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Apple’s ad network gets ‘preferential access to users’ data’ vs Facebook, Google

(www.forbes.com)
113 points blinding-streak | 2 comments | 10 Aug 20 14:36 UTC | HN request time: 0.406s | source
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jeffbee ◴[10 Aug 20 15:06 UTC] No.24110022[source]▶
Apple exempts all their iOS software from their own privacy scaremongering. iOS never pops up a scary dialog warning you that Camera has accessed your location twice in the last week, even though Camera accesses your location every time you start it. There is a completely separate iOS privacy regime for Apple's own apps.
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1. gruez ◴[10 Aug 20 15:37 UTC] No.24110424[source]▶
It makes sense if you consider why the feature was added in the first place: to catch malicious behavior by apps. eg. apps that tracks your location even after you've closed it, or surreptitiously record you. It doesn't really make sense to do so for first-party apps because apple controls the operating system, so from a security perspective it doesn't add any meaningful security. If apple wanted to be malicious they could disable those alerts from ios, or do their spying from ios itself so it bypasses the app sandbox entirely.
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2. jeffbee ◴[10 Aug 20 15:48 UTC] No.24110551[source]▶
There's a neutral way to do this. They could pop up a surprise dialog that says something like:

  These apps used your location.
  * "Popular near me"
  * Maps
  * Google Maps
  * Chrome
If I saw that dialog, I'd probably be tempted to disable the Popular Near Me feature, which I've never heard of and therefore I assume provides me no value and, at a minimum, might be cutting into my battery life. But Apple doesn't present me with that dialog because they don't want to impair their own advertising business.