Moving data from iCloud may need to be made easier, by EU law
9to5mac.com
9to5mac.com
I should be able to switch out the Photos app, one that integrates with Google Photos or Amazon Photos or Synology so that it natively back ups there and where it can natively pull the photos from.
Allowing third party apps to actually record your voice.
In a climate where many types of apps make money purely through selling your data to data brokers who in turn syndicate that data to countless other companies and governments. All without your knowledge or explicit consent.
And where mere snippets of your voice is enough to have a model authentically replicate it and use it for social engineering or to access services that rely on voice identification e.g. Australian Tax Office.
In terms of the worst ideas ever, this is easily one of them.
> Allowing third party apps to actually record your voice.
Android/iOS already allow apps to request microphone access.
> In a climate where many types of apps make money purely through selling your data to data brokers
"my own" should be able to include something I've compiled myself - not just Apple's App Store or Google Play Store, which even when source code is available elsewhere there's no guarantee that's what was used for the binary available on the store.
But it’s a huge pain in the ass just to get call recordings. That kind of effort shouldn’t be necessary in 2023, and it’s asinine that we don’t have call recording natively yet.
(Though, we also don’t have any sane way of archiving Visual Voicemail data despite the fact that they’re just audio files downloaded via IMAP.)
I agree that a “nanny state” prohibition on useful features for the user just because some actors are abusive is a touch crazy.
In fact, the fact that the Australian Tax Office used a security method that is highly flawed should not preclude me from recording a phone call.
This is not hard to do on iOS using apps like TapeACall, by recording a speakerphone conversation, etc. In case you think the grass is greener: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/04/googles-accessibilit...
But since we were on iCloud. You know what I would want more than data transfer from iCloud? An ability to use iCloud alternatives. Better file access to apps, yes with stricter permissions, but better access and preferential treatment to its own shitty apps.
Apple's piss poor Document apps and their horrible Photos app made me give up on the whole ecosystem. The download and upload of photos to iCloud is painful even on fast wifi.
Did you last use these in the 90s? iWork's native apps are great (I can't speak the web apps), and I moved my personal library of 50K photos (many RAW) to Apple Photos from Lightroom after months of evaluating literally every other solution.
Apple Photos does non-destructive editing only, and the nice thing about that is that your captures are always sacrosanct.
https://tidbits.com/2019/06/14/the-ins-and-outs-of-non-destr...
I don’t know how Apple’s RAW converter stacks up against professional alternatives, but happily there are great professional options that plug into Apple Photos. (I use RAW Power, created by the lead developer of Aperture.)
They are also syphoning European data for free to the US which weakens the European position in transatlantic negotiations about bilateral data access for law enforcement (why would the US agree to anything if they can simply issue a domestic court order).
All in all Apple and friends have very little political leverage on EU law making (direct bribes are very risky and rare) and given the size of the European market they will comply with almost anything. If they leave after all, a European competitor might fill the void.
Also many people welcome the regulation of market domineering companies and more won't care. Remember that many European societies are traditionally somewhat sceptical of unrestricted markets and their players.
It's therefore a viable political strategy to continue the path of putting them in their place.
Proprietary programs that store their data in icloud are harder to export but that's the problem of the app vendors. This includes Apple office apps like Pages or Numbers, but for them at least you can use applescript to export those files in non-apple formats. Easier than Google, TBH.
For example, you can copy a list of every URL open in a Tab Group, and just paste it somewhere. Unless you have a ton of Tab Groups, it’s the fastest way I’ve found. I never have more than 20 or so, so it’s barely worth scripting.
On Macs, depending on your configuration and apps, a lot (or all) of the app-specific iCloud data is synced to the local file system. Finder refuses to interact with that hierarchy, but Terminal and third party file browsers don’t care.
Not that it shouldn’t be even easier, mind you. I think it absolutely should.