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Apple's Privacy Policies Are Keeping Data Scientists Away
An anonymous reader writes: The Cupertino-based global device giant is falling behind in the race to create 'predictive' services for smartphones because its privacy policies are too protective of the end-user. Data retention policies on user-centric information gathered into its Siri 'personal assistant' product is a reasonably generous six months, whilst information retained from the user's exploration of Apple Maps expires after only 15 minutes. As a consequence Apple's smartphones attempt to crunch a great deal of user-data locally rather than in the cloud.
Why is this written as if it was a negative thing?
GOOD
I dont think Data Scientists would be concerned about Apple's privacy policy because of all the words around it and how they execute it. If Data Scientists want anonamised data, just ask apple.
Maybe you meant to say: Preadatory Information Stealing Businesses and self-named Entrepreneurs?
Or would that take too much space? /. has changed in recent years. Now anictodal evidence of something is proof of something else which is completely unproven.
Privacy is bad?
After looking at the new Galaxy S6 that my wife just got, and seeing that the weather app (Accuweather) requires the most fine-grained GPS (gps+nearest wifi routers) just to give you the bloody weather(they don't trust you to put in a zip code or city manually), I am all out of fucks to give these "data scientists."
Enough with the data mining and privacy stripping. The optimism I had for ubiquitous computing available to all - giving people access to uncensorable communications - that I had back in the 80s through 90s, is now replaced by the pessimistic vision of Telescreens being installed not by fiat, but for mere consumer convenience.
As for Accuweather: Accuweather is fucking /gone/ and a shortcut to mobile.weather.gov is on the homescreen.
--
BMO
More companies should do this. Well done Apple and, thank you.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Now they won't let data scientists spy on us? What's next? Make a great UNIX desktop? Oh wait, they already did that!
Fuck Apple!
Summary: Joseph Gonzalez, co-founder of Dato, is miffed that his product is unable to exploit Apple's user base an it is hurting their revenue stream. He whines about it to Reuters and they write a sensationalist article. The end.
I'd say so, except that Apple does not put such restrictions on themselves.
There's an incredibly obnoxious app on my current HTC (which will be deleted when I get time). It scans my carrier's voicemail, ships the sound off to some unspecified data-mining location, and sends a text back to my phone. Worst of all, is that it has no disable feature; even though I have not paid for the service, I catch the damn thing running.
But... but... how are companies going to monetize paradigm synergies in your data, if they don't have your data?
we compute a individual forecast for your actual location.
That's nice, but a GPS requirement that just allowed for in-use checking, and only approximate location (say 1/2 mile or so radius) is plenty fine for weather... and much easier on the battery.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
We've given too much flak on Apple and their overpriced products,
however if this is the only company that truly cares about end-user privacy then Apple is truly better in all ways over Google
""They want to make a phone that responds to you very quickly without knowledge of the rest of the world," said Joseph Gonzalez, co-founder of Dato, a machine learning startup. "It's harder to do that."
Yeah, it may be harder, but thats why you employ smarter people.
Its also a damn sight easier to sit on ones butt and watch a football game rather than be there playing it.
Most people sit and watch, the greats are there putting themselves on the line doing the hard stuff for the benefit of the watchers.
Dato sounds like a watcher.
But... but... how are companies going to monetize paradigm synergies in your data, if they don't have your data?
Apple is the most profitable company in the history of the world, and they make nearly all their money by selling hardware. They don't need to monetize data, and they have much more to lose than to gain by another NSA tracking scandal. The data can't be hacked or subpoenaed if it is never collected.
Who typed this BS and why did you deem it necessary to repeat it here on slashdot?
R U hot? Send pix!
You are welcome on my lawn.
See what happens when you ignore the MBAs in the product decision process?
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Oh wow, you mean Apple cares about your privacy? Bad Apple, here's my worst nightmare, and a list of my favorites cookies. Anybody want it? It's not like anybody could abuse this information.
Note: it's a mistake to assume someone is looking for the forecast for their current location or the GPS location given by their network device (which may not be the same as their current location). If your service only worked by GPS, it would be giving the wrong forecast in some cases.
How about asking the user, and respecting their choice? Ask them if they want to give their GPS location for a specific forecast, or if they would prefer to type in a zip an get a generalized forecast. There could be reasons people might want either of those options, and they might like it if your service supported both. It's not like it would be hard (just lookup a default location for each zip and use that instead of the GPS; it only requires one table in the DB). You probably already do this for backwards compatibility with non-GPS-enabled devices.
The *only* reason not to offer that is if you aren't really interested in providing weather forecasts, but instead are trying to jump o the surveillance-as-a-business-model bandwagon. If that's the case, you should think long and hard about your new job - do you really want to be associated with peeping toms?
Ce n'est pas une signature automatique.
They can care all they want. Fifteen minutes is more than long enough for a mandated government tap to hoover up your location information, and they can't tell you about it. This is privacy theater.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I beg to differ, it does count:
1. Entering the american border with an electronic device storing sensitive data is not an option for foreigners. With Android, the resetted device contains both the sensitive data stored before and the keys used to encrypt the device. Apple simply throws away the key stored in the cpu, leaving only unreadable data.
Worse: Some Android manufacturers have not implemented whole device encryption correctly to this very day. And bitlocker is a joke on windows
2. Before Android did a similar thing with Android, I could allow or disallow location information, using of photos or personal data for every single app. On Android it was "accept or decline".
3. As Apple uses standard protocols, I could sync my calendar, my contacts and my notes using a very privacy-aware provider (posteo.de). Try that with Android, you need additional programs. On Windows, it is not really possible, offering only to sync with icloud or google or microsoft (meaning a sync with the NSA). Owncloud or safer providers are a nightmare for data revenues, so windows and android make it as hard as possible to integrate safer cloud solutions.
There might be some information shared with advertisers and the NSA. The powers that be might be able to track us from time to time. But the privacy gain is significant as it more secure by design. More secure, not "most secure".
You are an idiot who does not understand the word "forecast".
Collecting massive amounts of data on people's personal lives could lead to new insights--I've heard this before. I'd rather have privacy. Why not collect massive amounts of data on governments and businesses instead? This could provide some actual evidence to base economic theories on, unstead of the naval gazing they're currently built on.
if you want to let the user make a choice, you need rights for everything the user can do. so wlan-location, gps-location, fine-location, cell-location as options mean you reserve all these rights at installation.
Anyone who uses the phrase "too protective of the end-user" should be smacked upside the head.
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
And that was always a mistake for Android. I understand in the next version they are finally following the iOS model, and are asking for permissions individually at the time of first use. So if you never use a feature that requires GPS for example, the app should never ask for permission for it.
Why are you so consistently wrong?
http://apple.slashdot.org/stor...
If they didn't need to monetize because they're "the most profitable company of the world", why were they caught as the ringleader of price-fixing e-books?
And, assuming that was actually true, how did that affect your (or anyone's) PRIVACY?