[HN Gopher] App Store on iOS 14.6 sends every tap you make in th...
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App Store on iOS 14.6 sends every tap you make in the app to Apple
Author : helical
Score : 53 points
Date : 2022-11-08 16:26 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (twitter.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
| TheLoafOfBread wrote:
| Apple iOS is turning into an Android, but without a headphone
| jack.
| sphars wrote:
| Unfortunately, even most Android phones also are being made
| without a headphone jack nowadays
| TheLoafOfBread wrote:
| But I can still find a phone with headphone jack. Can't do
| that with Apple.
| tinus_hn wrote:
| Hate to break it to you but a few years after Apple made this
| daring move, almost all Android manufacturers have followed
| suit.
| dangus wrote:
| Unless this person shows us Settings > Privacy & Security >
| Analytics & Improvements, the only thing I can conclude is that
| they left the setting on and they're confusing third party app
| tracking controls with Apple's analytics setting.
| beders wrote:
| We use LogRocket to record all interactions with our front-ends
| and it's awesome for trouble shooting and also invaluable for our
| product managers.
|
| They can see where users are struggling with the app and where
| extra-guidance is necessary.
|
| I'm assuming many many many other apps and web pages are doing
| the same thing.
|
| Nothing to see here.
| makz wrote:
| Well at this point I expect this to happen for any input on any
| web page or app.
| lizardactivist wrote:
| What else do they do, record your facial expressions and every
| sound you make while using the phone?
|
| Talk about feeling like a lab-rat.
| jmole wrote:
| They could, if battery life impact weren't a thing. This is
| going to be the biggest "gotcha" with VR as well.
| throwaway888abc wrote:
| I believe Amazon, Airbnb, airlines and many others are doing /
| were doing same on their web pages too. It allow to provide
| better personalized (TM) experience and significantly increase
| ROI.
|
| There is good book how it works in offline world.
| https://www.npr.org/2017/02/13/514322899/aisles-have-eyes-wa...
| Tepix wrote:
| Just don't read it on a Kindle, another device which monitors
| everything you do (how long you remain on a page etc).
| cornedor wrote:
| There are so many sites that use Hotjar.
| csommers wrote:
| Lots of companies use Glassbox to this degree.
| altairprime wrote:
| OP misconstrues an iOS tracking dialog to support their
| complaint:
|
| > _The strange thing is that Apple introduced strict measures in
| iOS 14.5 to prevent developers from fingerprinting users._
|
| The dialog text in their screenshot reads:
|
| > _Allow "App" to track your activity across other companies'
| apps and sites?_
|
| Users refusing this permission are not prohibiting tracking by
| the company that issued the dialog. They are prohibiting the
| company from tracking users beyond the boundary of their
| corporation. Apple's App Store app is within the boundary of
| Apple Corporation, and so the tracking dialog shown is not
| relevant to their complaint.
|
| (I have no viewpoint to offer on OP's argument beyond the logical
| reasoning error described above.)
| tinus_hn wrote:
| Also Apple doesn't have any incentive to 'fingerprint' App
| Store users because they are either logged in or using a unique
| identifier.
| altairprime wrote:
| This argument's logical reasoning error is to claim the
| absence of all incentive due to the absence of one incentive.
|
| Apple has access to the logged-in account's properties, as
| you assert, but this does not rule out Apple having other
| incentives for tracking.
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| Sure they do. What if they switch accounts, usernames,
| phones, etc. More data is better.
| tinus_hn wrote:
| If you do that, you lose all your apps and settings. Ergo,
| nobody does that. If you switch phones, you transfer the
| account. Also, Apple tracking what you do in their App
| Store is perhaps not very nice but doesn't affect anyone in
| any detectable way so no normal person is going to go
| through the effort to avoid it, if they even know it is
| happening.
| vagabund wrote:
| Seems reasonable enough
| filoleg wrote:
| I was about to say, this is about as unsurprising and
| reasonable as Google Search listening to what you type into the
| search bar and which links on the search results page you
| click.
| tinus_hn wrote:
| Many sites, probably including Google Search, also monitor
| where you move your mouse cursor, even if you're not
| clicking. A lot less reasonable and more surprising.
| filoleg wrote:
| Maybe on Windows, idk, but I am not sure how Google Search
| could do it on either iOS or macOS.
|
| On iOS, there is no mouse cursor, so there is nothing to
| track in the first place.
|
| On macOS, you have to give permissions on a per-app and
| per-domain basis. For example, if I want to let Google Maps
| use my current location, first I will get a prompt to give
| that permission to the browser I am using in the OS
| settings, and then I have to give that permission again
| from within the browser specifically for Google Maps. Also,
| the web browser shows which specific permissions a page I
| am on has, and I can revoke them at any given time. Same
| thing for tracking mouse cursor movements, except it is
| governed by the macOS accessibility permissions iirc,
| rather than location permissions, and I don't remember
| Google Search ever requesting that. Just checked, and the
| only app that has those permissions on my machine is
| Discord, and it requested those only when I attempted
| screensharing.
|
| Maybe I am mistaken, and there is some trick around needing
| permissions to track mouse cursor movements in a browser on
| macOS (especially given how complex in-browser JS execution
| behaviors have gotten over time). In which case, someone
| please correct me.
|
| I agree though, tracking mouse cursor movements is
| definitely a bit more surprising and unexpected than
| tracking what you type in the website's search bar. Which I
| would be way more surprised by it not being tracked. It's
| like expecting Amazon or Steam or Twitter to not track what
| queries you search for in their search bars (which all of
| them definitely do, as evident by you being able to look at
| your search history from within the website).
| Someone wrote:
| AFAIK, all web pages can track mouse position, as long as
| the mouse is inside the page's window, and they don't
| need special permission to do so. See
| https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
| US/docs/Web/API/Element/mou... or
| https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7790725/javascript-
| track...
| filoleg wrote:
| Ah, thanks for the links. I guess it makes sense, given
| that mouse-tracking within a specific web page is pretty
| much impossible to ban on technical level, since you can
| just place a ton of invisible pixels covering the entire
| page, and track the mouse hover events over them. And it
| would be impossible to block by browser too, unless the
| browser prohibits mouse hover interactions with
| components present on the page entirely.
| tinus_hn wrote:
| Obviously Amazon knows what you search for on Amazon. But
| they probably also track what you type into the search
| field, even if you then delete it and never actually
| perform the search and even if you turn off the
| suggestions.
|
| Just like when you chat with a company through one of
| those web chat apps, they see everything you type, even
| if you delete it before you press enter to send it. That
| is tracking on the modern web.
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(page generated 2022-11-08 23:02 UTC)