User Tracking Back On iOS 6 188
First time accepted submitter connor4312 writes "Apple got caught with its hand in the cookie jar when privacy experts protested the use of a universal device identifier, or UDID, to track the online preferences of iPhone and iPad users. Enough is enough, right? Well, maybe not. It looks like device tracking is back with iOS 6, courtesy of a new tracking technology: IDFA, or identifier for advertisers."
Oh no! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh no! (Score:5, Funny)
Real hipsters use typewriters [xojane.com]
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Re:Oh no! (Score:5, Informative)
Before anyone dismisses that as just a joke, it's literally true in iOS 6 if you use the new "Passbook" feature. Every time you pull up the lock screen with Passbook enabled, Passbook does a GPS fix and checks in with Apple to find out if it should display one of the little Passbook cards.
So, yeah. Apple really does know every time you're at Starbucks - if you use the Starbucks app and iOS 6's Passbook.
Oh, and note I said "lock screen," not "unlock the phone." Just pressing the "hold" button to display the lock screen checks in with Apple.
no, not literally true (Score:4, Informative)
Before anyone dismisses that as just a joke, it's literally true in iOS 6 if you use the new "Passbook" feature. Every time you pull up the lock screen with Passbook enabled, Passbook does a GPS fix and checks in with Apple to find out if it should display one of the little Passbook cards.
Or you could, you know, disable "show on lockscreen" for all of your passes and don't set favorite stores for your Starbucks pass ... and then Passbook won't do a GPS fix every time you pull up the lock screen.
You can still have and use Passbook passes, it just won't auto-display when your near a Starbucks. Heck, once you have the pass enrolled in Passbook you can even delete the Starbucks app off your phone.
Re:no, not literally true (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:no, not literally true (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously? And you think Google or RIM doesn't do this? You think they don't track users via the phone activations, and then via browsers and all that?
Apple actually provided a non-permanent, non-personal device identifier *THAT YOU CAN TURN OFF* and something you manage to portray this as being worse? Seriously?!
Or are you against all online services?
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Pretty sure you can do whatever you want with a RIM phone, if you have a BES. You have proof to the contrary? Be rather interested to see it.
Re:no, not literally true (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know why, but I'm suddenly reminded of an ad Apple did in 1984. There was a girl throwing a hammer at a big screen...
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OMG location based features know our location!!!!! Who would have thunk it.
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Of course, even if you disable the various Passbook checking-in features, Starbucks will still know where you are if you use your Starbucks card...
Is it even possible to take advantage of modern technology/conveniences and not be tracked by anyone? I doubt it.
Unlike before, now you can turn it off (Score:5, Informative)
1) Click on Settings.
2) Click on General to access the General Settings.
3) Click About
4) Scroll down and click on Advertising.
5) Set Limit Ad Tracking to "ON".
Default On. This seems like the mobile version of Do Not Track [slashdot.org], and we all know how that is turning out.
Re:Unlike before, now you can turn it off (Score:5, Insightful)
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Also the "Read More" on the Settings page says that in the future all Apps will be required to use IDFA, so isn't this a good thing to be able to control tracking from the device and NOT have it be ignored, like DNT?
Re:Unlike before, now you can turn it off (Score:5, Informative)
Mine was off as well, and I don't think I've ever seen that setting before. I got the "default on" from TFA, so maybe that isn't correct?
The TFA says "default off" -- that's kind of what the article was all about, other than discussing the fact that Apple is fostering confusion by making you "enable" the feature to disable a feature.
Re:Unlike before, now you can turn it off (Score:5, Insightful)
Mine was off as well, and I don't think I've ever seen that setting before. I got the "default on" from TFA, so maybe that isn't correct?
The TFA says "default off" -- that's kind of what the article was all about, other than discussing the fact that Apple is fostering confusion by making you "enable" the feature to disable a feature.
Not to mention the setting itself is weasel-worded. "Limit" ad tracking, not "disable."
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In this case "off" means "you're allowed to track me". Set it to "on" if you want to explicitly limit advertiser's activities.
I'm glad Apple provides this, and it's a nice differentiator for them since Google needs to track users to maintain their profits while Apple just wants to sell you devices.
Android has the same ability (Score:2)
I'm glad Apple provides this, and it's a nice differentiator for them since Google needs to track users to maintain their profits while Apple just wants to sell you devices.
Android has a similar switch to limit ad tracking, they just call it interest based ads [dottech.org] and make it easier to find even.
However it says nothing about what Google themselves may still track, to me these switches are all about what third parties can get from you.
Re:Android has the same ability (Score:5, Informative)
The first time activated my phone (it is the screen where you can add your google account if you want to, and is standard on every android phone and tablet I have seen), I was asked if wanted "Interest based ads", I did not opted in and never had to worry about it. So android does not really have the same thing.
You agree when you disagree (Score:2)
So android does not really have the same thing.
As the "thing" is the ability to opt out of interest based ads just like Apple is offering now - yes, yes it does. You just said it did.
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I think his point was that Apples version is defaulted on in a not obvious place that you have to find to turn off.
Android has a question that it specifically asks you when you first use the phone.
One is hidden and defaulted to on while the other is an in your face question.
Not really the same thing.
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I have no idea why you seem to so touchy about this.
That time of the month?
Re:Unlike before, now you can turn it off (Score:5, Informative)
Yes it's a good option to have, but parsing it is difficult. If I don't want ad tracking, I must turn it off, but "on" turns ad tracking off, right? How confusing! While programmers are used to thinking in negatives, mixed with yes/no and true/false, that is not the norm. Compare:
[yes] [no] Allow ad tracking
[off] [on] Limit ad tracking
Both are logical and equivalent, but the first is far easier to comprehend and mark according to your preference. Apple, and other corporate software, likely does this intentionally. Of the small percentage of people who will find this setting, even fewer will mark it correctly. Result? Far more monitoring while getting kudos for providing the option. And that is how marketing experts earn their money.
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However, nothing in there allows or disallows tracking. Advertisers can always create their own way of tracking you. All this does is turn off the way Apple provides as an alternative so that advertisers shouldn't do the bad ways, such as uploading your address book to their server and use that as a tracking id (that hole is actually fixed now).
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It's a new example of a dark pattern.
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In this case "off" means "you're allowed to track me". Set it to "on" if you want to explicitly limit advertiser's activities.
I'm glad Apple provides this, and it's a nice differentiator for them since Google needs to track users to maintain their profits while Apple just wants to sell you devices.
Hahahaha, sorry but I had to laugh. Apple is no different than Google in regards to tracking since it boils down to revenue for both of them. You make it sound like Apple generates no revenue from the Ads or does not care about ad revenue. I hate to break the news to you, but there is no innocence here.
Now does Apple "also" generate revenue from hardware and such? Sure, but at least be honest. If they had no interest in the ad revenue, they would not have the software built in to track you. Well, I gu
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They dont exactly put it in an easy to find location or draw any attention to it.
Why would they? This is how they convince people to develop for iOS, and I'm just guessing that Apple probably gets a chunk of those advertising dollars too.
Spoiler: tracking for advertisers is always going to be a feature in most mobile devices.
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It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Mountain Lion".
FTFY
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Because that's where you'd expect to find it.
Even more obscure privacy setting (Score:3)
http://www.apple.com/privacy/ [apple.com]
You'll notice about halfway down the page in the "cookies and other technology" section a discussion of interest based advertising, which is basically iAd's targeted at you based on your usage habits. The only way to opt out of this "feature" on an iOS device is to click on the link in that paragraph to http://oo.apple.com/ [apple.com] from Safari on your iOS device, which will bring you to a set
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Re:Unlike before, now you can turn it off (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want to turn off device tracking using the IDFA on your iOS6 device, do the following:
1) Click on Settings.
2) Click on General to access the General Settings.
3) Click About
4) Scroll down and click on Advertising.
5) Set Limit Ad Tracking to "ON".
Default On. This seems like the mobile version of Do Not Track [slashdot.org], and we all know how that is turning out.
Just to note, in case anybody mistakes this for good faith on Apple's part, that the "Settings" application also has a tab called 'Privacy', where you will notfind any mention of this new feature. Instead, it goes under 'General', for reasons that I'm certain aren't cynical in the slightest.
Re:Unlike before, now you can turn it off (Score:4, Insightful)
don't forget the word usage: "Limit Ad Tracking..." it doesn't say anything about disabling, just limiting.
Re:Unlike before, now you can turn it off (Score:4, Insightful)
don't forget the word usage: "Limit Ad Tracking..." it doesn't say anything about disabling, just limiting.
It isn't entirely clear to me if that is some sort of weasel wording about what that button deliberately doesn't do, or just an admission that there are a variety of other mechanisms, of varying degrees of subtlety and creativity, that advertising networks can and do use against you, for which the presence of the IDFA is irrelevant(ie. any app that is connected to a 3rd party login, most obviously, can be expected to own you whether or not it has a device ID to assist it).
The definition of "limiting" from the docs. (Score:5, Informative)
First of all, I would like to clear up a common misconception. Apple did NOT ban the use of the UDID in iOS5. The few applications that did get banned did so because they stored the UDID without telling the user. If there's some legal text anywhere in the app that says they are storing this information, then they are fine. The UDID is marked as deprecated, which is just a compile time warning, but still works just fine. It is still used by a lot of people, too.
As for the new advertisingIdentifier, the Apple documentation on this subject is perfectly clear. Anyone can request the advertising device identifier, but developers are required to call advertisingTrackingEnabled. If that value is NO, the the id can only be used for: "frequency capping, conversion events, estimating the number of unique users, security and fraud detection, and debugging"
Note that this is entirely the responsibility of the developer to make sure that's all that is being done. Apple will probably pull any developer that is caught not respecting this, but how can you ever really know?
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I doubt there's any weasel wording from Apple here. Insofar as I understood it, the setting is -- and can only be, for that matter -- only relevant to iAds. "Limit Ad Tracking" probably means: "Disable user-tracking for iAds. Third-party Ad networks won't care about this setting."
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You shouldn't HAVE to turn it off (Score:4, Insightful)
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It shouldn't default to any state. It should specifically ask you, when you first set up the phone, what your preference is:
"Apps downloaded from the App Store may display advertisements. Do you wish to allow us to collect information about yourself in order to deliver ads relevant to your interests?"
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Re:Unlike before, now you can turn it off (Score:5, Insightful)
5) Set Limit Ad Tracking to "ON".
When I want something stopped, period, I don't request that it be "limited". Weasel words like this rarely appear by accident. They are usually, ahem, limited to strategic implementations.
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That is because it doesn't stop all tracking. For example, it doesn't stop tracking while you are browsing the web in the mobile browser. Saying "Stop Ad Tracking" is less accurate than "Limit Ad Tracking".
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Don't use the iPhone then. It's not a hard choice. Better hardware, more variations and choices, as well as cheaper options available. Are you so concerned about your "fashion" image that you cannot go without an apple product in public?
I don't use the iPhone. At the same time, I don't think that people who do use it should be jerked around just because I disapprove of their choice of hardware or the reasoning behind that choice.
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I don't use Exchange Server functionality on my phone because I have to allow remote wiping to a third party. Screw that.
Complaining that a non-Apple product doesn't play nice with your Apple-centric setup is a bit silly. Maybe it's the other way around? DNLA compatible apps have been around for years.
I can also SMS for free, charge and play through my car stereo in three different ways depending on how I connect it. I'm using Android to do it all. Best of all, my total outlay was probably a tenth of yours.
Re:Unlike before, now you can turn it off (Score:5, Funny)
If you want to turn off device tracking using the IDFA on your iOS6 device, do the following:
6) Press and hold the 'Power' button for five minutes.
7) Say "Steve Jobs is now a god" seven times and really mean it.
8) Put the phone in a glass case on a raised pedestal under spotlights in the middle of your living room.
9) Leave it there for forty days and forty nights.
10) Take phone out of the glass case and place it in a 100 lb. bag of virgin white rice.
11) Hermetically seal bag.
12) Leave it there for three days.
Device tracking will now probably be turned off for the next 15 minutes. If it's not, try repeating the instructions above, but this time do them with enthusiasm.
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I discovered it on my own, though I wasn't looking for it. Anyone who likes to dig through menus would see it--though, I'll be honest, we're probably a rare breed.
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Does this really shock anyone? (Score:5, Funny)
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But ... but ... french fries and ketchup are two vegetables aren't they?
What fat kid doesn't love fries and ketchup?
And, by "value your privacy", you mean commoditize and make money from, right?
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>> But ... but ... french fries and ketchup are two vegetables aren't they?
> No my friends, they're not two vegetables!
> Ketchup is made of corn syrup and tomatoes! French fries and ketchup are three vegetables!
Ahh... But tomatoes are fruit and corn is a grain, so French fries and ketchup are only one vegetable. And now back to criticizing how people use commas...
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But the fries, may be fried in vegetable oil, in which case, we're back, to two, vegetables. (have you imploded yet? ;)
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Tech companies as a whole value your privacy almost as much as a fat kid values vegetables.
It hardly shocks me; but I do find it a little surprising. Obviously, Apple doesn't give a fuck about you; but they make fantastic margins on their hardware and have been relatively successful in building online services that people will spend actual money(albeit generally in small chunks) for software and media through.
Google, their most dangerous competitor in the space(Amazon is worth a mention, for their good conversion rates and strongly integrated markets for physical goods as well; but their devices
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But if the fat kids at your school valued your veggies the way tech companies value your privacy, you must have had some pretty smart fat kids who aren't fat anymore. Did you go to school with Tim Cook?
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Tech companies as a whole value your privacy almost as much as a fat kid values vegetables.
Those that don't flat out refuse to acknowledge it, can't stop chewing it away.
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The fattest kids I know these days are vegetarians. All those veggie oils instead of healthy animal fat don't do you any good.
IDFA? (Score:5, Funny)
Full armor, full ammo, all weapons, but no keys.
I think I'll wait for IDKFA.
Re:IDFA? (Score:4, Funny)
If they can get me an iPhone that lets me walk through walls, I might just reconsider my no-Apple policy.
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Did you really expect them to stop? (Score:2)
Come on, there is money to be made and this is America, son!
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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What products is this spooking idiot users into buying again? Sophos doesn't sell to consumers, they sell to IT, and the only iOS apps they "sell" are free or bundled with some enterprise contract.... They might have spook articles on that blog, but this didn't seem to be one of them.
And I didn't know about IDFA, and it wasn't in the Security/Privacy sections where I'd expect it (I mean... About? Really? You hide an information security option in the About section, which should only have information "ab
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Apple has deliberately buried the opt out option as a cop out for a feature that adds no value whatsoever to the customer's device or experience but allows third parties to make money by exploiting their privacy where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. This should be an "opt in" feature by default if there are truly people who "want to support the poor advertisers." Beyond that I think there needs to be a push for access to the hosts file on phones so the user can take control of wh
Doesn't Fully Disable? (Score:4, Interesting)
So you can only "Limit Ad Tracking" and not fully disable it? Ummm ok..
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even better, you can't disable apple's tracking - this is just 3rd parties.
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Or move to Android. =) I did 2 years ago but it seems that didn't solve my problem [slashdot.org] because I went with Verizon. I did however root my phone and removed every app I could that had anything Verizon in it. I'm not really sure how they do their tracking.
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nope android users aren't dumb at all. Hey clueless they're your wireless carrier. If your phone is on they are tracking you! Do you think when you make calls they have no idea what phone is connecting to there network? It doesn't matter what phone or what carrier if you connect they know where you are. It's part of the connection protocol and can never be turned off. And unless your VPNing they know every site you visit.
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They would need something added to the Android OS to track what apps I'm using and how much I use those apps. This doesn't haven't anything to do with tracking phone calls or GPS/A-GPS location and what not. In other words, Carrier IQ which by using every scanner I can find says my phone doesn't have it. *shrugs*
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"Limit" because there are still apps out there that don't use the new ID code, and thus will not (can not) respect the user's wish not to be tracked.
For myself, I don't think tracking for advertising purposes is as big a deal as many make it out to be. It's a bit creepy, yes, but at the same time, targeted ads can be useful. Take, for instance, Amazon's Special Offers on the Kindle. It doesn't seem to use targeted ads. At least I hope it doesn't; else Amazon must think I'm a crossdresser, because right
Solution - (Score:2)
iOS6 (Score:2)
Is there anything about Safari on iOS6 that doesn't suck? Particularly egregious is the fact that it caches POST responses. Yes, you read that right. I don't know what kind of brain damage leads somebody to believe that's an acceptable thing to do.
Context, please (Score:2)
Any app with an internet connection can track you without your knowledge simply by phoning home with some sort of unique identifier, like a UUID [wikipedia.org]. The only way to not be tracked by apps is to turn on Airplane Mode and never turn it off.
The problem with the UDID was that it was visible across all applications, so that multiple apps that tracked a user via UDID could correlate their results. For example, imagine app A phones home with just your contact info, and app B phones home your porn-browsing history.
Choice is good! (Score:2)
Choice is a good thing!
Now you get to choose to be...
a) Apple's bitch
b) Google's bitch
c) Microsoft's bitch
Whose bitch are you?
How does it work ? (Score:2)
UDID was always possible (Score:3)
Before IOS5, it was a simple process to get the UDID and use it for any purpose you wanted. Then, Apple decreed it off limits. It was still there, but your app would get rejected if they found you were using this restricted method.
My solution - get the Wifi MAC address. It's unique, available, and Apple doesn't stop anyone from getting it. So why would anyone send the IDFA, which the user can disable - when they could send a MAC address - which the user cannot disable?
Disabling personalised ads doesn't stop tracking.. (Score:2)
According to Apple [apple.com]:
In other words, disabling targeted/personalised ads doesn't disable tracking at all.
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The phone could explode and burn half their face off and they'd still treat Steve Jobs like a diety
That's because now their face looks like magic!
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The same can be said for the Windows fanboys, the Android fanboys, and every other damned fanboy ... that's pretty much the definition of fanboy; "my manufacturer makes awesome products and would never do anything wrong, yours are evil doodie heads who make crap".
I see just as many people mindlessly defending Microsoft on Slashdot. And, let's face it, Google's "do no evil" has become more of a joke than anything of late.
Throw in the telecoms carriers (*cough* Verizon [cnet.com] *cough*), and someone is going to be tr
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The same can be said for the Windows fanboys, the Android fanboys, and every other damned fanboy ... that's pretty much the definition of fanboy; "my manufacturer makes awesome products and would never do anything wrong, yours are evil doodie heads who make crap".
That's resonable and all, but you miss the point that when people talk about "fanboys" of a brand, it is usually implied that all patrons of that brand are "fanboys", and that the fanboy mentality that you describe is primarily responsible for that brands success.
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Well, now that he's dead he's one step closer to being a deity.
Re:Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple: "we need to uniquely identify our users to maximize our advertising revinue stream, and to positively lock individual devices to individual users for the sake of our media partners. Not doing this means we will make less money, and since becomeing a houshold name, our share holders are more fickle than ever!"
Users: "look, do I follow YOU everywhere you go? When you go in the bathroom, do I give YOU targeted adverts for toilet paper, sanitary wipes, tampons and condoms? No? Does that sound at all like something you would like? No? Then DON'T TRACK ME."
Apple: "your concerns have been noted, and your opinion is important to us." [Delivered in robot answering machine voice.]
User: "I will contact an advocacy group if you can't take this seriously."
Apple: "we are dedicated to workmanship and quality, and the opinions of our customers are important to us."
(User contacts advocacy group. Advocacy group raises a stink)
AG: "you are aware I am sure, that pervasive user tracking violates the user's privacy in unacceptible ways, and clues about facts a user would like to keep private, such a club affiliations, sexual preferences, past relationships, and even prior citations for minor legal offenses can be publicly exposed through such tracking and directed advertisements, right? Let alone the serious safety implications, like pedophiles tracking underage children, rapists stalking women, and muggers stalking people with expensive iDevices using tracking apps right? You honestly think that these serious implications are warranted to further your financial bottom line?"
Apple: "oh, we hadn't thought about that second part!"
AG: "so you will stop mandatory tracking?"
Apple: "yes of course! We don't want to (increase our legal liabilities because we) track our customers in such a way that they could be physically or emotionally harmed!"
AG: "Good on you apple. We are glad you understand the value of privacy."
(6 months pass)
Apple: "we have devised a compromise that still let's us make money by selling compromising infrmation to snoopy advertizers, without the legal liabilities! We will offer a NEW tracking feature, that is obfuscated, and obscured such that the user doesn't know its there, and that could theoretically be turned off if they knew how, absolving us of culpability when/if it gets misused!"
User: "do you comprehend the meaning of "I DO NOT WANT TO BE TRACKED."? Does the concept even make sense to you?
Apple: "the opinions of our customers are important to us!"
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This is basically the same thing for apps.
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More like, "I want my browser to not only set the flag, but also actively sabotage tracking efforts across site domains, and nuke tracking cookies at 10 minute intervals at least. My ideal setup requires no cookies at all, but I understand their utility in things like online shopping."
Basically, I want companies like google and apple to grow the fuck up, and quit acting like babies whenever they get their hands slapped over being greedy little brats with entitlement complexes. They are *NOT* entitled to inf
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APPLE doesn't NEED to differentiate my user session from any other user session, for any sensible reason, other than arbitrary ones centered around artificial constraints to increase cash flow.
My telco needs to keep a unique user string, so they can bill me. Apple does not.
My telco does that with their SIM card.
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Operating system software is supposed to operate for the benefit of the owner of the computer/phone. Any software that operates for the benefit of third parties without the explicit consent of the owner is called malware.
Stop worrying and be thankful that your carrier and Apple are gracious enough to allow you to use their phone and OS.
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So, "Apple got caught with its hand in the cookie jar" when it was discovered that people were using the UDID for things it was expressly *not* supposed to be used for.
Funny thing: When you make yourself the gatekeeper and final arbiter of all applications allowed to run on a device, you tend to be seen as responsible for any activity you let through, whether or not it contradicts some written policy, unless you can show that it was very cleverly hidden...
Given that Apple has to OK an app for it to go live(outside of dev or enterprise deployment), and can revoke it at any time, and Apple controls what system data apps have access to, they could have nuked UDID use hard fa
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The Slashdot is bad. It tracks users just like about every other site on the web.
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leave me out of this.
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I actually do want more relevant advertising (I don't use ad blockers on the web for the same reason).
That makes sense only if you intended "more" to modify "advertising" rather than "relevant".
I use ad blockers because the Internet is unbearable otherwise. Yahoo's site makes me ill if I accidentally go to it on a browser not blocking ads. My local newspaper's site is literally unusable. It looks like a hideous link farm with banners, pop-ups, overlays, and a whole sidebar of smaller ads. But thanks to AdBlock, I found that they actually have content from their printed paper buried in there.
I occasional
So you think Android is wrong as well? (Score:2)
Let it never be said that SuperKendall was not a faithful subject of his Corporate Masters. Apple can Do No Wrong.
Since the current ad tracking policy is essentially the same as what Android provides (they have a box also where you can uncheck ad tracking) are you then also saying Google is doing wrong? I think it's a great compromise, as I stated ad companies would figure out some other way to track you but with the OS supported ad identifier there is a path they will use (on both iOS AND Android) that th
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Because Apple is more interested in keeping a good relationship with their users rather than tracking them.
You're lying to yourself if you think any for-profit company has the slightest altruistic feelings towards their commodities, er, "customers."
To wit: as a for-profit corporation, Apple's ultimate interest is in profits; if the company finds selling your data without your explicit permission more profitable than not doing so, they will sell your data without your explicit permission. Period. End of story.
You may find it consoling that Apple is far from alone in that mentality; verily, every for-profit
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