Apple cracking down on applications that send location data to third-parties

Umm. No. I don’t wear the same clothes in a desert and a forest. To do so would be foolish. Imposing yourself on others when you have no power to do is not wise. I can keep my house clean but can’t expect everyone in my neighborhood to do so.

It's not a location dependent core belief. The Chinese laws make it this way. Apple is not a sovereign government with the right to do as they please. They operate in the rules and under the same threat of force everyone else does in every nation they operate.

That we live in an area of the world where you can choose to make the decisions they do without serious repercussions should make you pause and think about how important the checks we have are, because in China there aren't many ways to get around the problem above besides ignoring the largest developing market in the world.

Providing your users with the maximum freedom, privacy and security possible under the law is a reasonable and ethical position to take, especially if you believe your products provide the best security and privacy on the market and withdrawing them would leave your customers with only worse options available.

If you honestly believed that to be true, how could you justify withdrawing from that market on ethical grounds?

But this is not about core-beliefs, but complying with the law.

Any good act by a corporation can be explained away as a business strategy. Just as any good act by an individual can be explained away as a means to garner status, or because the individual derives personal satisfaction from either the act or the effects of good behavior.

Are you arguing that one must always impute manipulative motives to a corporation? (And should therefore not reward consequentially better behavior, because it must be based on invalid motives?)

Or is your point that Apple is uniquely hypocritical? If so, on what evidence about Apple in particular?

It is also hypocritical for privacy advocates to purchase products from China.

Their purchases directly fund a regime opposed to their moral positions, either through taxes and duties or payments to the many thousands of firms (like COSCO) that are controlled wholly or in part by the Chinese government or military.

The hypocritical-ness doesn’t go away because corporations are larger than individuals, the transaction is in a different direction, or because the moral position is privately-held.

> "Selling" a product is not a principle or a virtue that one is required to comply with. Protecting the privacy of users is.

A foreign country has passed laws disagreeing with your value judgement. In any case, Apple is a business. As a consumer, I care first and foremost about my privacy and the privacy of those in my country. That is not impinged upon by China forcing Apple's hand in their own country. Perfect is the enemy of good.

Your logic is bonkers. Not every principle or virtue is a hill that every inch is worth dying over. The US and EU (and pretty much every other country) also have many laws and regulations that are not privacy friendly. You claim this means they should close up shop (or only sell to seasteaders) if they are a true privacyman? It's a recycled version of the 'Al Gore has a big house' joke, guess he's doesn't really care about the environment. Heyo!

And what, US law just magically happens to be properly balanced, unlike the legal systems elsewhere?

Following your logic, every single company in the US is either ethically aligned with US law or horrible, awful hypocrites. Apparently there are no other possibilities.

> Whoa.. why do random routers need my SSID location history? Is that list removable by “forgetting” all the previous networks?

It's how the standard currently works and what enables fast reconnection. IIRC, the device sends out all available SSIDs, at the router responds with the one(s) it's able to use to connect.

I agree that this is backwards, and I'd rather have slightly slower WiFi reconnection in exchange for better privacy. I don't know what the OS-level behavior is if you delete all previous networks. I assume it works, but I haven't tested it.

Oh, and for what it's worth, this isn't just for mobile devices. Your laptop probably does it too. In fact, OS X has an annoying habit of connecting to WiFi networks in the background even when the laptop is closed and asleep, which means it's doing this broadcasting behavior as long as the WiFi setting is turned on.

Ah I misunderstood. You're 100% correct sir.