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If this is at all like the eye tracking in Vision Pro, it is only available to the OS and apps are not given access to the data.

happyopossum 2y ago
Until the EU comes in and forces them to ‘open up’ the functionality in the name of ‘fairness’…
- Tijdreiziger 2y ago
  If you look at the current things the EU has forced them to open up (app distribution and NFC payments), both of them are things that Apple was already actively monetizing. To compare this to a non-monetized accessibility feature is a bit disingenuous. The whole notion of ‘fairness’ is that gatekeepers should allow others to compete on even footing. That can be fulfilled by granting EITHER everybody OR nobody access to the market (but not: only yourself).
mistrial9 2y ago
for now - it is naive to think this is safe
- sroussey 2y ago
  Eye tracking has been on iOS for many years (as an option for faceid called attention).
  - stacktrust 2y ago
    Avoidable via iPhone SE3 and iPad Air, which both use TouchID.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
ben_w 2y ago
System one is, but advertisers could always roll their own and see if they can get away with "you can only view this content if you give us permission to use your camera".
- LordKeren 2y ago
  This would not pass the App Review process
- favorited 2y ago
  At least on iOS, I can't imagine that happening - apps are not allowed to demand you grant permissions unrelated to the actual functionality. From App Review Guidelines (5.1.1) Data Collection and Storage, (ii) Access: > Apps must respect the user’s permission settings and not attempt to manipulate, trick, or force people to consent to unnecessary data access. For example, apps that include the ability to post photos to a social network must not also require microphone access before allowing the user to upload photos. Lots of iOS apps today really want to mine your address book, and constantly spam you with dialogs to enable it, but they don't go as far as disabling other features until you grant them access, because they'd get rejected once someone noticed.
  - amlib 2y ago
    It's not that hard to come with ways to circumvent system restrictions, after all, advertisers are a fierce adversary and have shown many clever ways of invading users privacy in web browsers and mobile apps. In the case of eye tracking I could see a situation where the system perhaps feeds the "malicious" app in question with a hint of which widget is being currently gazed by the user. You could then just build a giant grid of invisible widgets covering the whole app window and use that to reconstruct the all the eye tracking happening inside your app.
    - dialup_sounds 2y ago
      The system doesn't supply data like widget highlight states to apps for exactly that reason.
bun_at_work 2y ago
Until people complain that Apple is being anti-competitive by not making vision tracking open, or allowing third-party eye-tracking controls, etc. etc.

happyopossum 2y ago

Until the EU comes in and forces them to ‘open up’ the functionality in the name of ‘fairness’…

Tijdreiziger 2y ago
If you look at the current things the EU has forced them to open up (app distribution and NFC payments), both of them are things that Apple was already actively monetizing. To compare this to a non-monetized accessibility feature is a bit disingenuous. The whole notion of ‘fairness’ is that gatekeepers should allow others to compete on even footing. That can be fulfilled by granting EITHER everybody OR nobody access to the market (but not: only yourself).

mistrial9 2y ago

for now - it is naive to think this is safe

sroussey 2y ago
Eye tracking has been on iOS for many years (as an option for faceid called attention).
- stacktrust 2y ago
  Avoidable via iPhone SE3 and iPad Air, which both use TouchID.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

ben_w 2y ago

System one is, but advertisers could always roll their own and see if they can get away with "you can only view this content if you give us permission to use your camera".

LordKeren 2y ago
This would not pass the App Review process
favorited 2y ago
At least on iOS, I can't imagine that happening - apps are not allowed to demand you grant permissions unrelated to the actual functionality. From App Review Guidelines (5.1.1) Data Collection and Storage, (ii) Access: > Apps must respect the user’s permission settings and not attempt to manipulate, trick, or force people to consent to unnecessary data access. For example, apps that include the ability to post photos to a social network must not also require microphone access before allowing the user to upload photos. Lots of iOS apps today really want to mine your address book, and constantly spam you with dialogs to enable it, but they don't go as far as disabling other features until you grant them access, because they'd get rejected once someone noticed.
- amlib 2y ago
  It's not that hard to come with ways to circumvent system restrictions, after all, advertisers are a fierce adversary and have shown many clever ways of invading users privacy in web browsers and mobile apps. In the case of eye tracking I could see a situation where the system perhaps feeds the "malicious" app in question with a hint of which widget is being currently gazed by the user. You could then just build a giant grid of invisible widgets covering the whole app window and use that to reconstruct the all the eye tracking happening inside your app.
  - dialup_sounds 2y ago
    The system doesn't supply data like widget highlight states to apps for exactly that reason.

bun_at_work 2y ago

Until people complain that Apple is being anti-competitive by not making vision tracking open, or allowing third-party eye-tracking controls, etc. etc.