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Comment by sureIy | Hacker News Reader

Collecting dots/vectors on a map doesn't necessarily invade my privacy. The problem comes with linking that dot with a person. As long as that link is lost and unrecoverable, I have no problem with Apple (or anyone) collecting it. The second problem is actually ensuring that.

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The main problem with this is that the data is naturally linked to your phone, and you have to trust the provider to anonymize it. I suspect that's at least part of the reason for Apple painting itself as privacy-friendly: building trust with its users that they won't misuse their data.

I mean most of those vectors will converge on my home dot; with time data any vector intersecting with my home can tell a lot about my life. Additionally, is it anonymized per user (ie all my vectors are still a set just not identified as me) or each vector is an individual product unliked from all other vectors and user data.

https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/apple-maps/

  > Additionally, when you use Maps to make a navigation or directions request, details about your route are sent to Apple, including:
  > [...]
  > A random identifier, which is created when you ask for directions and exists for the duration of your navigation session

> vectors will converge on my home dot

That’s just because your phone sends it, but your phone also has a list of “significant locations,” around which it could avoid sending data for a mile or less.

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