Apple Sued for Allegedly Deceiving Users With Privacy Settings (gizmodo.com) 34
"Apple is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly harvesting iPhone user data even when the company's own privacy settings promise not to," reports Gizmodo:
The suit, filed Thursday in California federal court, comes days after Gizmodo exclusively reported on research into how multiple iPhone apps send Apple analytics data, regardless of whether the iPhone Analytics privacy setting is turned on or off. The problem was spotted by two independent researchers at the software company Mysk, who found that the Apple App Store sends the company exhaustive information about nearly everything a user does in the app, despite a privacy setting, iPhone Analytics, which claims to "disable the sharing of Device Analytics altogether" when switched off.
Gizmodo asked the researchers to run additional tests on other iPhone apps, including Apple Music, Apple TV, Books, and Stocks. The researchers found that the problem persists across most of Apple's suite of built-in iPhone apps....
[I]n the tests, turning the iPhone Analytics setting off had no evident effect on the data collection, nor did any of the iPhone's other built-in settings meant to protect your privacy from Apple's data collection. Mysk's tests on the App Store found that Apple receives that data along with details that can identify you and your device, including ID numbers, what kind of phone you're using, your screen resolution, your keyboard languages and how you're connected to the internet — the kind of information commonly used for device fingerprinting.
Gizmodo asked the researchers to run additional tests on other iPhone apps, including Apple Music, Apple TV, Books, and Stocks. The researchers found that the problem persists across most of Apple's suite of built-in iPhone apps....
[I]n the tests, turning the iPhone Analytics setting off had no evident effect on the data collection, nor did any of the iPhone's other built-in settings meant to protect your privacy from Apple's data collection. Mysk's tests on the App Store found that Apple receives that data along with details that can identify you and your device, including ID numbers, what kind of phone you're using, your screen resolution, your keyboard languages and how you're connected to the internet — the kind of information commonly used for device fingerprinting.
Apple gets your data (Score:5, Interesting)
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All my friends are aware that I own absolutely nothing that originated from that "A" company. Such reports of anti-social activity seem all so regular, stuff like slowing down the operation of an older phone in order to promote the sale of newer, now faster phones, and stuff so old I only remember being outraged, without remembering what it was about.
Apple can pound sand. My dollars go elsewhere, almost anywhere else.
This is bad (Score:2)
The caveat being how the data is harvested and how it being used.
Re:This is bad (Score:5, Interesting)
This is a bad direction for Apple. Their success is built on charging a LOT of $$$ up front but then delivering long-term quality hardware and putting the customer experience first. They will NOT be able to maintain that while simultaneously adopting the Google-Facebook data-driven approach.
If Apple doesn’t pull back from this ad thing, they will cook the goose thats been laying their golden eggs for 15 years. And I seriously doubt that ad revenue will make up for the loss from that. If Apple devices are harvesting my data and pushing tons of ads just like google and facebook, I might as well just go Android for my phone, MS surface for my tablet, and save thousands of dollars.
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If Apple doesn’t pull back from this ad thing, they will cook the goose thats been laying their golden eggs for 15 years. And I seriously doubt that ad revenue will make up for the loss from that.
I'd like to believe that analysis, but I have too much experience with otherwise-intelligent people who've drunk Microsoft's Kool-Aid and readily defend the company against any and all criticism. I don't expect it to be any better - and it will probably be even worse - for the majority of Apple users. As long as they have their shiny and stuff just works, they'll look the other way while Apple lies to them and steals their privacy.
Re:This is bad (Score:5, Insightful)
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This is a stupid take and you should feel bad.
The hardware is high quality. The software is high quality. These things should not be in dispute, not because lots of people use the phones, but lots of people find the phones useful. The independent reviews are good. The objective measurements of the performance and lifetimes of the devices is at least as good as the top Android devices.
Does Apple have the best marketing machine? Absolutely. But they couldn't sell a polished turd forever, and they're not. They
Re:This is bad (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple has always collected user data. This isn't new, and it isn't due to their ad platform.
Their whole "privacy" thing has always been marketing spin. It was originally conceived to explain why Siri was so much worse than the Google Assistant: Apple had access to less data because they collected less than Google did. This somehow became "Apple respects your privacy" even though it was really "Apple has a smaller user base" and from there the myth of Apple privacy grew, with Apple actively marketing it.
But it's never been true. Apple has always collected as much data from everyone as they could get away. Your iPhone tracks your GPS location, the towers it can see, the signal strength of wifi networks, and more, and all of that is sent back to Apple for a variety of reasons, such as traffic data for Apple Maps. None of this is new.
The really scary thing is that Apple now tracks a lot of health data, and a lot of that is "backed up" in iCloud. Apple will tell you that it's all encrypted, but they conveniently don't explain is that the key to access it is also backed up to iCloud. It's unclear how much access to health data they have as part of "anonymized usage statistics" and I would hope anyone here is aware that a lot of "anonymized data" is trivially de-anonymized.
The data isn't just used for ads, it's also used for product development. And the ads aren't going away. The problem with ads, is that it's always a race to the bottom. Purchase Price + Ad Fees is always more than Purchase Price alone. And as long as consumers have no other options, it just becomes a race to see who can add the most ads. Ads will never be removed, because you can always make more money with them than without.
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Yeah, found it hilarious when Microsoft copied Apple and started collecting some of the same data Apple had collected for years; users not only complained (ofcourse non-cults are always more critical), but some said they would be moving to Apple as a result :D
Re: This is bad (Score:2)
Re: This is bad (Score:2)
Re: This is bad (Score:2)
Re: This is bad (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This is bad (Score:4, Interesting)
Who Trusted Apple To Begin With? (Score:4)
I know I didn't. Or any other company for that matter, but especially Apple.
Boycott or suffer.
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There is literally an unlimited supply of Apple Fanboys on this site who literally think that choosing Apple increases their privacy, that Apple doesn't spy on them, that if they are collecting data they are using it responsibly, blah blah blah. I have been modded down by them time and again for pointing out that their favorite software is not any more trustworthy than anyone else's. We have known for over a decade that Apple is part of PRISM, they literally do not have a choice about whether they hand your
This is not really a surprise. (Score:4, Funny)
Privacy to them means other entities harvesting data, it does not apply to them. Completely expected.
I find it HILARIOUS that it's Giz reporting this, lost phone thing from the past and all. Karma can take time to do it's thing.
The difference between Apple and other companies (Score:4, Insightful)
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I am shocked at this! (Score:2)
"shocker" (Score:2)
Damn (Score:2)
Gosh, would Apple really do something underhanded and self-serving and then lie about it?
I look forward (Score:2)
No duh... (Score:2)
My assumption is and will always be that every app from every developer is collecting everything I do with it, selling my data, and lying about it.
And I'm actually not sure what to think of anybody who assumes otherwise...other than that their doing so raises very interesting questions.
Where the iPhone zombies... (Score:1)