Slashdot Mirror
User Tracking Back On iOS 6
First time accepted submitter connor4312 writes "Apple got caught with its hand in the cookie jar when privacy experts protested the use of a universal device identifier, or UDID, to track the online preferences of iPhone and iPad users. Enough is enough, right? Well, maybe not. It looks like device tracking is back with iOS 6, courtesy of a new tracking technology: IDFA, or identifier for advertisers."
They know I'm at Starbucks! Now how will I write my screen play in peace?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
If you want to turn off device tracking using the IDFA on your iOS6 device, do the following:
1) Click on Settings.
2) Click on General to access the General Settings.
3) Click About
4) Scroll down and click on Advertising.
5) Set Limit Ad Tracking to "ON".
Default On. This seems like the mobile version of Do Not Track, and we all know how that is turning out.
Tech companies as a whole value your privacy almost as much as a fat kid values vegetables.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
The UDID of old was something you could not block access to.
Having an ID specific for ad use is better, since you can disable it (even if how to do so is a bit hidden behind a few layers of menus). Otherwise advertisers would seek some other means to tracking, and end up with something you could not as easily block.
Personally though I generally leave things like this on, I actually do want more relevant advertising (I don't use ad blockers on the web for the same reason).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Full armor, full ammo, all weapons, but no keys.
I think I'll wait for IDKFA.
Come on, there is money to be made and this is America, son!
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
So by using a generated id that changes on device reset and giving users the option to opt out this is just as bad as before? Sure you're opted in by default but you can disable it. Before it used an id that was tied to phone and you had no control over when it got used. Also they tried to hide it but that's nothing new.
Not only was Apple not using the UDID for user tracking (app developers were and against developer policies might I add) but specifically for iOS beta tracking, but IDFA specifically was mentioned by Apple as the legal way for app creators to do it in the future and is opt-outable. But then you cant spook idiot users can you Sophos into buying your products if you are actually honest.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
So you can only "Limit Ad Tracking" and not fully disable it? Ummm ok..
Please explain to me what the problem is here. How deep does the tracking go? And honestly, if it's companies trying to get advertisements out, who cares if they have that information about us? Advertising is a huge expense, and blanket advertisements do a large population segment are not cost effective. With useful tracking and profiling data, a company can identify consumers who actually might be interested in their product and focus their advertisements on them, thereby reducing cost by making their advertising more effective and spending their time communicating to people who actually want their product. I know that the only click through advertisements I have ever used came from either Gmail or Facebook, simply because they actually post ads that have things I'm interested in. So what is the actual problem?
These tracking and privacy discussions always seem to me to be about privacy for privacy's sake; I have yet to see a convincing argument as to why it's a "bad thing" that a company with products I like or are interested in are able to find me.
The phone could explode and burn half their face off and they'd still treat Steve Jobs like a diety
That's because now their face looks like magic!
If Apple had any respect for thier customers, this would default to off. But just like Facebook, even Apple has decided their customers are the advertisers, not the mere users (aka product). But the Samsung ads speak a bit of truth and among the devout, this will not even stir a teapot-sized tempest, for Cupertino knows best.
So how long have you worked at Fox?
Apple: "we need to uniquely identify our users to maximize our advertising revinue stream, and to positively lock individual devices to individual users for the sake of our media partners. Not doing this means we will make less money, and since becomeing a houshold name, our share holders are more fickle than ever!"
Users: "look, do I follow YOU everywhere you go? When you go in the bathroom, do I give YOU targeted adverts for toilet paper, sanitary wipes, tampons and condoms? No? Does that sound at all like something you would like? No? Then DON'T TRACK ME."
Apple: "your concerns have been noted, and your opinion is important to us." [Delivered in robot answering machine voice.]
User: "I will contact an advocacy group if you can't take this seriously."
Apple: "we are dedicated to workmanship and quality, and the opinions of our customers are important to us."
(User contacts advocacy group. Advocacy group raises a stink)
AG: "you are aware I am sure, that pervasive user tracking violates the user's privacy in unacceptible ways, and clues about facts a user would like to keep private, such a club affiliations, sexual preferences, past relationships, and even prior citations for minor legal offenses can be publicly exposed through such tracking and directed advertisements, right? Let alone the serious safety implications, like pedophiles tracking underage children, rapists stalking women, and muggers stalking people with expensive iDevices using tracking apps right? You honestly think that these serious implications are warranted to further your financial bottom line?"
Apple: "oh, we hadn't thought about that second part!"
AG: "so you will stop mandatory tracking?"
Apple: "yes of course! We don't want to (increase our legal liabilities because we) track our customers in such a way that they could be physically or emotionally harmed!"
AG: "Good on you apple. We are glad you understand the value of privacy."
(6 months pass)
Apple: "we have devised a compromise that still let's us make money by selling compromising infrmation to snoopy advertizers, without the legal liabilities! We will offer a NEW tracking feature, that is obfuscated, and obscured such that the user doesn't know its there, and that could theoretically be turned off if they knew how, absolving us of culpability when/if it gets misused!"
User: "do you comprehend the meaning of "I DO NOT WANT TO BE TRACKED."? Does the concept even make sense to you?
Apple: "the opinions of our customers are important to us!"
But they give a free bucket of krill for every patient he sends them!
Everything is better with chainsaws.
The same can be said for the Windows fanboys, the Android fanboys, and every other damned fanboy ... that's pretty much the definition of fanboy; "my manufacturer makes awesome products and would never do anything wrong, yours are evil doodie heads who make crap".
I see just as many people mindlessly defending Microsoft on Slashdot. And, let's face it, Google's "do no evil" has become more of a joke than anything of late.
Throw in the telecoms carriers (*cough* Verizon *cough*), and someone is going to be trying to screw you over at every step of the chain.
And, if you think the free software folks are any better, well, Canonical wants to embed some extra crap from Amazon.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
So, "Apple got caught with its hand in the cookie jar" when it was discovered that people were using the UDID for things it was expressly *not* supposed to be used for.
Funny thing: When you make yourself the gatekeeper and final arbiter of all applications allowed to run on a device, you tend to be seen as responsible for any activity you let through, whether or not it contradicts some written policy, unless you can show that it was very cleverly hidden...
Given that Apple has to OK an app for it to go live(outside of dev or enterprise deployment), and can revoke it at any time, and Apple controls what system data apps have access to, they could have nuked UDID use hard far earlier than they did. But they didn't.
Root your phone and install a Custom Rom with no Tracking, Oh Wait, that's only for Android Phones. Sucks to own an iPhone!
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
I know a lot of Apple fanbois don't like Google anymore - just because Google spoiled their party with Android. But a lot of them, to hide their irrational hatred, makes fun of Google (and Android by extension) as an advertisement company. It's a dig at Google, to somehow reduce their technical abilities. (and of course they conveniently forget that Apple is primarily a marketing company).
But let's assume Google is a advertisement company - and Android is this sucky copy-cat of ios, just to push ads to users, who are morons to even buy the device that keeps on bombarding them with ads all the time (it's a different thing that I have hardly seen ads on my android - except for few free apps).
Now that the context is clear, and we know what Apple has been doing behind the back, lets hear from the apologists about how is that ANY different from whatever they always accuse Google for.
As for me, last thing I want is a sneaky marketing company telling me what to install, how to use my devices, and then track me on my back.
Bravo! A blast of pure, unmitigated sanity on the Internet! I was starting to think I was the only one.
Advertising is a human rights violation now? Wow. Just wow.
Since this is user reset to ON (to turn tracking off) and defaults to OFF (to be tracked), what is to keep Apple from resetting it to OFF every time they patch the OS?
(pin drops)
Well?
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Um, news flash, the Microsoft Tablet RT isn't made in America either.
Source the fab. ... see?
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
The same can be said for the Windows fanboys, the Android fanboys, and every other damned fanboy ... that's pretty much the definition of fanboy; "my manufacturer makes awesome products and would never do anything wrong, yours are evil doodie heads who make crap".
That's resonable and all, but you miss the point that when people talk about "fanboys" of a brand, it is usually implied that all patrons of that brand are "fanboys", and that the fanboy mentality that you describe is primarily responsible for that brands success.
Is there anything about Safari on iOS6 that doesn't suck? Particularly egregious is the fact that it caches POST responses. Yes, you read that right. I don't know what kind of brain damage leads somebody to believe that's an acceptable thing to do.
Let it never be said that SuperKendall was not a faithful subject of his Corporate Masters. Apple can Do No Wrong.
Since the current ad tracking policy is essentially the same as what Android provides (they have a box also where you can uncheck ad tracking) are you then also saying Google is doing wrong? I think it's a great compromise, as I stated ad companies would figure out some other way to track you but with the OS supported ad identifier there is a path they will use (on both iOS AND Android) that the user can disable if they wish.
I'm hardly cheering for Apple when I'm saying they could have done better in the first place.
I am merely stating that the new policy is better than the old one. If you disagree, please do give us reasons why instead of attacking people instead of arguments. Your attack on me only hurts yourself; you come off childish, petulant and uninformed. But then I guess that always was the sigil under the Apple Hater code of arms:
"PUERILLS IRREVERENS IGNARUS"
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I guess you don't use Mozilla Firefox since they don't turn on Do-Not-Track by default.
This is basically the same thing for apps.
I'm glad Apple provides this, and it's a nice differentiator for them since Google needs to track users to maintain their profits while Apple just wants to sell you devices.
Android has a similar switch to limit ad tracking, they just call it interest based ads and make it easier to find even.
However it says nothing about what Google themselves may still track, to me these switches are all about what third parties can get from you.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
User tracking is only bad when it comes from Google. Its okay if Apple does it :P
More like, "I want my browser to not only set the flag, but also actively sabotage tracking efforts across site domains, and nuke tracking cookies at 10 minute intervals at least. My ideal setup requires no cookies at all, but I understand their utility in things like online shopping."
Basically, I want companies like google and apple to grow the fuck up, and quit acting like babies whenever they get their hands slapped over being greedy little brats with entitlement complexes. They are *NOT* entitled to information about my spending habbits, lifestyle choices, product preferences, and absolutely not to my geographical location information. I don't care HOW much money they can make with it.
Before anyone dismisses that as just a joke, it's literally true in iOS 6 if you use the new "Passbook" feature. Every time you pull up the lock screen with Passbook enabled, Passbook does a GPS fix and checks in with Apple to find out if it should display one of the little Passbook cards.
Or you could, you know, disable "show on lockscreen" for all of your passes and don't set favorite stores for your Starbucks pass ... and then Passbook won't do a GPS fix every time you pull up the lock screen.
You can still have and use Passbook passes, it just won't auto-display when your near a Starbucks. Heck, once you have the pass enrolled in Passbook you can even delete the Starbucks app off your phone.
Absolutely, Apples is not entitled to that information. But the story isn't about Apple tracking your spending habits, or about Apple tracking you at all. That's not what "user tracking" is about in iOS.
Same? No fuckin way.
I've never seen a fanboy so rabid as apple fanboys.
Its actually kind of disturbing and borders on religous zealotry.
Can't recall any other fanboy types being like that. Maybe some of the car/truck/motorcycle peoples maybe. But in the computing world.. Apple fanboys are the most rabid and blind i've ever encountered.
Not that they don't exist for every company. But the apple ones are 'special'. lol
APPLE doesn't NEED to differentiate my user session from any other user session, for any sensible reason, other than arbitrary ones centered around artificial constraints to increase cash flow.
My telco needs to keep a unique user string, so they can bill me. Apple does not.
My telco does that with their SIM card.
So android does not really have the same thing.
As the "thing" is the ability to opt out of interest based ads just like Apple is offering now - yes, yes it does. You just said it did.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Unfortunately a lot of advertisers disagree and are trying all kinds of ways to track you anyway. What they have done is to create an alternative that is good enough that advertisers can use it, yet doesn't violate user privacy.
The Slashdot is bad. It tracks users just like about every other site on the web.
First of all, I would like to clear up a common misconception. Apple did NOT ban the use of the UDID in iOS5. The few applications that did get banned did so because they stored the UDID without telling the user. If there's some legal text anywhere in the app that says they are storing this information, then they are fine. The UDID is marked as deprecated, which is just a compile time warning, but still works just fine. It is still used by a lot of people, too.
As for the new advertisingIdentifier, the Apple documentation on this subject is perfectly clear. Anyone can request the advertising device identifier, but developers are required to call advertisingTrackingEnabled. If that value is NO, the the id can only be used for: "frequency capping, conversion events, estimating the number of unique users, security and fraud detection, and debugging"
Note that this is entirely the responsibility of the developer to make sure that's all that is being done. Apple will probably pull any developer that is caught not respecting this, but how can you ever really know?
User: Screw it, I'm getting an Android phone
Google: That's the ticket! We do no evil!
User: Thanks. I'm so sick of being tracked.
Google: Yes, yes...we know...we know that you don't like being tracked. We also know that you're looking for a new job, that your Camry needs new tires, and that you prefer redheads.
User: Umm...wait...
Google: Yup. We don't care what kind of phone you have, though. Our ad networks aren't limited to any one device or platform. They're everywhere. So, have you played with today's Doodle? It's kinda cute! There's a little monkey!
Any app with an internet connection can track you without your knowledge simply by phoning home with some sort of unique identifier, like a UUID. The only way to not be tracked by apps is to turn on Airplane Mode and never turn it off.
The problem with the UDID was that it was visible across all applications, so that multiple apps that tracked a user via UDID could correlate their results. For example, imagine app A phones home with just your contact info, and app B phones home your porn-browsing history. If they both use the UDID, and I have access to the data supplied by both, then I have the names and addresses and porn-surfing history of anyone who uses both apps. If they use different IDs, then this kind of correlation is not possible. Granted, the IDFA is like this in that it's cross-app, but it can be turned off by the user, as described in the article, which was not possible with UDID.
The "hand in the cookie jar" stuff is typical lazy Apple bashing, but sites gotta get their hits somehow, I guess.
Choice is a good thing!
Now you get to choose to be...
a) Apple's bitch
b) Google's bitch
c) Microsoft's bitch
Whose bitch are you?
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Well, now that he's dead he's one step closer to being a deity.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
If you want Messages to work properly they do. Messages uses your iCloud account to allow you to send and receive messages on any of your devices. But how do they know which device to send to during your conversation? As far as I know, once the conversation is started, the messages only go to the one device rather than (annoyingly) being broadcast to all your devices. Can't do that without some unique session ID
I set up a web page to capture everything and had an iPhone running iOS6 visit it, but could not see anything that looked like an ID. Anyone any idea?
Before IOS5, it was a simple process to get the UDID and use it for any purpose you wanted. Then, Apple decreed it off limits. It was still there, but your app would get rejected if they found you were using this restricted method.
My solution - get the Wifi MAC address. It's unique, available, and Apple doesn't stop anyone from getting it. So why would anyone send the IDFA, which the user can disable - when they could send a MAC address - which the user cannot disable?
"Lame" - Galaxar
Unfortunately a lot of advertisers disagree and are trying all kinds of ways to track you anyway. What they have done is to create an alternative that is good enough that advertisers can use it, yet doesn't violate user privacy.
Wait a minute.
Please explain to me why Apple (who sells phones and computers to paying customers)
thinks that advertisers (who haven't paid a dime for those same phones and computers) should have any say at all in the operation of those phones and computers without the EXPLICIT PRIOR CONSENT of the OWNERS of those phones and computers.
Operating system software is supposed to operate for the benefit of the owner of the computer/phone. Any software that operates for the benefit of third parties without the explicit consent of the owner is called malware.
Folks have said that Google gets away with stuff like that because they don't get money from their users. Google claims that its users really want to be tracked to provide relevant advertising. We know that's a crock but we understand who's really paying Google. What's Apple's excuse?
According to Apple:
In other words, disabling targeted/personalised ads doesn't disable tracking at all.
Operating system software is supposed to operate for the benefit of the owner of the computer/phone. Any software that operates for the benefit of third parties without the explicit consent of the owner is called malware.
Stop worrying and be thankful that your carrier and Apple are gracious enough to allow you to use their phone and OS.
Foxconn FFS! What planet are you from?!
Here is an even more obscure privacy setting. If you read through the privacy page here...
http://www.apple.com/privacy/
You'll notice about halfway down the page in the "cookies and other technology" section a discussion of interest based advertising, which is basically iAd's targeted at you based on your usage habits. The only way to opt out of this "feature" on an iOS device is to click on the link in that paragraph to http://oo.apple.com/ from Safari on your iOS device, which will bring you to a settings page that will allow you to disable "interest based iAds". I have not found a way to get to this setting page through the settings App (queue up the people who will promptly correct me).
Name: Mr. Anon E Mouse; SSN: 555-55-5555
if you haven't, you should.
this is what you get from a desktop browser
Opt-Out Was Not Successful
This device is not an iOS device. iAd Network advertising appears only on mobile devices running iOS 4 or later.
To opt out of interest-based ads on a device running iOS 4 or later, go to http://oo.apple.com/
If you have more than one device with iOS 4 or later, you must opt out from each one individually.
If you need additional support, visit http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4228
but on ios, you get config setting with an on/off toggle. mine was defaulted to off (wonder if they remember my previous preferences).. didn't remember OO until I read this post..
leave me out of this.
The only way to prevent that is to poison the data sent to their servers: null user agent strings, corrupt cookie data before deleting the cookie, randomize geolocation data, auto halt downloads from servers known to be ad servers, etc. built into the web browser.
Wait a minute.
Please explain to me why Apple (who sells phones and computers to paying customers) thinks that advertisers (who haven't paid a dime for those same phones and computers) should have any say at all in the operation of those phones and computers without the EXPLICIT PRIOR CONSENT of the OWNERS of those phones and computers.
Operating system software is supposed to operate for the benefit of the owner of the computer/phone. Any software that operates for the benefit of third parties without the explicit consent of the owner is called malware.
Folks have said that Google gets away with stuff like that because they don't get money from their users. Google claims that its users really want to be tracked to provide relevant advertising. We know that's a crock but we understand who's really paying Google. What's Apple's excuse?
Because the user runs the advertisers software on his or hers device.
If you as a user never run the advertisers software then the setting does nothing.
But if you do and the advertiser plays nicely, then they can use this feature in a safe and tested manner.
Exactly. Since the tracking is done by the app the user installs and not by Apple, Apple can never really disable it. Because it's not under Apple's control.