Slashdot Mirror
A Look Inside Apple's User Data Utilization Wars (reuters.com)
tlhIngan writes: It's no secret Apple [is] on a privacy bent as of late. But that extends inside of Apple as well with various internal groups fighting for access to user data and often being denied by Apple's "privacy czars" who ensure Apple doesn't collect information they don't [need], that information is used only [in] ways the user allows, and to design the systems to keep user data separate. This has lead to many conflicts, especially for the Siri and iAd team who often cannot access [the] user data they need. Of course, Apple can do this because unlike Google, Facebook or [Amazon], Apple makes money on hardware and not on the sale of customer data.
[What] the [heck] are [you] talking [about] ?
"Apple makes money on hardware and not on the sale of customer data."
iAd ... http://advertising.apple.com/ ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ...
iBeacon
iTunes
All of these use user data to facilitate advertising or other revenue for Apple.
Revenue breakdown for Apple:
http://www.statista.com/statis...
So they make 80% of their revenue from hardware. iTunes exists because of the hardware. All of that other stuff like iAd/iBeacon is probably a rounding error.
Oh and:
http://www.engadget.com/2016/0...
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
How is the /. user not segment fault over this good news!
46137
For a company as secretive as Apple, stories like this don't get out unless Apple intentionally leaks them. It's just like the recent story of how some Apple engineers might quit if forced to implement an encryption backdoor for the government.
Google Maps on Android wanted me to register (with Google) in order for Maps to remember recent queries done just 5 minutes ago even. If you don't register, you gotta re-type them in.
And the User Agreement does permit them to share map queries with vendors.
Technically a map app could cache recent map queries on the phone itself rather than The Cloud.
I'm thinking of going back to iPhone.
Table-ized A.I.
Perhaps they shouldn't though.
It could be why Siri is something people use twice then give up because it's not as good as it could be.
What does it mean? Are terrorists using /. to communicate?
This whole "Apple cares about your privacy" just feels phony to me.
Information privacy or data protection laws prohibit the disclosure or misuse of information held on private individuals. These laws are based on Fair Information Practice, first developed in the United States in the 1970s by the Department for Health, Education and Welfare (HEW). The basic principles of data protection are:
For all data collected there should be a stated purpose.
Information collected by an individual cannot be disclosed to other organizations or individuals unless specifically authorized by law or by consent of the individual
Records kept on an individual should be accurate and up to date
There should be mechanisms for individuals to review data about them, to ensure accuracy. This may include periodic reporting
Data should be deleted when it is no longer needed for the stated purpose
Transmission of personal information to locations where "equivalent" personal data protection cannot be assured is prohibited
Some data is too sensitive to be collected, unless there are extreme circumstances (e.g., sexual orientation, religion)
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
iMessage leaves all kinds of forensic evidence behind AFTER a message is deleted. Including records of when it was deleted...
https://twitter.com/JZdziarski...
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Google to my mind has far surpassed Microsoft in unpleasantness to the user. Microsoft primarily was involved n creating bad user interfaces that were overly complex and lacked style; even though they collect a lot of user info also they don't spread it around nearly so much as Google does. Google's ecosystem is far more "leaky" if you will in terms of apps or advertisers getting a trove of information about your behavior from search or even just day to day movement.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
iAd, iBeacon, et. al., give Apple a 24/7/365 ability to track where a device is in real time. If the data is there, it can be used and seized.
If Apple were a privacy champion, they would be doing something against intrusive ads, not joining the intruders and privacy violation squad.
For all data collected there should be a stated purpose.
Becasue we want to do it.
Information collected by an individual cannot be disclosed to other organizations or individuals unless specifically authorized by law or by consent of the individual
You did read the 100+ pages EULA, right?
Records kept on an individual should be accurate and up to date
And that's why we're always traciing you.
There should be mechanisms for individuals to review data about them, to ensure accuracy. This may include periodic reporting
Nothe the 'should' and 'may' not the 'must' and 'will'. But hey, not everyone in US speaks English so we may get away with this.
Data should be deleted when it is no longer needed for the stated purpose
Again, 'should' not 'will'.
Transmission of personal information to locations where "equivalent" personal data protection cannot be assured is prohibited
But, your honour, their law said they care about data protection, it's not our fault they don't enforce it.
Some data is too sensitive to be collected, unless there are extreme circumstances (e.g., sexual orientation, religion)
We've seen it all, there's no need to be sensitive.
You don't even know what these things are. Read the other posts. As to iBeacon, it's not giving data to Apple. Some business, e.g. MLB, buys and installs iBeacon technology in order to sell goods and services or enhance their experience. The purchaser of iBeacon, not Apple. If a user allows his/her device to communicate with iBeacon - the owner or user of the device, the iBeacon or the business operating it - then and only then is their an exchange of data. Any device that has cellular communications or bluetooth turned on is providing some data to whatever is scanning for it, It's the nature of electronic communications. The issue is whether or not it provides data you've put in or made available to your device and that is what Apple puts in the device owner's/user's control.
Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
Theoretically it is very easy to create, although people may not trust that it was actually done that way.
The user will generate a personal key on their device for their data or more importantly, be able to enter their own encrypted key file manually. The data sent will be encrypted with that key. Apple will store the data in a bucket labelled by the device ID or Apple ID. Now Apple is storing your data on their computers and they can access it, but they can't read it unless they can break the encryption or get the key and unencrypt the key.
On your phone, all apps are closed and flash images purged and your unencrypted secret key is deleted from memory when you lock the phone and only decrypted by entering your password on the unlock screen or on some other password screen. Now a locked phone means that even your device cannot access its own stored data on the server.
The decrypt-encrypt scheme is definitely processor heavy, there is still a race condition for the lock, and there are other disadvantages, but I'm only talking about a very blunt, brute force encryption protection scheme. Surely the geniuses at Apple could do better than I.
"Apple makes money on hardware and not on the sale of customer data."
iAd ... http://advertising.apple.com/ ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ...
iBeacon
iTunes
All of these use user data to facilitate advertising or other revenue for Apple.
iAd is being discontinued.
With no new ads being accepted once current campaigns end it will be gone. The sales team has already been dismantled.
Information privacy or data protection laws prohibit the disclosure or misuse of information held on private individuals. These laws are based on Fair Information Practice, first developed in the United States in the 1970s by the Department for Health, Education and Welfare (HEW). The basic principles of data protection are:
For all data collected there should be a stated purpose.
Information collected by an individual cannot be disclosed to other organizations or individuals unless specifically authorized by law or by consent of the individual...
...and I'll just cut you off right here until you can prove that the majority of consumers even bother reading the EULAs they willingly agree to before even connecting their shiny new device to the internet.
For FUCKS SAKE, wake up already. You're more clueless than the average consumer who no longer gives a shit about privacy.
According to Google anyhow: https://privacy.google.com/
Please cite your source.
thx
This is nothing more than marketing. Apple is very cynically manipulating you, and you've fallen for it. Apple's encryption is 100% about protecting the walled garden, not in any way about protecting you. It's blatantly obvious that the iPhone has been allowed to succeed in China only because the government feels no threat from Apple. That, in itself, is strong evidence that Apple has caved completely on privacy. Keep believing the marketing and giving them their 30% cut on all of the media and apps that you consume while believing that you're better than that.
How [did] this commenter get marked as a troll for simply disagreeing with the article? [If] anyone needs to be modded down it's [the] submitter for his absurd use [of] brackets? Or was [the] writer of the referenced post [that] illiterate that he didn't include basic conjoiners etc in [their] submission? Seems unlikely...