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'I Asked Apple for All My Data. Here's What Was Sent Back' (zdnet.com)
"I asked Apple to give me all the data it's collected on me since I first became a customer in 2010," writes the security editor for ZDNet, "with the purchase of my first iPhone."
That was nearly a decade ago. As most tech companies have grown in size, they began collecting more and more data on users and customers -- even on non-users and non-customers... Apple took a little over a week to send me all the data it's collected on me, amounting to almost two dozen Excel spreadsheets at just 5MB in total -- roughly the equivalent of a high-quality photo snapped on my iPhone. Facebook, Google, and Twitter all took a few minutes to an hour to send me all the data they store on me -- ranging from a few hundred megabytes to a couple of gigabytes in size...
The zip file contained mostly Excel spreadsheets, packed with information that Apple stores about me. None of the files contained content information -- like text messages and photos -- but they do contain metadata, like when and who I messaged or called on FaceTime. Apple says that any data information it collects on you is yours to have if you want it, but as of yet, it doesn't turn over your content which is largely stored on your slew of Apple devices. That's set to change later this year... And, of the data it collects to power Siri, Maps, and News, it does so anonymously -- Apple can't attribute that data to the device owner... One spreadsheet -- handily -- contained explanations for all the data fields, which we've uploaded here...
[T]here's really not much to it. As insightful as it was, Apple's treasure trove of my personal data is a drop in the ocean to what social networks or search giants have on me, because Apple is primarily a hardware maker and not ad-driven, like Facebook and Google, which use your data to pitch you ads.
CNET explains how to request your own data from Apple.
The zip file contained mostly Excel spreadsheets, packed with information that Apple stores about me. None of the files contained content information -- like text messages and photos -- but they do contain metadata, like when and who I messaged or called on FaceTime. Apple says that any data information it collects on you is yours to have if you want it, but as of yet, it doesn't turn over your content which is largely stored on your slew of Apple devices. That's set to change later this year... And, of the data it collects to power Siri, Maps, and News, it does so anonymously -- Apple can't attribute that data to the device owner... One spreadsheet -- handily -- contained explanations for all the data fields, which we've uploaded here...
[T]here's really not much to it. As insightful as it was, Apple's treasure trove of my personal data is a drop in the ocean to what social networks or search giants have on me, because Apple is primarily a hardware maker and not ad-driven, like Facebook and Google, which use your data to pitch you ads.
CNET explains how to request your own data from Apple.
There's really not much to it. As insightful as it was, Apple's treasure trove of my personal data is a drop in the ocean to what social networks or search giants have on me, because Apple is primarily a hardware maker and not ad-driven, like Facebook and Google, which use your data to pitch you ads.
Dang... I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of Apple hating conspiracy theorists suddenly cried out in righteous fury and fired up their flamethrowers..
Tinfoil hats are fine, but they should not stop you from thinking logically. Why would they risk withholding information? It would be a PR nightmare for Apple when found out and as far as I know it would make them non-compliant with the GDPR. The EU would be jumping somersaults at the prospect of being able to fine Apple 4% of their annual global turnover and Apple would be very foolish in risking that.
[T]here's really not much to it. As insightful as it was, Apple's treasure trove of my personal data is a drop in the ocean to what social networks or search giants have on me, because Apple is primarily a hardware maker and not ad-driven, like Facebook and Google, which use your data to pitch you ads.
You can thank the fact that iAds failed miserably (because Facebook and Google already locked-down the ad sector) or they'd have even more information on you, given the lock-in/walled-garden approach they have.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
.. of the scene in Das Leben der Anderen where Dreyman goes to the Stasi headquarters to view all the files they had on him. They bring out hand trucks with boxes full of paper files.
Isn't technology wonderful? Now they can just hand you a thumb drive.
Have gnu, will travel.
> The zip file contained mostly Excel spreadsheets,
Looking at the screenshots, one can see a bunch of .csv files. Text files where data is comma separated. That's hardly an excel spreadsheet, though one can use excel to look at those.
You are also a fool. Why did Apple write iOS? Why did Google write (buy?) Android?
Just like it would be a PR nightmare to slow down an older phone without asking? Just like it would be a PR nightmare to put a keyboard prone to failure in one of the most expensive laptops available? Yeah, you're right that would be a big mistake. People might create class action lawsuits.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Unless you think they have a National Security Letter holding a gun to their head you are just stupid if you think they hold more than that.
They aren't going to risk 100% hardware profit margins to pick up a couple advertising pennies in front of a scandal steamroller.
Yah, so I'm sure there is a ton of info being stored on social media and as an Apple customer, I'll be curious to see what they have on me as I don't use Siri or Facetime or any other Apple services. Google, yah, I'm on YouTube but that's it as I don't use Google Search. Time for to find out what's out there--As we all should and work towards pairing down our public footprints.
Why would they sell their data? They don't want anybody else to have it.
If you pay them enough they might promise to show your adverts to some relevant users of their products but there's no way they're going to anybody a zip file full of user data.
No sig today...
You can thank the fact that iAds failed miserably (because Facebook and Google already locked-down the ad sector)
You are assuming that is why iAds failed. The whole point of iAds was that Apple would not collect data the way other advertisers were - so is it any wonder iAds did not gain traction when the advertisers could not acquire a huge amount of demographic data on you?
Apple has never changed it's approach on privacy, not even for advertising. Even if iAds had worked they still would have nothing more on people than they do today.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This post has given me an idea. Google are now claiming to comply with the EU GDPR regulations, so I can submit a request to them for all the personal data they hold on me and they are required to give it to me. Should be an interesting read. It will be also interesting to see how they define holding my personal data for 'no longer than necessary' and how they justify that.
So Apple doesn't send a Numbers spreadsheet? It sends Excel?
Numbers can export Excel document nimrod, they sent out what they thought would be most compatible...
Only someone as stupid as an Apple Hater can take a positive action by Apple (sending out the most portable document format) and pretend it's a negative.
I can tell why you post as AC, to hide your shame (which is substantial). But you know in private, we all know you cry yourself to sleep at night...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Makes you wonder if they can really make sure that it is not the wrong person requesting all that data.
I want to know how two dozen Excel spreadsheets is "roughly the equivalent of a high-quality photo snapped on my iPhone".
I'm not sure anybody who writes sentences like that is qualified to judge what Apple is up to.
No sig today...
you've surely seen the statement that if a business isn't selling you their product, then you are the product.
A bit like Slashdot, then?
No sig today...
No, the PR damage would be much worse. Apple has stated multiple times it's stance is to protect the privacy of its users and has promoted multiple times this stance to differentiate itself from Google.
Furthermore, class actions are the least of your problems if you have provided the EU a reason to fine you 4% of your global turnover.
The "slow down older phones" brouhaha was way overblown in the media. Apple had a choice between slowing down phones with a marginal battery or having them randomly crash at times of high workload. They made the right choice, one that resulted in a much longer device life and higher customer satisfaction. All they did wrong was failing to communicate why the phone slowed down.
I wasn't being sarcastic, that's what I meant by my post. Apple writes iOS because selling $1000 phones is a good business, and having an OS that drives those sales rocks. Google wrote (bought?) Android because it wanted a collection device in the hands of more people.
I agree with your point, I have seen that quote, and that's what I meant by my post.
yeah see people keep saying that when the exact opposite is true, they would have gotten more hardware sales by letting the problem be the way it was, i.e., randomly shutting down the phone
Having cash in the pockets didn't stop courts from find Apple in the wrong in the past, from the ebook antitrust issue in the US to the Irish taxation issue in the EU just to cite a couple egregious examples.
Just like it would be a PR nightmare to slow down an older phone without asking? Just like it would be a PR nightmare to put a keyboard prone to failure in one of the most expensive laptops available? Yeah, you're right that would be a big mistake. People might create class action lawsuits.
I don't know, nvidia is hit with giant class action lawsuits all the time and everyone still buys every new $800 nvidia gpu as soon as it hits the store shelf. But I was happy to replace my $2,000 dead gpu gaming laptop with the $100 netbook Nvidia offered. Thanks class action lawsuit!
https://arstechnica.com/tech-p...
https://www.consumeraffairs.co...
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
"advertising pennies"
You are ignorant if you think that. Apple's advertising revenue is in the billions.
Why the fuck is Apple using Excel?
Because Excel was made first for Apple in 1985. Windows didn't get Excel until 1987. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
In the ebook case the court disrupted the whole business strategy Apple tried to put in place to win the ebooks market.
In the Irish tax case we're talking about the largest tax fine in history (although technically it's more a tax recovery).
Claiming these were "slap on the wrists" is just ridiculous.
The alternative would have been letting devices draw more powers from a spent battery than they safely could. The only mistake was about the communication, not the solution itself which was technically and ethically sound.
The throttling only affected old devices with a spent battery which was unable to safely provide the power required at peak usage anyway. It was not communicated well and that was a PR mistake, but the solution itself was sound.
If I'm using my R250s Neither Apple nor Droid will get my data.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
No, the alternative would be telling people what they had done to the Apple devices they owned. Like, when somebody came into the Apple saying their phone was acting slow and non-responsive, telling them it had been throttled that and a battery replacement would speed it up again. Instead they would sell them a new phone.
Originally Excel was a Macintosh-only software product. At the time Microsoft's spreadsheet for MS-DOS was Multiplan. They didn't produce a PC version of Excel until they released Windows.
The alternative I was discussing was about drawing power from a spent battery. Nobody questions the mistake in communication, but if a device is able to attempt to draw more power from a batter than it safely should there is no discussion it has to be prevented doing it.
There are multiple setting changes you can make to reduce the amount of telemetry sent to Microsoft with Windows 10.
Bits is bits, man. It's just a bunch of ones and zeroes.
If by old devices you mean pretty much anything more than two years old that you were gullible enough to accept an OTA upgrade on then sure. Until about 2 years ago I was still rocking a Samsung S3 (circa 2012).
Why yes I am a cheap bastard, that's not my point. My point is that it still worked fine in 2016 and even the battery died I could have replaced it myself inside of 2 minutes with a $20 battery. No scandal or class action lawsuit required.
As an added bonus, my 64GB memory upgrade option was $40 and not $340, another fun way Apple has been screwing their customer base over since pretty much forever.
I am more surprised at the lack of data that Apple has collected from the author of the article. Apple may care more about your privacy than the other companies because it could certainly choose to scrape more data from your service usage and sell it as an additional source of revenue. A 1/2 dozen spreadsheets worth of data is probably not all of that useful beyond debugging and software and hardware improvements.
Slap on the wrist means there is punishment but it's bland enough to be ineffective. In the ebook case the sentence barred Apple from doing business in the ebook marked the way they wanted for years, not including the damages it had to pay.
I'm unsure what people expected if what amounted to effectively a death sentence to their business strategy in that market was apparently only a "slap on the wirst".
So ..please tell us who we can trust and buy from? and remember no matter WHO you say is the least evil, you will be plugging their product/products...And question how much you are getting payed to plug them..
Jack of all trades,master of none
"u will be plugging their product/products"
What am i plugging? i just think this reads like one of those "paid advertisements" you sometimes find in newspapers. Sort of like an actual story, but clearly placed as an ad.. but iwhtout the "paid advertisement" banner.
FWIW, I have an iphone SE and android Galaxy S8.. both have pro's and cons and both are from for-profit companies...
The size of the ebook market is only 20 billion dollars. Apple has over ten times that sitting in a bank account. It doesn't matter if Apple was told not to sell ebooks ever, the size of the market bears little importance to them. The fine was $415 million. They had to give up 0.16 percent of their bank account. Big freaking deal. Apple only has around 10% of the ebook market, meaning there was another 2 billion at stake. Even if the judge had said to Apple they could never sell ebooks again, it amounts to 0.9 percent of just the money they have sitting in the bank. Ebooks really meant very little to apple.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
They don't use it to store, but from my previous involvement with them the use of MS Office is pretty universal in Apple, especially excel.
âoeNone of the files contained content information -- like text messages and photos â Well, if I remember well, last time I changed an iphone, after the setup process it had my past conversations, which i thought was neat, yet it also means that Apple does store the data, perhaps in a way that can only be decrypted using your password.
I write âoeif I remember wellâ since I may be confusing with icloud. It is definitely the case, and desirably so of course as it is its reason of existence, that your photos and other apps that use icloud are kept bu Apple. Again it all depends whether this is encrypted against their possible own snooping.
Originally Excel was a Macintosh-only software product. At the time Microsoft's spreadsheet for MS-DOS was Multiplan. They didn't produce a PC version of Excel until they released Windows.
But Apple does currently offer the competing product iWork Numbers.
415 millions might be a relatively small amount compared to Apple's overall revenue and assets, but it's a fine to their ebook operations and compared to their ebook yearly revenue it's about 25%: it's actually quite a big deal.
I'm unsure what you would consider "adequate" if disrupting a multi-billion dollar business and a 13B dollar tax recovery are "not enough". What would you impose, a 50B fine? 100B?
For reference, the larges fine ever against a company was 20B, against BP for the Deepwater Horizon environmental disaster.
Did Apple actually pay any penalty for the EU mistake? I thought they had just paid back the taxes they owed in the first place. Or do you mean they paid the taxes + the 13B? Didn't they technically owe more than $13B in taxes? I'm betting they got some sort of break.
What should the penalty be? Enough to affect stock prices, for sure.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Exactly like Slashdot. Your point?
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
In industry, the goal is to get the solution out as quick as possible and not to say to mangement "nothing can be done". They could just ignore the problem and just let phones go blank in hours. Or they could make use of the power saving features built into the hardware and underclock the CPU based on battery capacity.
There is nothing worse than having a low battery level on a smartphone (close to 1%/0%), enough for one last outgoing call, when some Facebook notification or recruiter spam activates the wireless network and shuts down your phone.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
$15bn (the amount that they've just started repaying over the Irish tax issue) is less than $50bn, but I'd think it is a bit more than a slap on the wrist - it's about 15 weeks of Apple's total worldwide profit. It's large enough that you can't just factor it into the cost of doing business and expect to remain profitable.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I almost agree. The problem with your argument is that you're ignoring the fact that their decision meant that people didn't notice during the warranty period that their battery was degraded. I suspect that their engineers made the correct decision for the correct reasons and then someone in accounting figured out how much they'd save on warranty replacements of batteries if people didn't notice the dead batteries for a few more months. Contrast this with the Mac, where they show the full charge capacity of your battery and the discharge cycle count, so it's trivial to figure out if you're eligible for a warranty replacement (they publish the number of recharge cycles for each model that it is expected to retain 80% of its capacity for).
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
PR nightmare? Apple? Surely you jest.
Apple had the guts to tell people they were holding it wrong, and then initially charge people $30 for a plastic bumper to fix the problem that didn't actually exist. Later they did offer to give away the bumpers for free, but only if you could demonstrate that you were having a problem with your device. That was when Jobs was alive, which was quite a while ago. Since then they've only continued to go downhill while their customers kept buying like crazy and their profits still skyrocketed.
These days, Apple is refusing to service their own top-of-the-line computers -- at any price -- while people like Linus and Rossman blare about it on YouTube. The company doesn't give a shit. I'm not sure anyone does anymore.
Yup, just read up on it. The $13B was only for two years, not the entire time Apple was getting the break from Irelend. So in other words, this was not a penalty, this was just part of the money they owed. People gamble with taxes all the time, some lose, in this case Apple still made out pretty well. How you can call this a 'penalty' is beyond me.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Apple had a choice between slowing down phones with a marginal battery or having them randomly crash at times of high workload.
That's what they claim. Odd, then, that they always timed these "fixes" for when a new version of the iPhone came out?
"The U.S. study analysed worldwide searches for 'iPhone slow' and found that the search term spiked significantly around the time of new iPhone launch."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci...
Yes. And it did so years before any throttling actually took place.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
You have no proof of that so its not actually a fact.
https://benchmarks.ul.com/news...
Why do searches for "iPhone slow" spike when new models are released?
Our benchmarking data shows that, rather than intentionally degrading the performance of older models, Apple actually does a good job of supporting its older devices with regular updates that maintain a consistent level of performance across iOS versions.
That said, there are some factors that might affect people's perception of performance after updating an older device with a newer version of iOS. An update might add new features that use more resources or require more processing power. New apps developed for the latest models might not run as smoothly on older devices. Conversely, apps designed for an earlier version of iOS might not take full advantage of optimizations in the latest version. And then there is always the psychological effect of knowing that there is a new and improved model available, which can make your own device seem outdated.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
And, speaking of shit, the display in the iPhone X is made by Samsung.
Zing!
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Then it's the English of the writer and editor that is sub-standard. It's the file size that is equivalent, not the content. (if writer added "which is" before "roughly" in that sentence nobody would comment.
I have my fair share of grammar fails and typos but article writers should write better than an average poster if he/she wants to be respected with any air of authority.
https://benchmarks.ul.com/news... [ul.com]
You know what's funny about that article? Apple came out and admitted they were intentionally slowing down the devices on updates, of course for "good" reasons, completely refuting the claim by the article that Apple was not doing that. Their benchmarks didn't catch it.
Step out of the reality distortion field.
Try to follow the thread. Then shut up.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
Come on, stupid... You can be an Apple customer (iOS, ITMS etc.) without owning a computer that runs macOS and Numbers ("its own spreadsheet program").
Well, if you are an Apple customer and don't have a Mac, you can still use Numbers on your iPhone, or at iCloud.com.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
And, speaking of shit, the display in the iPhone X is made by Samsung.
And thanks to the things Apple changed about it, it's been tested as the best cell phone display. Ahead of those in shitty high end Samsung phones.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
The issue was never that Apple wanted to fix a flaw or whether or not it was even a flaw. The issue is that the device was modified after it became the customer's property. If Apple had felt that such a decision should have been made, they should have offered it as an option to the consumer instead of forcing it upon them.
We can see what not asking the owner of the device for permission to modify the behavior of the device can do.
"Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
The "slow down older phones" brouhaha was way overblown in the media. Apple had a choice between slowing down phones with a marginal battery or having them randomly crash at times of high workload. They made the right choice, one that resulted in a much longer device life and higher customer satisfaction. All they did wrong was failing to communicate why the phone slowed down.
Erm... Either that answer is utter bollocks... or the phone is incredibly badly designed.
I've got a Nexus 5x which is approaching 2.5 years old. The battery, as predicted is no longer holding the same charge as it did new (I still get a full day out of it, 2 if I don't use the phone much, but 3 or 4 days between charges is no longer possible). The OS does not crash under high workload, devices crash under high workload for 2 reasons, 1. OS is incredibly poorly designed or 2. The hardware is incredibly poorly designed (usually it's overheating, from my experience with PC gaming). Gimping the CPU can help prevent overheating... but that would be admitting their hardware is crap.
Its far more likely that Apple was trying to encourage you to buy a new phone.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
"High end" phones in general are beta test platforms. My phone was $120, though I've seen it for $80, too. I apparently was a little too early of an early adopter.
It's so nice that there are suckers who will spend all that money for a cell phone, so 'the rest of us' don't have to.
There is no black/white perfect world out there. I am not happy with the level of telemetry intrusion within Windows 10, but it's not over-the-top outrageous. It's certainly no better or worse than most Android implementations.
Oh BTW, you sure as hell spend more on smartphones than me, so what does that tell you about yourself?
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
There's no penalty, because Apple was not judged here. It's Ireland that was judged, by having anticompetitive tax rules w.r.t other european countries, and were asked to retrieved the tax they should have perceived if they had done things correctly.