6 ms·

One thing missing (and has been for years): fine-tuned Contacts access control. Like the one for Photos. Apps want to access contacts and it’s all or nothing r

by WA 3y ago

One thing missing (and has been for years): fine-tuned Contacts access control. Like the one for Photos. Apps want to access contacts and it’s all or nothing right now. But Contacts also is quite integrated and is better if you fill in more details such as addresses and birthdates. So an app requesting access gets everything if you grant it. For Apple‘s pro-privacy stance, this oversight is quite painful.

lostlogin 3y ago
I notice that sharing a contact is now a bit more tactful and allows you to hide some info. Not an iOS 17 feature though.
judge2020 3y ago
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/contactsui/cncontactpickerviewcontroller https://developer.apple.com/documentation/contactsui/cnconta... iOS 9.0+. The blunder is Apple not deprecating CNContactStore, but then many apps really only work if they get your full contacts list (e.g. knowing when a friend joins Snapchat)
- Willamin 3y ago
  > many apps really only work if they get your full contacts list Too bad for those apps. They should be able to work whether I have 1000 contacts, 0 contacts, or any number in between. If they want to have a cool feature like alerting me when a friend joins, they are more than welcome to persuade me to provide my full contacts list so I get the most out of a feature.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- lxgr 3y ago
  > many apps really only work if they get your full contacts list (e.g. knowing when a friend joins Snapchat) Offering a privacy-preserving alternative to that would be a huge iOS feature. It seems like Apple even already has most of the necessary pieces for that in place (e.g. the contacts app already knows whether my contacts have FaceTime enabled, Messages knows who has iMessage etc.)
  - munk-a 3y ago
    Apple has all the necessary pieces in place - it has simply failed to take a hardline stance with apps that still want your full contact list. All apps (outside of ethical developers) want to get all your contacts since that data is valuable... Apple is the party here that is responsible for limiting their access to that data - and Apple customers are the part that is responsible for putting pressure on Apple to take that hardline stance... unfortunately the last party (outside of the technically apt as represented here) aren't particularly motivated to advocate for better privacy rules. Abstractly, sure - everyone wants better privacy, but the average user wouldn't be willing to go to any real effort to get it.
nier 3y ago
I’m not sure what your feature request exactly is but I guess it’s one of the following: - Access to all contacts - Access to selected contacts Additionally, for any of the two options above: - Access to all details - Access to selected details (e.g. phone, email) Lastly: - Access to all labels - Access to selected labels (e.g. home, work) So, finally, all Germans will be able to sleep at night knowing that they gave WhatsApp only permission to access their friends’ non-work phone numbers and nothing else. LOL
- asimops 3y ago
  Good germans have a business phone, so they can justify to be reachable 24/7! Obviously, the companys data protection office will prevent WhatsApp on the business phone, so no work phone numbers were at risk!
lancesells 3y ago
In conjunction, I would love the ability to have a flag that tells anyone that adds me to their Contacts in iOS to not give my info to any apps. Basically, take me off the share list. I'm not saying the end-user shouldn't be able to ignore this, but as part of these controls that would be great. I don't need or want a shadow-profile on Clubhouse or anything else.
- highwaylights 3y ago
  This seems like something that would need state-level legislation to get done, but I don't see who'd cough up the money you'd need to buy the politicians necessary to make this happen though.
npunt 3y ago
Absolutely. I'd add that we also need a privacy-preserving way to see that contacts have accounts on a given social app (aka contact matching). A standard pattern for social apps is to ask for access to your contacts to see if anyone you know is on their app. This is important to creating a healthy and diverse ecosystem of social software, because these apps are really up against the natural network effects of existing offerings. Contact matching is the best shot app creators have at bootstrapping new social offerings, but right now the experience sucks. Just to see if you like a new social app you have to either a) give up lots of private data in perpetuity to an entity you don't know, or b) have a subpar experience of manually finding people. One solution may be for Apple to offer an API that helps social apps match users. Apple acts as the escrow system to match contacts so that the apps never have access to private contact data, and the apps just get notice when there's a new contact match to offer the user. On the user side, the user has a simple privacy setting that says 'find matches once' or 'always look for new matches when app is open'. Users may also toggle whether they wish to be discoverable by others. In a world with this feature, we get to try new social apps without concern, and apps only have access to an anonymized user ID for our contacts that are also using the app.
- s3p 3y ago
  Hopefully Apple listens and implements something like this. They've already shown that they'll bend to their users even if it means screwing over developers and other large companies. App tracking transparency and precision location [1] come to mind. [1] https://9to5mac.com/2020/08/12/ios-14-precise-location/ https://9to5mac.com/2020/08/12/ios-14-precise-location/
  - callalex 3y ago
    They totally screwed up the location thing to the point of uselessness because they report what the user selects to the app, and scummy apps just disable themselves until you grant the permission they want.
    - phs318u 3y ago
      The choice to use a scummy app (and you should know if it's doing this that it's scummy), is still a choice.
hnbear 3y ago
Write but not read in cases like this and calendar would be nice too, or limiting read/write to the apps own entries. If I book an event let an app save it and read it’s own data, but not every event ever.
chunkyguy 3y ago
I miss no access control for speaker. There is global default. I turn on speakers for one music app and at next launch another social media app plays their ads on full volume.

by WA 3y ago

lostlogin 3y ago

I notice that sharing a contact is now a bit more tactful and allows you to hide some info. Not an iOS 17 feature though.

judge2020 3y ago

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/contactsui/cncontactpickerviewcontroller https://developer.apple.com/documentation/contactsui/cnconta... iOS 9.0+. The blunder is Apple not deprecating CNContactStore, but then many apps really only work if they get your full contacts list (e.g. knowing when a friend joins Snapchat)

Willamin 3y ago
> many apps really only work if they get your full contacts list Too bad for those apps. They should be able to work whether I have 1000 contacts, 0 contacts, or any number in between. If they want to have a cool feature like alerting me when a friend joins, they are more than welcome to persuade me to provide my full contacts list so I get the most out of a feature.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
lxgr 3y ago
> many apps really only work if they get your full contacts list (e.g. knowing when a friend joins Snapchat) Offering a privacy-preserving alternative to that would be a huge iOS feature. It seems like Apple even already has most of the necessary pieces for that in place (e.g. the contacts app already knows whether my contacts have FaceTime enabled, Messages knows who has iMessage etc.)
- munk-a 3y ago
  Apple has all the necessary pieces in place - it has simply failed to take a hardline stance with apps that still want your full contact list. All apps (outside of ethical developers) want to get all your contacts since that data is valuable... Apple is the party here that is responsible for limiting their access to that data - and Apple customers are the part that is responsible for putting pressure on Apple to take that hardline stance... unfortunately the last party (outside of the technically apt as represented here) aren't particularly motivated to advocate for better privacy rules. Abstractly, sure - everyone wants better privacy, but the average user wouldn't be willing to go to any real effort to get it.

nier 3y ago

I’m not sure what your feature request exactly is but I guess it’s one of the following: - Access to all contacts - Access to selected contacts Additionally, for any of the two options above: - Access to all details - Access to selected details (e.g. phone, email) Lastly: - Access to all labels - Access to selected labels (e.g. home, work) So, finally, all Germans will be able to sleep at night knowing that they gave WhatsApp only permission to access their friends’ non-work phone numbers and nothing else. LOL

asimops 3y ago
Good germans have a business phone, so they can justify to be reachable 24/7! Obviously, the companys data protection office will prevent WhatsApp on the business phone, so no work phone numbers were at risk!

lancesells 3y ago

In conjunction, I would love the ability to have a flag that tells anyone that adds me to their Contacts in iOS to not give my info to any apps. Basically, take me off the share list. I'm not saying the end-user shouldn't be able to ignore this, but as part of these controls that would be great. I don't need or want a shadow-profile on Clubhouse or anything else.

highwaylights 3y ago
This seems like something that would need state-level legislation to get done, but I don't see who'd cough up the money you'd need to buy the politicians necessary to make this happen though.

npunt 3y ago

Absolutely. I'd add that we also need a privacy-preserving way to see that contacts have accounts on a given social app (aka contact matching). A standard pattern for social apps is to ask for access to your contacts to see if anyone you know is on their app. This is important to creating a healthy and diverse ecosystem of social software, because these apps are really up against the natural network effects of existing offerings. Contact matching is the best shot app creators have at bootstrapping new social offerings, but right now the experience sucks. Just to see if you like a new social app you have to either a) give up lots of private data in perpetuity to an entity you don't know, or b) have a subpar experience of manually finding people. One solution may be for Apple to offer an API that helps social apps match users. Apple acts as the escrow system to match contacts so that the apps never have access to private contact data, and the apps just get notice when there's a new contact match to offer the user. On the user side, the user has a simple privacy setting that says 'find matches once' or 'always look for new matches when app is open'. Users may also toggle whether they wish to be discoverable by others. In a world with this feature, we get to try new social apps without concern, and apps only have access to an anonymized user ID for our contacts that are also using the app.

s3p 3y ago
Hopefully Apple listens and implements something like this. They've already shown that they'll bend to their users even if it means screwing over developers and other large companies. App tracking transparency and precision location [1] come to mind. [1] https://9to5mac.com/2020/08/12/ios-14-precise-location/ https://9to5mac.com/2020/08/12/ios-14-precise-location/
- callalex 3y ago
  They totally screwed up the location thing to the point of uselessness because they report what the user selects to the app, and scummy apps just disable themselves until you grant the permission they want.
  - phs318u 3y ago
    The choice to use a scummy app (and you should know if it's doing this that it's scummy), is still a choice.

hnbear 3y ago

Write but not read in cases like this and calendar would be nice too, or limiting read/write to the apps own entries. If I book an event let an app save it and read it’s own data, but not every event ever.

chunkyguy 3y ago

I miss no access control for speaker. There is global default. I turn on speakers for one music app and at next launch another social media app plays their ads on full volume.