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Comment by bbatsell | Hacker News Reader

Since you kept the same phone, that was probably DeviceCheck, which gives you 2 bits to store “fraud” related flags.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicecheck/access...

Why does Apple let your device work against your own interests? If an app developer wants your phone to detect you committing "fraud", that should be their problem.

I mean the same reason Apple uses your phone to scan for nearby AirTags.

This isn't a feature that is actually costing them sales but a lack of DRM/etc affects what apps will be in their store.

It certainly costs them some sales, but not enough for them to care about.

Why would Apple ever prioritize their customer's interests over their own? They've never once suggested that they would, and their customers prefer a hierarchical relationship. Apple is a company that whitelists which functions of a general purpose computer that their customers will be allowed to use.

That makes some people feel really secure, like the company is a loving parent, although companies don't love. They decide what is profitable and what is not.

That's a weird hill to die on.

Service providers need to ban people sometimes. This includes people who are savvy enough to know how to delete and reinstall an app to clear its settings. Never permanently banning anyone simply isn't a thing that's happening.

If Apple didn't provide DeviceCheck, or something similar to it, service providers would use some other means of deterring abuse. There's a couple directions they can go in, but they're all generally worse for users (e.g. using invasive tracking, requiring users to pay for service, etc). DeviceCheck is about the least invasive way I can imagine this being implemented.

Why do mail providers work against your interests by blocking outgoing spam? Because in aggregate it's beneficial to users if external parties can trust the more.

That's different because you block spammers' messages on your servers, without the cooperation of the spammers' computers.

> probably DeviceCheck, which gives you 2 bits to store “fraud” related flags

Does resetting your iPhone (Erase All Content and Settings) clear out data like that?

Does doing a restore from backup put that data back on your iPhone?

The linked article says the 2 bits are stored on Apple’s servers.

I.e. they could persist even if the device were bit-for-bit reset to factory state.

Is that basically serving the same purpose as Android's SafetyNet attestation?

It’s a little different since it’s meant to basically be a persistent identity. App attest is the more comparable technology for SafetyNet.

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