• JoeKrogan@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This is the correct response. Either everyone has protection or no one has. Not that I’d trust apple anyway but by pulling the service your average person is likely to make some noise because they can feel the effect.

    • hardypart@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      I’m not even an Apple user but somehow I still feel like Apple is one of the very last companies where privacy and the security of your data is more worth than a dime.

      • zettajon@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Nope, Apple sells your data just as much as Google does: https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/apple-ad-revenues-skyrocket-amid-its-privacy-changes https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/12/22/23513061/apple-iphone-app-store-ads-privacy-antitrust#luMMel

        While people noticed their new policies against 3rd party apps, that masked the fact that those policies carved out an exception for first party apps, meaning they collect (anonymous) data on you through Health, Journal, Music, etc. just like every other company. “Trusting them more” is simply a result of you and everyone else getting hit with their privacy ads recently.

        Edit: “just like every other company” meant Google and Microsoft, i.e. the other big equivalent tech companies, my fault for not being specific.

        • steal_your_face@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          While I’m all for calling out companies for abusing your privacy, your own links show that they don’t collect as much data as google. They could (and should) be better though.

        • AngrilyEatingMuffins@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Anonymous data is actually pretty different to the data everyone else collects, which literally has your name and picture

          Apple’s data is useful for trends but it can’t be used to study who I am.

          • generalpotato@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            This comment needs to be further up rather than the idiotic takes that don’t understand the difference between anonymized data collection (Apple) vs identifiable data collection (Meta/Google/most other tech).

            • QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Well, then there’s also the people that don’t realize that there are all sorts of programs out there that will try to take that “anonymized” data and then tie it right back to a persons profile.

              For example, you can anonymize GPS location data, but just because you strip away identifying information doesn’t mean that you’re truly anonymous. It can still be obvious where you live and where you work. And once you figure out where they live (again based on anonymous data) you can tie that information right back into their profile and continue to track them as if nothing has changed. https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a15927450/identify-individual-users-with-stravas-heatmap/

              • Yendor@sh.itjust.works
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                1 year ago

                That won’t work on Apples data - they group all the data into cohorts, so the anonymising isn’t reversible.

                • QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Can you explain a bit more about Apple grouping their data into cohorts? I haven’t heard much about this before. For example, how would grouping data into cohorts work with GPS data?

              • generalpotato@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Not all anonymization techniques are created equal? I’m pretty sure this is fairly obvious at this point to anybody remotely familiar with how data collection works when it comes to privacy and device metrics.

                So, how is this relevant to this conversation besides adding more FUD and misinformation?

                • QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  You sound like you know a lot more than everyone else on this subject so I thank you for your responses as a means to educate others.

                  Just a word of advice, be sure to treat others with respect rather than assuming the worst of their intentions or calling them idiots because they don’t know as much as you.

                  My response is still relevant to the conversation as we are talking about “anonymized data”. The link in my comment above proves that just because you are told your data has been “anonymized” does not truly mean that it’s impossible to re-attribute it back to an individual.

                  So if you trust that Apple has great techniques for data anonymization, that’s awesome, feel free to expand on that and explain why. Just don’t go around telling others that simply having any sort of anonymization technique makes it so you don’t have to worry.

        • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 year ago

          As much as Google? Likely not. Does their carefully curated pro-privacy image actually match their practices? Also likely not.

        • SidneyGrant@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          I feel like wuth the amount of stuff done on device and not in the cloud with iPhones and other Apple products, saying that Apple sells just as much as Google is at the very least disingenuous…

          • IronCorgi@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Why? They gather data locally on your device rather than on a cloud service. Why do you feel the locality where they gather your data makes the comment disingenuous?

            • kirklennon@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              If your device locally analyzes your behavior and files, then Apple itself is not actually collecting and analyzing your data. The “locality” is a fundamental difference in who is doing what. If your private information never leaves your phone, your privacy is still fully maintained.

        • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          There is a massive leap between collecting data and selling your data.

          I am against both but in the digital age actually knowing who has your data is such a relief. My old email got sold to third party’s a bit to many times and to this day 80% of the incoming messages are blatant generic America targeted phishing.

        • Platform27@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Health is on-device, and is E2EE. To my knowledge, that’s always been the case. They do allow optional data linking services, but those need to be setup by the end-user. Apple should have no knowledge of this data, by default. Notes can be E2EE (with ADP), and with Journal (a new iOS feature) being E2EE. Music is a paid for service, with no ads, and is one of the more privacy respecting options. Data is needed for Music to help serve the user, and suggest artists/songs… it’s literally one of the platforms benefits, over self-hosting.

          • zettajon@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            None of the major players literally sell your true name and address. All mask the data, and then do stuff with it like create trends to know which ads to display to “users that search for tiktok on the app store/play store”

            • Platform27@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              Apple does not sell user data. By all means, look at their Privacy Policy (it’s easy to read), and show me where this is mentioned. They do collect it, and use it for their own marketing platform, but they don’t sell/trade it. In fact they DO anonymise the data they collect. Take a look: https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Differential_Privacy_Overview.pdf This is just one document, found after a quick search. They also disclose other details on their security, and other privacy (or lack thereof) aspects.

              Now show me where other ad agencies, not just one or two, that goes to the same lengths, while also giving decent documentation. I’m not saying Apple is perfect (far from it).

              • zettajon@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                They do collect it, and use it for their own marketing platform

                Right

                but they don’t sell/trade it

                Then what are they collecting it for? To line their servers? It’s being used to train services, and those services that have ads have those ads targeted using the data collected in the first sentence I quoted.

                In fact they DO anonymise the data they collect

                So does google. Again, to the broader thread audience replying to my original comment, what is the difference?

                • JshKlsn@lemmy.ml
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                  1 year ago

                  You’re right. Not sure why you’re downvoted.

                  Google would be stupid to sell your data. Instead they keep it private, and when people go to Google, they tell them to push ads to certain groups or take surveys from certain groups, and Google does so. They do not hand those advertisers your data, otherwise those advertisers would never come back. They have the data.

                • seukari@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  I recently learned that one method for companies to get around data selling laws is to give the data away for free in order to attract certain types of advertisers, then, they sell ad slots for people with specific demographics or interests.

                  They don’t sell the data because that is harder to do with laws restricting it, so they just use it as advertiser bait in ways that bypass the law.

                  Further reading: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/google-says-it-doesnt-sell-your-data-heres-how-company-shares-monetizes-and

                • Rakn@discuss.tchncs.de
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                  1 year ago

                  The difference is that there are actually companies out there that will sell you the raw data they collected. E.g. your name and address if they have, your browsing history obtained through shady extension and so on.

                  So there is a difference between selling the data and hoarding it to show targeted ads.

                  And while both may not be cool, to me anyone with some money being able to buy my data is clearly worse. So it’s helpful distinguishing there. It’s not all “selling your data”. You are also doing your argument a disservice by lumping it all into the same bucket.

        • Elthesensai@mastodon.social
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          1 year ago

          @zettajon @hardypart there is nothing stating that Apple is using your data, selling your data, or even getting your data. While it did create a situation where ad dollars are going to App Store it’s still not targeted other than by search. Your own posted link says nothing about what you claimed. There are plenty of issues to bring up about Apple without the need of fabricating one.

        • Yendor@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Did you read the article you posted? Apple serve you ads, they don’t sell your data. And they allow you to opt out of tracking. It’s all right there in your article.

          • JshKlsn@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            I know this is off topic, but Apple isn’t innocent.

            It’s almost worse to think your privacy is protected when it’s not, than to know it’s not. At least I know Google is sending my Google Assistant sound clips to be analyzed. Sucks when you learn the person you thought you could trust is fucking behind your back.

      • DragonAce@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Any company that obfuscates all their security practices, refuses to give statistics on security risks and counter measures, and boils their product security down to “Trust us, bro.”, doesn’t actually give a fuck about your security. They’re just the last company who is still able to keeps everything secret so they can make shit up as they go along. Apple’s security is a joke and they’re just as bad as any other manufacturer on the market, the only difference is they have successfully kept their shit secret for all these years and spent decades convincing people they actually give a fuck about security.

        I still remember a few years ago having a conversation with a coworker about her iphone and she bragged about Apple never being hacked and this was right after I had just got done reading an article about a large scale hack on their network. Of course Apple never said a damned thing about it, so I forwarded her the article. IIRC she mumbled something about how the article was probably not accurate. Apple fanatics do some crazy mental gymnastics to justify them spending thousands on a phone thats probably worth about $300 at best(their hardware is on average 1-2 generations behind other devices on the market).

        Did you know that most celebrity phone hacks are thru apple accounts?

        • kautau@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          obfuscates all their security practices

          https://help.apple.com/pdf/security/en_US/apple-platform-security-guide.pdf

          https://support.apple.com/guide/security/advanced-data-protection-for-icloud-sec973254c5f/web

          https://developer.apple.com/documentation/cloudkit/encrypting_user_data

          I had just got done reading an article about a large scale hack on their network

          Source? Or should I just “trust you bro”

          Did you know that most celebrity phone hacks are thru apple accounts?

          Did you know that most celebrities own iPhones by a far margin? These aren’t the encryption was broken hacks when someone is getting into an iCloud account, these are social engineering hacks. That’s what happens when your publicist, your agent, and others have access to your digital accounts so they can get you a new phone quick while you are on the road, grab the photos you took on your phone from your iCloud account to share, etc. More holes in security.

          about $300 at best(their hardware is on average 1-2 generations behind other devices on the market)

          Flagship android phones, barring a few exceptions, are not sold without pre-installed apps that subsidize the cost of the phone.

          Do you have an example of a device priced at $300 with competitive hardware to the base iPhone 14, without bloatware subsidizing the cost of the device? I’d accept that generally iPhones are ~$100-200 above the price of devices with competitive hardware, but a current gen iPhone having $300 hardware? The specs are very similar to other devices in similar price ranges

          I’ve owned both Pixels and iPhones before. While each has its pros and cons, I’ve found that the app sandboxing, default settings, and ability to opt out of telemetry was always better on iPhone. And until google has free, easy-to-use E2E encryption for Android devices and the related cloud services, customer data on Google’s servers is more at risk to be stolen/sold for profit/used without explicit user consent.

          • Whirlybird@aussie.zone
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            1 year ago

            Do you have an example of a device priced at $300 with competitive hardware to the base iPhone 14, without bloatware subsidizing the cost of the device? I’d accept that generally iPhones are ~$100-200 above the price of devices with competitive hardware, but a current gen iPhone having $300 hardware? The specs are very similar to other devices in similar price ranges

            Not to mention that iPhones are literally best in the world in terms of the SOC. No other phone in the world matches them. Saying “their hardware is on average 1-2 generations behind other devices on the market” shows how wrong that person is.

            • kautau@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Yeah tbh I started to write a comparison of phones like the fairphone and the purism librem 5, and even the pixel 7, but they are laughable in comparison to just the base iPhone 14 hardware wise. Sure, one is $150 less, but the Librem is like 1300 dollars by comparison to the iPhone 14’s $800, and they are performing at maybe 1/3 of the A15 Bionic SOC. The pixel 7 doesn’t fair much better by price comparison, and again, it’s making google money by selling user telemetry more actively.

              I encourage competition, I don’t think apple should own the market forever. And they haven’t. They almost failed before the first iPod and iPhone. But they’ve come back in terms of their ability to produce powerful silicon. The M series of processors solidifies it.

              Competition is good, and when a company is pushing the market and also pushing a real security agenda? It’s a good thing, let the competitors catch up with security, and then work to beat apple at the SOC game.

              Apple has been dethroned at silicon before, once PowerPC died, it can (and probably will) happen again.

              That’s a good thing.

              Let competitors build better E2E encryption and on-device security. The competition of better security is good for everyone.

              I would love to see apple be de-throned, but I think until there is a shift on a combined focus of hardware/software/security as a product (and having users pay the premium for that) it won’t happen for awhile

            • kautau@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I won’t disagree with that, it certainly seems to be the most secure OS available for modern smartphones.

              My points were purely refuting the commenter I responded to’s weird obsession with “Apple = Bad and Insecure.” We should encourage competition and support efforts to increase security anywhere they occur. Brand tribalism doesn’t help anyone.

          • gian @lemmy.grys.it
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            1 year ago

            Do you have an example of a device priced at $300 with competitive hardware to the base iPhone 14, without bloatware subsidizing the cost of the device?

            Ulefone Armor 21 😉

            Perhaps is even better.

            • microwavedgerbil@programming.dev
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              1 year ago

              How long will that device get major updates? How about security updates? If I break the screen, how long does it take to get another one? What if liquid penetrates the device? Can I take it to a service center? If the service center doesn’t have the parts, will they give me a loaner device while mine is being repaired off-site? Can the off-site repair be done in under a week? How long is the warranty? Can I pay to extend it? What if I lose the device? Is there insurance for that?

              That’s if we pretend for a moment that the MediaTek G99 isn’t a quarter of the speed of the A15.

        • SmashingSquid@notyour.rodeo
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          1 year ago

          Apple processors outperform flagship android phones on benchmarks every generation. Where are you getting your information?

          • kautau@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Sadly it’s tribalism. It’s “apple = bad” so anything mentioned about apple isn’t looked at logically but rather with an “us vs them” mentality. It’s common across the spectrum of thinking critically nowadays, but I felt I had to refute all points because it’s dumb and doesn’t help anyone.

            More security is good. Hating on apple because they are convinced that it’s an overpriced conspiracy is stupid. Every tech company deserves some hate, Apple included, but making that your identity instead of thinking critical does nothing to advance the work being done.

    • MxM111@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I think this is correct response not just in case of morality, but in case of technology. How can you guaranty privacy of a call if the recipient is from UK?

    • EighthLayer@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      iMessage isn’t a big loss in the UK. FaceTime would be.

      WhatsApp pulling out of the UK would have the biggest impact. Almost everyone uses it here.

      • iMike@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Can confirm, it had swipe to reply for a while now, it’s coming to iMessage in next iOS… The only thing that annoys me about WhatsApp is the high picture compression resulting in low quality images.

        • shebpamm@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          If you need to send uncompressed images send it as a “document” rather than an image. You won’t get the preview but it’ll be the same file as on your phone.

      • EliasChao@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        WhatsApp also uses E2EE, wouldn’t also be targeted under this same legislation?

        Meta pulling WhatsApp out of the UK would affect way more people.