Apple Releases iOS 14.5 With Much-Talked About App Tracking Transparency Feature (apple.com) 19
Apple on Monday released iOS 14.5, which bring a range of new features to iPhone, including the ability to unlock iPhone with Apple Watch while wearing a face mask, more diverse Siri voices, new privacy controls, skin tone options to better represent couples in emoji, and much more. iOS 14.5 builds on the reimagined iPhone experience introduced in iOS 14, and is available today as a free software update. Regarding the new privacy controls, Apple has described it as: App Tracking Transparency requires apps to get the user's permission before tracking their data across apps or websites owned by other companies for advertising, or sharing their data with data brokers. Apps can prompt users for permission, and in Settings, users will be able to see which apps have requested permission to track so they can make changes to their choice at any time.
F U Zuckerschmuck (Score:2, Informative)
People feeble enough to run the Facebook app can at least do one more clicky-click to allow Lord Z to cash in on their ignorance. If you -must- use FB on your mobile, run it in a browser. The app is a fukkin' disaster.
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If you -must- use FB on your mobile, run it in a browser. The app is a fukkin' disaster.
I'd say this is good advice for *any* social media - if you feel like you have to use it, at least run it in a browser rather than installing their app.
We've seen too many instances of these social media companies misusing the access end users grant them - not only Facebook, but past shenanigans by LinkedIn and Twitter come immediately to mind.
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That is what ublock etc are for.
I block google analytics and such too
Re: F U Zuckerschmuck (Score:1)
And use something like Firefoxâ(TM)s containers to keep FB inside a test tube environment where it belongs.
Old vs New Bugs (Score:2)
Have to wonder what the ratio between "Old bugs fixed" and "New bugs introduced in new toy apps".
Probably find out when the .1 update comes out in two weeks.
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If you aren't adding bugs, you aren't adding features! Now make those phones lock up! People want more emojis!
Re:Old vs New Bugs (Score:4, Funny)
Have to wonder what the ratio between "Old bugs fixed" and "New bugs introduced in new toy apps".
Why pay for testers when you have users?
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It is not fixing any bugs. It has no CVE listed as fixed.
All of the 1.5G contain these things:
- lgbt multicultural emojis
- lgbt multicultural voices for Siri
- face detection with masks on, because masks are forever.
- vaguely advertised "anti tracking" mechanisms that should have been implemented since iOS 0.8beta
- having the cloud (i.e. all other iOS devices in the world) track your misplaced everyday items (yes, more tracking on things to help people become even more dependent on the device for basic life
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Correction and update for the record: Apple did include a ton of security updates, they just didn't bother to include any security issues at the time of release, making it impossible to know then.
A full day later came the list of security fixes, which are positively massive, with several kernel-level fixes up to and including "An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges".
So at least they did fix security vulnerabilities, they just didn't bother to tell everyone in a timely ma
Will the policy have any teeth? (Score:3)
Is Apple going to let stuff into the app store where the App just bails if you decline to be tracked?
If they said like Apps must be fully functional save for features like 'make content recommendations based on your interactions with our partners sites' that would be quite interesting in terms of changing the market place.
However if apps are allowed to 'just bail' if you don't accept than the impact will be much more limited.
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A better question is when the antitrust violation will be filed to force Apple to allow the same opt in and out for it's own tracking - which it does not allow.
All Apple stuff is opt-in (Score:5, Informative)
when the antitrust violation will be filed to force Apple to allow the same opt in and out for it's own tracking - which it does not allow.
Care to explain? Anything your device sends Apple is all opt-in, prompted either at time of setup of the phone, or when an individual app would like access to something.
Apple goes a step further than that as well, if you opt-in for something like background location for ANY app, after some time Apple will prompt you asking if it's still OK to allow that app to continue using background location...
Re:Will the policy have any teeth? (Score:5, Informative)
The idea is in fact that if you decline to allow cross-app sharing the app still has to work as normal. This is a good start on Apple's part.
Unable to update iOS (Score:1)
I wonder what percentage of devices are unable to update iOS? Maybe due to space limitations and unable to handle continuously growing size of OS.
The continuing increase is OS size make initial storage size more important when purchasing a device. For the low end devices with minimal storage, they quickly run out of space to be able to download and install OS updates.
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This size is neccessary to introduce a ton of new voices for the AI that tracks you. Now you can be tracked by a nonbinary and a stereotypical black voice. To fight stereotyping, of course.
As of iOS 15.x, the other voices will be removed, so save on space. Hold out a little. Buy the iCloud subscription to hold your photos in the meantime, mmkay?
Unicode Emojis are silly. (Score:2)
They should just turn PostScript or SVG into a Unicode code point stream and be done with it. Would probably require fewer code points too.
Apple iOS 14.5 (Score:1)