Hacker News Reader

Comment by tinus_hn | Hacker News Reader

The user decides if an app has access to his location.

Yes, but the permission is per-app. Let’s say I approve location for the app because the app’s function requires it: the third party spying SDKs embedded in the app send that location data off to third parties without notifying me or permitting me to stop it.

Apple permits this behavior in the App Store.

Furthermore, IP address is coarse location even if you don’t grant the app permission, via GeoIP databases.

Long story short, Apple allows apps in the store to embed silent, nonconsensual spyware that you can’t disable.

If an app's function requires location, how is it Apple's fault that the user decides it's better to enable that app to spy on him? If I use Waze do I expect privacy from it when it's essential that it knows my location?

Furthermore, on iPhone you get a warning when an app abuses the location permission, unlike Android.

At least on iPhones you have per app control, on Android it's either "location on" or "location off"

> If an app's function requires location, how is it Apple's fault that the user decides it's better to enable that app to spy on him

Apple makes the iOS SDK and writes all the app store policies. They could deny apps that embed third party location data mining/spying that is nonessential to the app’s functionality, just as they do that now for checkouts/payments of subscription services that don’t use App Store IAPs.

Apple has taken an aggressive stance regarding the curation (alternately, censorship) of the App Store. Everything that is or isn’t in it is “Apple’s fault”.

They let App Store apps spy and harvest data for shady data and location miner companies.

> At least on iPhones you have per app control, on Android it's either "location on" or "location off"

Where did you get that notion? Location permission has been per-app since before Android launched. Even better, you can get your location without telling Google, unlike on iOS, which always tells Apple.

> Furthermore, on iPhone you get a warning when an app abuses the location permission, unlike Android.

If you're talking about https://www.cpomagazine.com/data-privacy/apples-new-ios-13-w..., this warning just covers a bug in iOS. Android already requires the app to request location permission to use any API that will allow the location to be inferred (e.g., Bluetooth and WiFi scanning). Therefore, no such warning is required on Android. The app already had to explicitly request location permission.

This argument is very much the same as saying “just don’t install spyware” and literally proves the point that neither store is trustworthy.

On Android you too have this featureset, though the settings app is very limited and also has the same problem as OP mentioned. Just look at whatsapp, constantly trying to launch all other facebook apps in the background (verify this with a freezing app).

On Android (or AOSP, Omni, Lineage and the like) you at least have fdroid as an alternative.

That's not how it works. If you install the app you are giving permission to the app to use your location however they want. It is pretty explicit.

From a legal perspective they are supposed to indicate as such in their terms and conditions, which you are supposed to read.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com