4 ms·

We need that for background scanning; Apple just cheats and does the same without really asking. We have never sold Tile user data. We did have a data platform

We need that for background scanning; Apple just cheats and does the same without really asking. We have never sold Tile user data. We did have a data platform for Life360, which we believe did no harm, but we exited the business as it seemed to cause confusion and was a very small part of our revenue

thedougd 3y ago
Thank you for your response. Please just let me say no once and for all. An occasional app banner is fine, but the system notifications is a step too far. That pushiness is what gave me the impression the location permission is more valuable to Tile than it is to me.
- skzv 3y ago
  The system wouldn't work without location permission.
  - thedougd 3y ago
    It works fine to find your own devices by giving it permission 'while using the app'.
    - renewiltord 3y ago
      The primary use case for these things requires other participants in the network. It doesn't look like this is a good product for you, yeah.
      - thedougd 3y ago
        I'm using Tile Stickers the same way they're depicted on their website, as a TV remote finder. Is that wrong?
        skzv 3y ago
        I use trackers for my keys and wallet, which wouldn't work very well if I only granted the location permission when in use. Granting background location permission means that I can get the last seen location of my items when I'm already out of range, and I can help others find their lost items, too, just like they can help me, as part of the network.
switz 3y ago
> "We did have a data platform for Life360, which we believe did no harm" I'm confused. Life360 was found selling precise user location data to third party data brokers[0]. It doesn't take a creative mind to see the harm (or even potential harm) caused here. I could never trust you or your company. [0] https://themarkup.org/privacy/2021/12/06/the-popular-family-safety-app-life360-is-selling-precise-location-data-on-its-tens-of-millions-of-user https://themarkup.org/privacy/2021/12/06/the-popular-family-... > A former X-Mode engineer said the raw location data the company received from Life360 was among X-Mode’s most valuable offerings due to the sheer volume and precision of the data. A former Cuebiq employee joked that the company wouldn’t be able to run its marketing campaigns without Life360’s constant flow of location data. ... > Two former Life360 employees also told The Markup that the company, while it states it anonymizes the data it sells, fails to take necessary precautions to ensure that location histories cannot be traced back to individuals. They said that while the company removed the most obvious identifying user information, it did not make efforts to “fuzz,” “hash,” aggregate, or reduce the precision of the location data to preserve privacy. > The former X-Mode engineer said that the company also received raw data from Life360. The company relies on its customers to obfuscate that data based on their specific applications, Hulls added.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- crhulls 3y ago
  The entire premise of "found" is a bit nuts as we are a public company and disclosed this regularly and consistently, including how we used the data. The coverage we got in the MarkUp was the most unethical I have seen in my life with reporters literally cutting/pasting parts of quotes to make a point. We had a data platform for targeted ads. I realize that isn't popular, but we were always transparent. We exited the business because it wasn't worth the controversy. Please go look at our public filings before you trust this article. We were so transparent about everything we did both to our users and the public. I do think our record of zero instances of harm show we had good safeguards in place.
  - hitekker 3y ago

thedougd 3y ago

Thank you for your response. Please just let me say no once and for all. An occasional app banner is fine, but the system notifications is a step too far. That pushiness is what gave me the impression the location permission is more valuable to Tile than it is to me.

skzv 3y ago
The system wouldn't work without location permission.
- thedougd 3y ago
  It works fine to find your own devices by giving it permission 'while using the app'.
  - renewiltord 3y ago
    The primary use case for these things requires other participants in the network. It doesn't look like this is a good product for you, yeah.
    - thedougd 3y ago
      I'm using Tile Stickers the same way they're depicted on their website, as a TV remote finder. Is that wrong?
      - skzv 3y ago
        I use trackers for my keys and wallet, which wouldn't work very well if I only granted the location permission when in use. Granting background location permission means that I can get the last seen location of my items when I'm already out of range, and I can help others find their lost items, too, just like they can help me, as part of the network.

switz 3y ago

> "We did have a data platform for Life360, which we believe did no harm" I'm confused. Life360 was found selling precise user location data to third party data brokers[0]. It doesn't take a creative mind to see the harm (or even potential harm) caused here. I could never trust you or your company. [0] https://themarkup.org/privacy/2021/12/06/the-popular-family-safety-app-life360-is-selling-precise-location-data-on-its-tens-of-millions-of-user https://themarkup.org/privacy/2021/12/06/the-popular-family-... > A former X-Mode engineer said the raw location data the company received from Life360 was among X-Mode’s most valuable offerings due to the sheer volume and precision of the data. A former Cuebiq employee joked that the company wouldn’t be able to run its marketing campaigns without Life360’s constant flow of location data. ... > Two former Life360 employees also told The Markup that the company, while it states it anonymizes the data it sells, fails to take necessary precautions to ensure that location histories cannot be traced back to individuals. They said that while the company removed the most obvious identifying user information, it did not make efforts to “fuzz,” “hash,” aggregate, or reduce the precision of the location data to preserve privacy. > The former X-Mode engineer said that the company also received raw data from Life360. The company relies on its customers to obfuscate that data based on their specific applications, Hulls added.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
crhulls 3y ago
The entire premise of "found" is a bit nuts as we are a public company and disclosed this regularly and consistently, including how we used the data. The coverage we got in the MarkUp was the most unethical I have seen in my life with reporters literally cutting/pasting parts of quotes to make a point. We had a data platform for targeted ads. I realize that isn't popular, but we were always transparent. We exited the business because it wasn't worth the controversy. Please go look at our public filings before you trust this article. We were so transparent about everything we did both to our users and the public. I do think our record of zero instances of harm show we had good safeguards in place.
- hitekker 3y ago