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Apple Will Judge Call, Email Activity To Assign Users a 'Trust Score' (theinquirer.net)
Apple recently updated its iTunes privacy policy page, making mention of a "trust score" it gives iPhone users on how they make calls or send emails. The INQUIRER reports: "To help identify and prevent fraud, information about how you use your device, including the approximate number of phone calls or emails you send and receive, will be used to compute a device trust score when you attempt a purchase," Apple explained. "The submissions are designed so Apple cannot learn the real values on your device. The scores are stored for a fixed time on our servers."
In practical terms, the Cupertino crew will only look at Apple account usage patterns and hoover up metadata rather than more personal, and potentially damning information. [T]he data collection and trust score assigning should help Apple better spot and dodgy activity going on in Apple accounts that aren't in keeping with those of the legitimate users. [I]t's not entirely clear how Apple will use the metadata to actually spot fraud, as it hasn't explained its workings.
In practical terms, the Cupertino crew will only look at Apple account usage patterns and hoover up metadata rather than more personal, and potentially damning information. [T]he data collection and trust score assigning should help Apple better spot and dodgy activity going on in Apple accounts that aren't in keeping with those of the legitimate users. [I]t's not entirely clear how Apple will use the metadata to actually spot fraud, as it hasn't explained its workings.
Hey, Apple should call it a "social credit system". Maybe brand it as "iTrust" or something like that! The score goes up the more iProducts you buy, unless they get old, then the score goes down.
Google: Knows who you call, analyzed converted text of entire conversation, scanned every email for content and stored that on servers.
Apple: Doesn't care who you called just that you called 10k different numbers, Siri reads email to look for context and helpful suggestions, but sends no data to Apple servers to do so. It would send Apple a note if again, you had emailed 10k people in the last hour....
Now do you really want people to get away with mass spam/robocalling on mobile devices?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The thing is, legitimate people do suddenly change their daily routine, for instance by going on holiday...
These anti fraud systems often result in false positives which are extremely painful for the legitimate users. For instance, i just had one of my cards blocked while on holiday, and the only way to unblock it is to call the bank during working hours. This might sound reasonable until you consider...
On holiday, making a phonecall back to your home country is often difficult and expensive.. Hotels usually charge a premium for phonecalls especially international ones, mobile roaming is usually extremely expensive, cheap local sims often block international calls by default and the instructions to enable them are in the local language which you might not understand, international calls are generally very expensive unless you have a specific calling plan - which you wont have access to. You may well be paying multiple dollars per minute to make a call.
The bank is likely to keep you on hold for a long time, further multiplying the cost.
Some banks require you to call from your registered callerid, which forces you to use mobile roaming at whatever extortionate rate the operator charges.
They need to use messaging services instead of insisting on phonecalls, not only would it be much cheaper when travelling (virtually all hotels now offer free wifi), but its also more convenient and cheaper - instead of sitting on hold waiting for an operator your message goes into a queue, you can get on with something else while you wait for a response and won't be spending money while your waiting.
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