China's Tech Giants Test Way Around Apple's New Privacy Rules (ft.com) 32
Some of China's biggest technology companies, including ByteDance and Tencent, are testing a tool to bypass Apple's new privacy rules and continue tracking iPhone users without their consent to serve them targeted mobile advertisements. From a report: Apple is expected in the coming weeks to roll out changes it announced last June to iPhones that it says will give users more privacy. Until now, apps have been able to rely on Apple's IDFA system to see who clicks on ads and which apps are downloaded. In future, they will have to ask permission to gather tracking data, a change which is expected to deal a multibillion-dollar bombshell to the online advertising industry, and has been fought by Facebook, since most users are expected to decline to be tracked. In response, the state-backed China Advertising Association, which has 2,000 members, has launched a new way to track and identify iPhone users called CAID, which is being widely tested by tech companies and advertisers in the country. ByteDance, the owner of the social video app TikTok, referred to CAID in an 11-page guide to app developers obtained by the Financial Times, suggesting that advertisers "can use the CAID as a substitute if the user's IDFA is unavailable."
People close to Tencent and ByteDance confirmed the companies were testing the system, but both companies declined to comment. Several efforts are under way to get around Apple's rules, but CAID is the biggest challenge to them yet, and the iPhone maker declined to comment directly on it. But in a move that sets the stage for a major confrontation, Apple denied that it would grant any exceptions. "The App Store terms and guidelines apply equally to all developers around the world, including Apple," the company said. "We believe strongly that users should be asked for their permission before being tracked. Apps that are found to disregard the user's choice will be rejected."
People close to Tencent and ByteDance confirmed the companies were testing the system, but both companies declined to comment. Several efforts are under way to get around Apple's rules, but CAID is the biggest challenge to them yet, and the iPhone maker declined to comment directly on it. But in a move that sets the stage for a major confrontation, Apple denied that it would grant any exceptions. "The App Store terms and guidelines apply equally to all developers around the world, including Apple," the company said. "We believe strongly that users should be asked for their permission before being tracked. Apps that are found to disregard the user's choice will be rejected."
tracking just for advertising? (Score:3)
Yeah. Right.
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Keep telling you, China is not communist. It's capitalist, advertising is massive business there and the economy is driven by consumerism.
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It is just another form of Confucian Dictatorship, like North Korea.
They see it as a Meritocracy.
Nothing "Capitalist" about it; having mostly-decentralized trade doesn't make it Capitalist.
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China is all about brands and consuming. If you go there you will find huge new malls and shopping complexes, full of domestic and international brands. Audi and BMW dealers, Disney stores, Walmart, and of course many that you have never heard of but which are huge in China.
You've probably never heard of Fuzhou. It's not one of the biggest or most well known cities. I've been there though, and been to this place: https://youtu.be/bK9MGAt45c8 [youtu.be]
Looks pretty capitalist to me. That's just one of many, by the way.
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China is in the midst of a power struggling with a communist dictatorship vs a plutocracy, with the government more in control. So it's different from Russia, where the plutocrats straight out run the government.
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The thing is China Communism is not the same as Soviet Communism.
Russia/USSR culture was more tied to western culture ideas and values, while China culture was Eastern. When China Went to Communism, USSR tried and failed to make China an other Satellite state of the USSR, mostly due to the fact they were major differences between the two countries in terms of values and cultures, and how they implemented their version of communism.
Chinese seems to value more capitalist ideas than the Soviet system, while I
Re:Piss off with this new Cold War narrative (Score:5, Funny)
Sure thing Winnie The Pooh.
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Flamebait? More like, may the autumn’s sorghum harvest be bountiful. We good now?
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Of course, every other bloody country in the world is a cruel, murderous, genocidal totalitarian regime.
Fuck you, miserable discusting CCP astroturfing whore.
Re:Piss off with this new Cold War narrative (Score:5, Informative)
That's not even remotely true. Sure, no country is perfect, but in China the government sends soldiers with guns to physically confiscate any server put on the internet without written permission granted by the government, with entire years going by with zero new DNS addresses issued. I've had friends running data centers have servers confiscated - and the only choice is whether they take the server out and hand it to the soldiers, or the soldiers just rip it out, damaging the rack and cabling. And of course there's the firewall around the country, which they government arrests people for violating. And look at what they did to Alibaba.
Compared to that, the things that most countries are accused of (illegal monitoring of network traffic) is positively benign.
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You may want to read up on PII and the GDPR. You’re confusing analytics with something completely different. How many people went to the ball game != did Joe go to the ball game.
Apple is just going to ban them from the app store (Score:3)
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Do they really have the option? We're talking about Tencent and ByteDance. Arguably 2 of the biggest tech companies not in China, but in the world. If tencent were to require the CAID thing (Disclaimer: I didnt RTFA) for every single of their apps/games to function, and if other big App/Game makers follow suit, what's Apple gonna do about that?
Sounds quite similar to what's happening on the web where blocking trackers also, mysteriously, bricks half the websites you're trying to use.
Re:Apple is just going to ban them from the app st (Score:5, Insightful)
They kicked Fortnite off the App Store and Fortnite is one of the most played mobile games. Apple's stance in the Fortnite thing has been "our users are on our side so we can do what we want" and I don't see that changing here.
Sounds quite similar to what's happening on the web where blocking trackers also, mysteriously, bricks half the websites you're trying to use.
Yeah, it's great, every single news site now claims that I've used up all my monthly articles but I can read this single article for a one-time payment of only $0.99 or subscribe for the low monthly fee of $30/month! Weirdly that goes away if you let them track you.
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Kicking off one game developer is nothing compared to angering a large country as big as China.
Are you sure CCP will not retaliate against Apple if they stopped Chinese tech companies from tracking Chinese citizen (or even US citizens for that matter)?
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Last time I checked, the Xi actively was calling for a “crackdown” on Chinese tech companies. I’d bet few things would make Xi happier than a ban by Apple to show just how much those tech companies *need* the CCP’s “protection”.
'Advertising', yeah, sure, right (Score:4, Insightful)
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They don't stop at China. [npr.org]
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Apple is the best of the bunch but... (Score:3)
State actors will ALWAYS find a way to get your data if they really want it. It doesn't matter if you ONLY use tor from a public hot spot, and drive 85 miles in a random direction each time you want to text someone, and you only use burner phones for the connection and break them after every use like they do in Breaking Bad. If China, Russia or Uncle Sam decide they want to know what you're doing, they will find out. It's as simple as that.
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Of course, you can maintain a reasonable level of privacy if you simply make it difficult, and therefore costly to get your data, and/or ensure most of what's most easily available is inaccurate.
It's as simple as that.
Does anybody have info on how CAID works? (Score:4, Interesting)
... the state-backed China Advertising Association, which has 2,000 members, has launched a new way to track and identify iPhone users called CAID, which is being widely tested by tech companies and advertisers in the country. ByteDance, the owner of the social video app TikTok, referred to CAID in an 11-page guide to app developers obtained by the Financial Times, suggesting that advertisers "can use the CAID as a substitute if the user's IDFA is unavailable.
Does anyone have any info on how CAID works?
All I've found so far (in only a couple minutes searching) seem to be references to that "it exists" mention in that guide. If it is "being widely tested by tech companies and advertisers in the country" there should be more info available.
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If it were me, I'd just announce it, wait for other people to explain how I must be bypassing Apple's measures, and go implement it.
Laziness ftw.
Apple (Score:1)
The only reason Apple is "protecting" their customer's privacy is to monopolize the data for themselves. Why let other companies get your customers' information for free?
It's weird, but that's really the only reason Apple wants to protect your privacy - they own you. They own your data. If someone else wants your data they'd better step off, because that belongs to Apple and Apple isn't in the business of giving away their assets and resources for free.
Ironic that better privacy is going to come about due t