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113 points blinding-streak | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.411s | source
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jeffbee ◴[] 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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acdha ◴[] No.24110222[source]
Scaremongering isn't the right way to describe a real, well-documented ongoing concern. We have a long history of app developers trying to monetize their user's privacy, and that also explains why your comparison is inaccurate: if you buy an iOS device you are already trusting Apple. If you don't trust Camera to do nothing more than geotag your photos, you can't use iOS at all because every mechanism which would protect your privacy is built by the same company.

What the privacy measures are doing is giving the user the ability to review requests for access to your personal data by parties you aren't already trusting by virtue of owning the device.

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save_ferris ◴[] No.24110280[source]
Don't you think it's at least a little hypocritical that they don't extend the same privacy configuration options to their apps that they mandate for 3rd party apps? Sure, I generally trust Apple more than a random 3rd party developer, but the fact that Apple doesn't trust me to set my own privacy configuration for the camera makes me trust them less.
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1. dwaite ◴[] No.24112034[source]
I'd need a valid example of Apple not asking for permissions. What usually happens is that Apple built-in apps are able to ask for permissions and consent _differently_ than third party apps, such as greater control over the messaging.

For the most part, apps _do_ ask for permissions, for instance Maps and Safari do ask for access to your location. However, Safari has quite a few UX customizations outside what is generally available so that it asks for permissions on behalf of a website, rather than on behalf of itself.

When possible, Apple will try to create a higher level system so that third parties get access to a better UX (say, a pop-over browser or map control or photo picker) but they are usually slower at doing so.

When possible, Apple will try to create a higher level system to allow third parties to have a better UX here. For example, there is an anonymous advertising API which Apple uses and which they are exposing to apps in iOS 14. This does not result in the 'tracking' privacy prompt.

The largest exception last year was likely Find My, in the face of the crackdown on background location tracking. Since the activation lock/location tracking is part of the system, the UX was drastically different than say Tile's app. Apple launched a third party program for Find My this year as they start to try and make up the differences. They still have a way to go there.