iPhone Update Reminds Users -- Again and Again -- of Being Tracked (wsj.com) 122
Some app developers are concerned that frequent iOS 13 notifications will scare users away. From a report: "'Facebook' has used your location 107 times in the background over the past 3 days. Do you want to continue to allow background location use?" Such pop-up notifications are frequent for many iPhone users who have downloaded Apple's iOS 13. They arrive every few days for each app that tracks location while not in use and includes maps. Apple touted the new notifications as a way to make users more mindful of how much tracking goes on even when they aren't using their phones. Each notification gives users the option to let the app use their location data only when it is in use or if they agree for the app to track their locations at all times. Since iOS 13 was released in September, tens of millions of people have moved to block apps' ability to track their locations when not in use, according to an estimate from Location Sciences, a company that verifies mobile location data.
Some app developers, particularly the ones whose business models rely on being able to access users' locations at all times, are concerned that the iOS 13 notifications will hurt their apps' adoption. Seven of them signed an email to Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook addressing these concerns in August. The signatories included Life360, an app that lets family members track one another's location and can summon an ambulance immediately in the event of an auto accident, and Tile, a maker of tracking devices for items like wallets and keys. Both Life360 and Tile rely on constantly tracking all their users and compete with Find My, a preinstalled Apple app that helps users locate a lost iPhone -- and isn't subject to the same notifications. [...] Apple's iOS 13 location-tracking changes have hit the supply of mobile location data available for advertising and analytics, said Jason Smith, chief business officer of Location Sciences. He said the amount of location data gathered by apps while not in use had dropped by 70% since iOS 13 was released.
Some app developers, particularly the ones whose business models rely on being able to access users' locations at all times, are concerned that the iOS 13 notifications will hurt their apps' adoption. Seven of them signed an email to Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook addressing these concerns in August. The signatories included Life360, an app that lets family members track one another's location and can summon an ambulance immediately in the event of an auto accident, and Tile, a maker of tracking devices for items like wallets and keys. Both Life360 and Tile rely on constantly tracking all their users and compete with Find My, a preinstalled Apple app that helps users locate a lost iPhone -- and isn't subject to the same notifications. [...] Apple's iOS 13 location-tracking changes have hit the supply of mobile location data available for advertising and analytics, said Jason Smith, chief business officer of Location Sciences. He said the amount of location data gathered by apps while not in use had dropped by 70% since iOS 13 was released.
Thank you Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Thank you Apple, no I do not want fucking Facebook using my location in the background.
Some app developers don't like this feature? I'm shocked.
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It's a little more problematic for things like map software that does turn-by-turn in the background, of course. So I suspect that there are some app developers who don't like this for legitimate reasons, too.
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I suppose if you think your users are absolute twits who would object to hearing that their mapping software uses their GPS.
So we've got app developers who are (1) up to no good and (2) think their users are absolute twits. Anything else?
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(3) People who don't understand the way users use their devices in the real world.
The problem with the changes Apple recently made is that their "helpful" reminder is something that the user isn't expecting to see, and they frequently knee-jerk react to it without thinking. And once they tap the button to disable background location access, they have to manually go into settings to fix it. That change often subtly breaks the behavior of apps, and then when users complain, they don't complain about iOS.
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Sorry - I call bullshit on this one. IAASD (I am a software developer), and as one of those I can say that if the behavior is broken (subtly or not) when background location services are off, then the App is broken.
That use case must be tested as thoroughly as any other. Not doing so is shoddy development, and should not be tolerated. As such, YES - the APP is BROKEN. They didn't do their job.
If there is no way the App can function intelligently without background location services, then the App needs t
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It's a little more problematic for things like map software that does turn-by-turn in the background, of course.
If you're running such software, you can say "Yes" when iOS prompts you about it. It seems to prompt only a couple times before deciding you really want that app to have location tracking.
No it is not (Score:3)
It's a little more problematic for things like map software that does turn-by-turn in the background, of course.
Not even a little, because when they are done navigating they can turn off location updates.
It's only apps that have constant location updates in the background, because they have asked the system to keep sending them, that have this message show up for.
Sure there are some apps that really do need this but frankly as a user I still like to be reminded it is happening, and it makes app developers m
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It's a little more problematic for things like map software that does turn-by-turn in the background, of course. So I suspect that there are some app developers who don't like this for legitimate reasons, too.
From what I understand, navigating to Settings >> Privacy >> Location Services >> $AppName will allow you to individually "Whitelist" an App as far as Location Services goes.
I'm pretty sure this just applies to when an iOS pops up a Notification when an App asks for Location Services and you Temporarily grant the Permission, even if you chose "Always Allow".
So, it "saves" Users from making a hasty decision that affects their Privacy forever, but still allows Users to make a deliberate choi
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And instead, it causes users to make a hasty decision that affects app functionality forever, because they don't understand how to turn it back on. It's not the concept that I object to in principle, but rather the implementation. :-)
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Yes. The reason is simple.
If an app needs location services, the OS will pop up a dialog asking if you want to always allow, only in foreground or deny location services.
Problem is, people forget they did this, and Apple treats it as a temporary permission. So it's more like "Hey, a few days ago you sa
I can kinda see the app makers' point (Score:1)
It's not that simple (Score:2)
Apple seems to have decided to only allow state B of the two "allow" states (eliminating state A).
As an actual IOS user, it does not feel like that is the case.
Like for some apps that require always on background access, the reminder does not really occur in a way or a time that is annoying. Or possibly after a few allows the duration between prompts goes much longer.
But regardless, what they have done has the end effect of seeming like there is a state B and a state A.
And believe me, I am VERY annoyed my h
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What? iOS has four levels of access to location data:
1) Never
2) Ask Next Time
3) While Using the App
4) Always
Those are copied verbatim off my phone. They're identical to your list, except #3, while using the app but *not* in the background, is far more useful than your (B). There is also a status bar indicator when your location is being used by an app, which would add any functionality that might be in your (B) but in a much better way.
I guess your understanding comes from reading the summary and making ass
No (Score:5, Insightful)
Some app developers are concerned that frequent iOS 13 notifications will scare users away.
No fam, not even close.
Those developers are concerned and scared that frequent location data queries they are doing will scare users away.
Perhaps those developers should reconsider their life choices if they believe this is a problem.
an app that lets family members track one another's location and can summon an ambulance immediately in the event of an auto accident
Why is that a problem? All of the family members using this know they are using it, right?
All of them are fully aware that's why the app was installed, and this is its purpose, right?
Seeing that the app works as intended should be a good thing then.
and Tile, a maker of tracking devices for items like wallets and keys.
That's because you don't put a phone on your wallet and keys, you put a special tag on them the phone can track.
Again, a tag the phone can track, not a phone the tag can track when the phone isn't open.
Why are you tracking my phone when it is locked, instead of tracking the things with tags?
Why is this happening when that app is closed down?
If the app isn't running and the phone is locked, I can't very well be looking at the map it shows my location on.
Yet you are scared I'd know you are tracking me when not needed to be. Yea, good. You should be.
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Surely if smartphone B with the app installed finds a lost Tile belonging to smartphone A, smartphone B's app ought to be pulled into the foreground and ask the owner if they're OK with sending their location to the owner of smartphone A?
Wallet and keys don't have a data plan, charger (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason Tile works the way it does is because you don't want to have to charge your wallet and keys every day. You also don't want to have a data plan for them, and pay $100 for each tag.
Instead of putting a GPS and 4G radio on your keychain, the tag on my keychain, wallet, and dog uses Bluetooth Low Energy, a low-power, short-range protocol that can go a year on a "watch battery". Every X minutes they check in with the phone, meaning they are within about 50 feet of the phone. That's how I can find that I left my wallet at the restaurant.
If I can't find them inside the restaurant, I click the button on the app and as long as I'm within 50 feet the tag starts beeping.
That's why it's setup the way it is - so you don't have to attach a phone to your keychain, just a little BLE tag that communicates with your phone every few minutes. No need to charge your wallet, keys, and dog every night, because it doesn't talk to a tower 40 miles away.
A cool thing about Tile is that if I press my the button saying that my keys or dog are lost, it'll let me know the location of my lost item when any OTHER Tile user comes within 50 feet of it. That's very helpful if the item moved after it was neae my phone.
Tile did it right for the application. Doing it right does mean using the GPS on your phone, not having a GPS I your wallet, another GPS on your keychain, etc. Note that your idea does NOT enhance privacy either - if you're tracking my wallet, you know where I am just as much as if you use the GPS I my phone.
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The one time I needed it (Score:3)
Yeah it could run locally except for:
1. the community finding feature (find my item if its not where my phone last saw it)
2. Finding my phone
3. I forgot the third one, another minor feature
The first, and so far only, time I've needed to use Tile, I had turned off Bluetooth by habit. I used to turn it off to save battery, before I had Tile. Fortunately someone ELSE in the restaurant had Tile, so I was able to verify the location of my wallet.
Someone could, and perhaps has, made a good open source applicati
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It's fine until they go bust and the administrator decides that the "anonymous" data is actually very valuable and should be sold off.
Even GDPR doesn't provide adequate protection for anonymous (not really) data. Correlate with a few other data points and they can figure out who user #84629564 is.
It's me! (Score:2)
> Correlate with a few other data points and they can figure out who user #84629564 is.
It's me! I went to Taco Bell. I don't think I did myself any harm by posting that for all to read.
At work, one of my tasks right now is to go through a huge list of security risks and assess what the damage, or consequences, of each would be. One system has a few dozen customer credit card numbers in it. What's tue damage if bad guys get in that? Accounting has social security numbers and birthdates for thousands o
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Why would your wallet, phone or keys not be in your hand or your pocket, though?
That's what I don't get about these 'tools'.
At home, all are on the dresser or bedside table.
It's just a matter of forming a habit and ... you're set.
No cost, no privacy risk, no need to change watch batteries annually.
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My keys sometimes fall out of my pocket.
With my money ass, sitting on my wallet is uncomfortable.
Maybe it's time for a purse. It's too bad fanny packs went out of style. They were handy.
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A cool thing about Tile is that if I press my the button saying that my keys or dog are lost, it'll let me know the location of my lost item when any OTHER Tile user comes within 50 feet of it. That's very helpful if the item moved after it was neae my phone.
OK, that makes a lot more sense as a legit feature.
Fair enough, I can see why Tile may be worried people can now choose not to participate in their mesh and reduce the usefulness of the service.
That said, I still think it is a better situation now, even if at Tiles expense.
I would certainly hit "Yes Always" on that prompt to allow GPS and not get the reminder popups.
My prior thinking, not being a Tile user, would have followed my usual.
I only hit "Yes" and try it out, and any unexpected prompts after would
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While this might be darn convenient for finding lost articles, doesn't that your mean that the tile is also broadcasting its existence to all tile users near it at regular intervals any time that it isn't connected to your phone, and why couldn't that be used by others to find your lost item before you do?
if (true) (Score:2)
Someone else could make an app which detects whether there are any Tile tags within about 100-300 feet. In fact, here is the source code of a function to do exactly that:
function tileIsNearby() {
return true;
}
They could see that a tile is in the vicinity - that's pretty much always true if you're out in public. At the grocery store, SOMEBODY has a Tile on their keys, wallet, or whatever.
They can't trigger the beeping from a Tile they don't own, so they don't know exactly where it is.
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Also, if it could obtain the tag's ID, then you could determine if any of the tags in range in a relativefly public place are not moving for a long period of time, and are therefore likely misplaced rather than in a person's possession.
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I like where you are heading with this. Every month I try to give a talk about a security-related topic. Maybe we can develop this idea into something worth talking about.
So, maybe they can get the serial number of the tile.
There could be encryption used so they can't, but let us assume they can.
If they see it the same Tile in the same area repeatedly, such as a restaurant, it's probably either someone who works there, a lost Tile, or some keys that stay at the location, such as the restaurant.
By default,
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Or a parking lot... say for a shopping mall. If it's not moving for more than a few minutes, then it's probably not on someone. Maybe it's inside of a car, but maybe not.
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You can do this even if the tile wasn’t cooperating. It’s a BTLE device, so it’s making some noise on bluetooth, complete with its MAC address. This is no different than tracking anything else that is either sending data via bluetooth or wifi.
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That's what I thought about Tile. You are supposed to track the Tile not me. However, think about how it must work. Unless the Tile has a GPS receiver of its own and access to a network, either WiFi or mobile, it must rely on a paired phone to record its location. In fact, looking at their web site, it's obvious that's how it works. The "how it works page" includes:
If your Tile is truly lost, just activate the Tile community and every phone running the Tile app can help you find it
It's obvious the devices don't know where they are, they just talk to nearby phones over bluetooth.
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Why is that a problem? All of the family members using this know they are using it, right?
All of them are fully aware that's why the app was installed, and this is its purpose, right?
Mom and Dad say "We'll buy you a phone, but you have to run this".
Kid says, grudgingly, 'OK'.
Kid his the "no" to location tracking prompt sometime later.
Devs are worried Mom and Dad will blame them for the tracking failure, instead of their darling little angel who would never do something they are not supposed to do.
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Again, a tag the phone can track, not a phone the tag can track when the phone isn't open.
The idea is that not only does your phone know its location the last time it was in proximity, you can also help others find missing items.
Let’s say that you’re out for a run in the park (I know, this is slashdot, hard to believe) and your keys fall out of your pocket. You get home and discover they’re missing. Because the app grabbed your location, you can look up the best place to start your search.
Ok let’s say you go for a run without your phone. (I know lots of people who do this
Re: No (Score:1)
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[and Tile, a maker of tracking devices for items like wallets and keys.]
That's because you don't put a phone on your wallet and keys, you put a special tag on them the phone can track.
Again, a tag the phone can track, not a phone the tag can track when the phone isn't open. Why are you tracking my phone when it is locked, instead of tracking the things with tags?
I looked into Tile a few months ago. Tile sells itself via two features. (1) A way to use your phone to find your tagged items: you click on the Tile app on your phone, and the tagged item beeps, and the phone shows a map of where it is. The summary only described this feature, and you responded to it. (2) a way to use your tagged items to find your phone: you click on your physical tile, and your phone beeps, and the tile website shows a map of where it is. Obviously they need location data to do this.
Inde
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The reason apps like Tiles want to use your location all the time is because they rely on crowdsourcing. Everyone using the app is helping other Tile users find their shit that isn't close enough for bluetooth to see from their phone. They're using your phone to find Tiles from other people and vice versa.
It's just another example of a business using your stuff to help their business make money.
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It is Apple's job to protect its users and provide a valuable service. It might even be the brand differentiation between buying a cheap knock off and the 1000$ gizmo Apple is selling.
You are free to ditch Apple and find a phone maker that is suitable to your lifestyle.
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>Why is that a problem? All of the family members using this know they are using it, right? All of them are fully aware that's why the app was installed, and this is its purpose, right?
Yep. I use Life360 and IFTTT to create a geofence. When all family members are outside it, the furnace/AC goes into an energy saving mode. Apple's fucking that up by forcing users to dig into the settings every few day to allow that service to run. It's not Apple's job to tell users what's best for them.
Yeah it's a non-issue wast of space article posted behind a paywall in an effort to encourage subscriptions.
Once you select "always allow" it doesn't ask you again. But you already knew this since you have been using Life360 and IFTTT to create a geofence.
https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v... [cnbcfm.com]
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Bullshit.
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Yeah it's a non-issue wast of space article posted behind a paywall in an effort to encourage subscriptions.
Once you select "always allow" it doesn't ask you again.
Yes, it does. It does it every once in a while though, not "every few days" like the article implies. Source: Got one this morning for an app that I authorized before.
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It asks when the app updates. Because when the app updates, there may be other feature changes that lead a user to say, actually I no longer want this app to be able to track my location, because the new way they're using the location data makes me uncomfortable.
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When iOS notices the tracking it literally pops up a simple dialog box asking if you want this to continue. Click "Always Allow" and you're never bothered again.
Sounds like you're trying to blame Apple because your family doesn't want you tracking them and saying it's for "energy saving movde"...
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Bullshit. It asks every few days, again and again. That's _exactly_ what the summary and article are about.
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Well, when you are selling privacy as a premium product, which they well to be honest over charge for, then you will have to continually push it. So each time it pops up it is a way for Apple to remind you they are protecting your privacy, which you paid a premium for.
So more than just a little marketing in the pop ups.
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Apple's fucking that up by forcing users to dig into the settings every few day to allow that service to run
Uh...no.
First of all, it's a user prompt, not an automatic setting change.
Second, you can say "Yes" at the prompt. Tell your family they need to do so.
Third, the phone stops asking after about two times of you saying "Yes"
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Bullshit. If you want it always on for background, you have to dig into settings
Since I own an iPhone, I'm quite aware of how the prompting works. I don't even have to cite an article that shows a previous version of iOS.
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you dont have to dig into the settings, you respond to a simple dialog, thats it. you can continue to give an app access to your location without ever opening the settings.
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>Why is that a problem? All of the family members using this know they are using it, right? All of them are fully aware that's why the app was installed, and this is its purpose, right?
Yep. I use Life360 and IFTTT to create a geofence. When all family members are outside it, the furnace/AC goes into an energy saving mode. Apple's fucking that up by forcing users to dig into the settings every few day to allow that service to run. It's not Apple's job to tell users what's best for them.
It looks like you can "Always Allow", once you Grant "While Using the App". And you don't have to launch Settings; you can do it right from the Notification Dialog:
http://info.localytics.com/blo... [localytics.com]
So? (Score:3)
Good (Score:3)
Oh, and yes, now both your toaster and your toilet are tracking you (CES2020 ftw!)
Cylons! (Score:2)
Frakkin' Cylons! :P
Can I get this on Android? (Score:3)
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Hmmm Calif. just passed the new data privacy laws ... I wonder if this is part of the compliance. Let users know whos tracking them... If so at least you know now.
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I am not an iPhone user, but I would love to have this feature on Android.
This feature is not on Android and likely never going to be on Android because Google, unlike Apple, makes money from tracking everything, including location, about you. If they make such feature available, they will have to exclude it from self-reporting on baked-in Android functionality.
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so? they'll report tracking from apps except those from google.
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all wins for google, i see no reason why they won't do it.
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When an Android app requests location access, there are 3 options in the pop-up:
* Allow While Using App
* Allow Once
* Don't Allow
So while it doesn't remind you, it did ask you up front it you wanted the app to always track you.
Not a problem for me... (Score:2)
I don't have facebook or messenger on my iPhone for that very reason!!!
Feature with side efficts (Score:1)
"Apple's iOS 13 location-tracking changes have hit the supply of mobile location data available for advertising and analytics"
Mission accomplished.
This is a feature with side effects, not a bug.
That said, there is room for Apple to let apps override these notifications under certain circumstances and conditions.
At a minimum, this should include:
* no retention or sharing of data with third parties beyond the minimum needed for the customer's use of the app
* The app or its vendor will make the tracking histor
best update ever (Score:1)
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I'm still running 12.4.1 and i already got the notification for a newly installed app.
developers 0 world 1 (Score:1)
Its insulting to the user (Score:2)
Facebook has an app? (Score:2)
Facebook is an app? Oh, I thought it was a web site. If I mistakenly forget to open a web site in incognito mode, then that site might prompt me if it can use my location. If so, I click deny. I have never come across a reason to do otherwise. I suppose the location tracking feature could be useful say.... for someone who is handicapped and finds it hard to enter their zip code into the Target web site to find the nearest store.
I don't really like iPhones, but (Score:2)
Apple really *does* seem to care about privacy, which is almost enough to make me switch.
Android...yeah, you can turn that stuff off, and I do, but Google is a data-mining company. Just owning an Android at all is giving Google data. It simply can't be avoided.
If only iPhones would allow just a *little* more customization of the interface, I would switch, I think.
Huawei warns the user too (Score:2)
...though apps aren't allowed to by default, so you have to enable it.
Of course, I'm talking about the non-Google Android...
Good job Apple (Score:2)
I like it when they get it right. Educate the users, allow them to make a choice... it is their data.
But why would I need more notification? (Score:2)
Let's do a little thought exercise.
Imagine you're a world leader, cheating on your wife, and you use an unsecured iPhone.
Now assume your second mistress, thinking you're cheating on her with some Russian guy, decides to make sure of it, and shows you a cool app that has dancing cat memes (provided by a nice guy in Iran). She does the download for you, because you have really tiny hands, and swipes ok about the privacy notice while she distracts you with a double scoop ice cream cone.
Don't you want to be not
Companies paying for these articles? (Score:2)
If their business model requires spying on users.. (Score:1)
Re:Apple _is_ Big Brother. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Apple _is_ Big Brother. (Score:5, Informative)
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So even though you tell it "Allow at all times," it still asks you again later? What is the behavior while it waits for a choice and/or if the choice is ignored?
If it blocks locations until you re-authorize, then it's not honoring the choice. Based solely on the text of the choice, the behavior I would expect to see is that the phone to allow location data to be provided until the user said "stop."
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Yes, exactly. Again and again and again, every couple of days. It's user hostile. It's Apple being a nagging Big Brother. It's none of their fucking business.
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Re:Apple _is_NOT_ Big Brother. (Score:4, Informative)
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"lets you compute sales tax and VAT in countries where it's applicable"
Uh... wouldn't that be "the price"??
Because surely it's only logical to include sales tax and VAT in the actual price, so what you see as "the price" is indeed "the price" you pay?
Or maybe I'm just used to Australia, where the price advertised is the price you pay?
I can't imagine why any place would do it differently, but I'm open to being educated as to why it would make sense to not tell a potential customer the actual price they'd pay
Re:Apple _is_ Big Brother. (Score:5, Insightful)
The point here is not that Apple doesn't want users to have a choice, it's that they're specifically doing this to educate users on what's happening, because evidence is showing that uneducated users are making poor choices with regard to data privacy and security. This is very clearly an attempt to provide visibility into the results of those choices, specifically around the choice to enable location data for background-mode apps.
We all know that our Maps application is always aware of where we are that moment, but how many users do you think are aware that the cool Antique Clock app they installed a month ago is also reporting on their location every hour? When they installed it, it asked a bunch of annoying questions about permissions and stuff, and probably had some cool message about accessing location data in order to display 'themed backgrounds' or some garbage, but at the end of the day, the user most likely ignored it and just hit whatever button it took to run the app.
This isn't just an effort to inform the user about what's happening regardless of what the user chose that one time when they installed the app, but to hopefully drive them toward an understanding of what impact there is from a security perspective when you do some of the things that they do. Maybe, on the next iteration, there will be a developer-mode type setting that allows you to suppress these entirely. Or maybe, people will realize that they don't want Facebook knowing where they are, every hour of the day, forever.
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...said the person who doesn't know what they're talking about. When an app uses location services, IOS eventually pops up a warning, and the _user_ then has a choice to make for that app - disable location, allow only when app is open, allow at all times. Again, it's the _user_ who chooses. Apple simply doesn't honor that choice, and will force the user to to it again, and again, and again, every few days.
Actually, from what I understand, going to Settings >> Privacy >> Location Services, you can (on an App-by-App basis, as it should be) set that App to "Always", and that App will have been "Whitelisted" by you, the User for constant permission to use Location Services, even in the Background.
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/io... [cnet.com]
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Even if you "whitelist" it, it will still reprompt every so often. And the prompt vanishes if the phone (or iPad) is rotated, then you wonder what just flashed a prompt at you until it randomly appears again sometime later.
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Root, God, what is difference?
Answer: The UI.
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IOS eventually pops up a warning, and the _user_ then has a choice to make for that app - disable location, allow only when app is open, allow at all times. Again, it's the _user_ who chooses. Apple simply doesn't honor that choice, and will force the user to to it again, and again, and again, every few days.
Actually they have also changed the options wording to more fit how things work, so they are honoring the choice you select even though the choice offered is now different.
It is "Allow when using this app", "Allow Once", and "Don't Allow"
Don't allow works exactly as before and as expected. So does Allow Once, as it re-prompts each time you run the app.
It's the new "Allow when using this app" that will cause the notifications to occur when you are not using the app and it tries to query your location.
Now th
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every few days
No, not even close. Not sure what the article writer was smoking but it's not close to "every few days". It may feel that way to people who blindly gave location rights to every app that asked for it, so the notifications come in frequently, one for this app, one for that. But for single app, it's more like months between notifications.
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App store is not a free market. iOS is not an open platform. You're paying for a curated walled garden of applications. If Apple wants to move to securing and protecting privacy as their value-add over Google Android then what is the harm in that. If you don't like it, I guess vote with your wallet and move on to a different platform.
I suspect the excessive notifications is a compromise because Apple isn't sure they can boot Facebook and other apps off their store without facing anti-trust concerns or at le
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App store is not a free market. iOS is not an open platform. You're paying for a curated walled garden of applications. If Apple wants to move to securing and protecting privacy as their value-add over Google Android then what is the harm in that. If you don't like it, I guess vote with your wallet and move on to a different platform.
I suspect the excessive notifications is a compromise because Apple isn't sure they can boot Facebook and other apps off their store without facing anti-trust concerns or at least user backlash.
In the end we don't live in a world where "the customer is always right". You don't have any special rights to dictate business strategy to a company. Beyond your inalienable right to free speech and your ability to decline doing business with the company. I doubt Apple will lose customers over this, and clearly they doubt it too. It'll be interesting to see if Apple has an ambitious end goal that they'll accomplish, or if they'll walk it back and cater to the whims of customers driven by Facebook's effective marketing.
The mood over at MacRumors, which has no end of Apple-Haters posting there, is overwhelmingly "Thank You, Apple!". So I think that's a good indicator that most people see this as a Good Thing.
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Apple is more evil than what they're trying to stop. Users have a choice of using an app. Apple's deliberately interfering with that choice. Warn the user once, then STFU, Apple.
WTF are you smoking, and can I have a hit?
How is Apple "deliberately interfering" with anything other than the nefarious activities of Apps that surreptitiously Track Users? And even then, they aren't "interfering" with anything.
You are confusing (intentionally, methinks) "Interfering" with "Informing".
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a reference count is taken if you need location data. if refcount is > 0 then the data is collected once and distributed to applications that need it. (possibly filtered further) if refcount falls to 0, then a timer ticks off and powers down the relevant hardware when it expires.
I can't remember what this is formally called in control theory, but it's a common technique when dealing with shared resources to avoid thrashing loading/unload processes or to reduce the number of times you pay the power on/off
Re:Interesting... (Score:4, Interesting)
Location data is available through the Core Location API. The OS is in charge of turning the GPS on and off depending on what apps are using Core Location. I'm presuming that if, like me, you have "find my..." turned on most of the time, the GPS is on most of the time and, therefore, battery drain from the GPS is not an issue.
However, apps that are not in use are normally kicked from RAM, but if they are tracking location, they need to be woken up for location updates. Thus, they take up resources even when not in use.
I haven't seen the notification for a long time. When I do see it, I normally set the app to use location data only when in use. I can't, for instance, think of any reason why Facebook would need to track my location when not in use, well, no reason apart from Facebook wanting to sell my location data to third parties. There are legitimate reasons for this feature. For example, the Life360 app mentioned TFS may be duplicating Find My... functionality, but I expect it works cross platform. I can't, foe example, share my location with Android users using Find My... However, I don't think it's bad to be reminded every now and again that you are sharing your location at all times. That should go for Find My... too.
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Get iOS users to turn off all location tracking for everyone. So only Apple knows your location, and can sell that data stream to the app makers directly. Why let you give it away for free, when Apple could monetize it (all in the name of "security", of course)?
You're pathetic.
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99% of people do not buy their phones of any platform based on some ideological nonsense.
I bought an iPhone because it works for me. I do not care if it does not work for you, simply because you are not me, you can buy the phone that works for you
I have seen this faux platform war running since I bought my first computer, a TRS-80 Model 1 clone back in the early 1980's. And used CPM2.2 machines for a number of years.
And the bullshit has not changed a
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Just don't develop for Apple
I'm doing it for 4 years full time. When users ask me where the Apple version of my App is, I just tell them there is non and there are no plans of making one.
End of story. The problem will solve itself this way. I'm doing very fine this way. The church of Apple is not part of my religion
Got rejected from the App Store, eh?
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