after Apple introduced "free" freemium apps with no way to filter out free / subscription apps resulted in an incredible destruction of value. Every single app store version since the introduction of free, I file a bug asking for a filter to see only paid games. No free, and no IAP. I don't mind IAP to upgrade a free trial to paid, ideally the filter would differentiate. If the app store let USERS filter by broad categories, there's a good chance high end (price insensitive) users would stick to the top couple categories: - Purchased apps (one time purchase per semver major version, and Apple has to support upgrades) - Rented apps (subscription, recurring) - Rented features (levels of subscription unlocking levels of features, see Carrot) - Freemium (consumable IAPs: gacha, tokens, cosmetics, pay-to-win, etc.) - Targeting/ad supported (subclasses: tracking, non-tracking) - Free Then those top 2 or 3 categories and the truly free category could compete on value again without being lost in the dark pattern noise.

smoldesu 5y ago

SDKs won't solve a fingerprinting problem. We can play a reductive game where we slowly strip devices of permissions in the name of 'security' but at the end of the day, anything connected to the internet is forced to relay enough information to be identifiable on a network.

harry8 5y ago
And if you leave your house no amount of armor can prevent you from being assaulted. This is why we have law and social norms that ensure there are consequences for committing assault and we leave our houses mostly without wearing armor. Ban the tracking. It's like toxic waste, if it's on your servers you're responsible for it. If you do it anyway and get found guilty you are banned from selling advertising for some number of years. The hint of a problem should see a significant immediate drop in the share price. Level playing field, same for everyone, if you can't survive that you don't have a viable business model anymore than any other racketeer whose run ends.
- Terretta 5y ago
  These laws seem ... challenged? ... to deter unsolicited telemarking and SMS spam.

indymike 5y ago

An SDK is just a library I include in my app, initialize and call. The problem is that developers are having to include user tracking SDKs to make money. This goes back to the 30% fees charged by the app stores: for many apps it's better to be free and sell data than to try to make a profit on what's left after selling an app for $2 (also, the fact the app is only worth $2 to the user is an issue too).

Terretta 5y ago
Totally agree on the $2 worth -- the race to the bottom on pricing that happened after Apple introduced "free" freemium apps with no way to filter out free / subscription apps resulted in an incredible destruction of value. Every single app store version since the introduction of free, I file a bug asking for a filter to see only paid games. No free, and no IAP. I don't mind IAP to upgrade a free trial to paid, ideally the filter would differentiate. If the app store let USERS filter by broad categories, there's a good chance high end (price insensitive) users would stick to the top couple categories: - Purchased apps (one time purchase per semver major version, and Apple has to support upgrades) - Rented apps (subscription, recurring) - Rented features (levels of subscription unlocking levels of features, see Carrot) - Freemium (consumable IAPs: gacha, tokens, cosmetics, pay-to-win, etc.) - Targeting/ad supported (subclasses: tracking, non-tracking) - Free Then those top 2 or 3 categories and the truly free category could compete on value again without being lost in the dark pattern noise.