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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 G

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.
- miki123211 2y ago
  This is not about technical restrictions and finding weird legal loopholes, Apple's guidelines don't work that way. It's the spirit that matters, not the letter.
burnerthrow008 2y ago
Fortunately apps in the EU don’t have to pass though Apple’s anticompetitive review process, so developers are free to ignore that rule if they simply distribute the app via an alternative store. Unfortunately, poor Americans cannot taste the freedom that Europeans have to be abused by developers.
- ben_w 2y ago
  I was thinking similar (only without the snark); but then I realised this is almost certainly not compatible with GDPR.
- favorited 2y ago
  Fortunately, the Americans who create these products extract more value from the EU than they invest, or they wouldn’t bother trading with you <3

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.
miki123211 2y ago
This is not about technical restrictions and finding weird legal loopholes, Apple's guidelines don't work that way. It's the spirit that matters, not the letter.

burnerthrow008 2y ago

Fortunately apps in the EU don’t have to pass though Apple’s anticompetitive review process, so developers are free to ignore that rule if they simply distribute the app via an alternative store. Unfortunately, poor Americans cannot taste the freedom that Europeans have to be abused by developers.

ben_w 2y ago
I was thinking similar (only without the snark); but then I realised this is almost certainly not compatible with GDPR.
favorited 2y ago
Fortunately, the Americans who create these products extract more value from the EU than they invest, or they wouldn’t bother trading with you <3