5 ms·
It’s worth noting that use of NEHotspotHelper requires a special entitlement (com.apple.developer.networking.HotspotHelper) that you have to apply for, and pre
by mrpippy 3y ago
It’s worth noting that use of NEHotspotHelper requires a special entitlement (com.apple.developer.networking.HotspotHelper) that you have to apply for, and presumably Apple won’t grant unless your app has a legitimate need for it.
That said, this maybe shows an incompatibility between Apple’s privacy strategy and “super-apps” like WeChat and AliPay. When a company shoves all functionality into one app, that app suddenly has all the entitlements, and it’s harder to tell when and how any sensitive data is being used.
The West generally doesn’t develop apps this way. For example, Comcast has a separate “WiFi Hotspots” app. Although LOL, they posted 2 days ago that its functionality is being combined into the main Xfinity app. Maybe the West is catching up.
- nequo 3y ago> com.apple.developer.networking.HotspotHelper Where do you revoke this entitlement on iOS? Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network? Or is this something else?
- yunohn 3y agoAFAIK entitlements are not necessarily exposed as toggles.
- lencastre 3y agoGeneral > Reset > Reset Location and Privacy Settings
- ycombinatrix 3y agoYou didn't grant any location access in the first place, so why would this work?
- tick_tock_tick 3y agoThis is one of the special ones so you're not allowed to; Apple picks for you per app.
- turquoisevar 3y agoYou can’t revoke entitlements, entitlements is the term used for developers who indicate that they intend to use a feature. Users are asked for permissions and those permissions can be revoked. This entitlement doesn’t correspond with its own unique permission, either it works without permission from the user or it might be bundled into Local Network or Location Permissions.
- bhpm 3y agoMusk wants Twitter to be a super app. https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/26/23808796/elon-musks-x-everything-app-vision https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/26/23808796/elon-musks-x-eve...
- rainworld 3y ago[flagged]
- kridsdale1 3y agoFacebook is a SuperApp. It had a WiFi-hotspot-finder in it for years.
- JKCalhoun 3y agoI love when I launch an app and then get a bevy of requests to access my Camera, my Microphone, my Contacts, etc... I nope out and if the functionality of the app is trashed, so goes the app.... Google Maps constantly hounding me to turn on precision location services, asking me if I am navigating for a friend and to allow access to my contacts... Wow, no.
- readams 3y agoYou don't think location is useful for a map ... ?
- amlib 3y agoWell, a physical map certainly doesn't keep pestering me for my location...
- JKCalhoun 3y agoIt wants precise location — which I take to mean war-driving WiFi. GPS I am okay with for a map app.
- dwaite 3y agoIIRC, Non-precise location is cell tower level location or the like, possibly a 12 square mile area. It is also very cheap if the device is already connected to a tower. Precise location may be from Apple's SSID database or from a GPS system. Non-precise location may help with getting more appropriate search results but won't help you with turn-by-turn navigation.
- JKCalhoun 3y agoReading the documentation I can't figure it out. It sounds like there are a lot of things that feed into "Precise Location" that go beyond GPS. It could be true though that only cell-tower reckoning is used without "Precise Location". I generally only pull up Google maps on longer road trips that aren't really turn-by-turn, so maybe I have the only use case for a map with weak location services.
- layer8 3y agoIs there a way for an end user to see which apps have this entitlement?
- rkunde 3y agoI don’t think you can unless you have a jailbroken device. If I remember correctly, entitlements are store in the AppStore receipt file.
- karmakaze 3y ago> presumably Apple won’t grant unless your app has a legitimate need for it. Increasingly clear that Apple is in charge of what happens on your devices not the users themselves.
- intelVISA 3y agoWasn't it ever thus?
- karmakaze 3y agoI had the first iPhone up to the 3GS. It didn't feel that way then. Now there are continuous software updates that keep changing arbitrary and invisible policies.
- kenferry 3y agoYou’re just more aware of it now. The privacy controls are MUCH tighter now than they were in that era. If you’re a software developer, you must understand that the user cannot actually understand what any code is doing. Even if you’re using open source, it’s an illusion to think you know what it’s doing. Heck, even the developer doesn’t know what it’s doing a lot of the time (how long does it take to figure out what’s happening with a tricky bug?). So yes, Apple’s policies do mediate what a developer can do on behalf of the user. That’s how it works.
- mcphage 3y ago> I had the first iPhone up to the 3GS. It didn't feel that way then. The history of smartphones is control being tightened further and further over time. With the phones you had, apps could track your location lots of different ways, and over time those data leaks are being bricked shut. Everything is moving in the direction from "Apps can do whatever they feel like" to "Apple controls what apps can do" to "The user controls what apps can do". This specific leak seems like it's stuck in the "Apple controls what apps can do" stage, so hopefully this post will help get it moving again.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tjoff 3y agoBig whoop. Consent is paramount and the assumption here that apple and you have aligned interest is pretty darn weak argument. The only thing of note here is that apple don't want you do know about it, which kind of circles back to aligned interests...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- rullelito 3y agoSo Apple decides which companies should have your location data? Niiiice