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Comment by raw_anon_1111 | Hacker News Reader

This is dumb. Websites have many more ways to track you across websites than apps have to track you if you don’t explicitly give them unnecessary permissions.

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Native apps have privileged access to far more personal data on your device. A website has, what, cookies and fingerprinting? You can already mitigate this on Firefox but even if not, it isn't in the same league

Have you looked at all of the APIs that are part of the standard?

These are from the Firefox website

Of course it also knows your device, operating system version, screen resolution, phone orientation, etc.

Not to mention that websites can track you across other websites.

What information do you think apps have without your permissions that websites don’t?

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Geolocation...

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Acceleromet...

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/g...

https://www.w3schools.com/tags/av_prop_volume.asp

Geolocation sharing can be disabled as reflected in your source. Everything else you linked to is trivial, but notwithstanding, it all relies on JS which, as I already said, can be disabled. Oh, and many aren't even available in Firefox: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Battery_Sta...

> What information do you think apps have without your permissions that websites don’t?

Your actual personal information. Access to photos, messages, metadata (name, address, contacts, notes, metadata, habits).

And Geolocation can also be blocked by your OS and is opt in. Access to photos is also opt in per app as is contacts

An app does not have permission to your name, address, contacts unless you explicitly allow it

And mobile apps don’t have access to your notes or any “habits” outside of when you use the app.

And “disabling JavaScript” in 2025 makes most websites unusable.

The fact that apps have permissions settings has lulled you into a false sense of confidence.

You realize that the same OS settings also are used to enable websites to read your GPS, camera and microphone?

If you don’t trust your operating system to follow your instructions when using an app, then why do you trust the same operating system with your browser?

Do you have any evidence to support your conspiracy theory?

This was one such example: https://medium.com/@infinityTime/facebooks-hidden-android-tr...

Then don’t use Android??? If you care about your privacy why would you use a phone with an OS created by an adtech company?

I'm not sure if the browser vs. an app has access to the accelerometer, but this is another case where something on the phone provides information that a normal desktop would not:

"Researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk warn that 'Facebook reads accelerometer data all the time. If you don't allow Facebook access to your location, the app can still infer your exact location only by grouping you with users matching the same vibration pattern that your phone accelerometer records.'"

“Although the accelerometer data seems to be innocuous,” Mysk says, “it's jaw-dropping what apps can make up of these measurements. Apps can figure out the user's heart rate, movements, and even precise location. Worse, all iOS apps can read the measurements of this sensor without permission. In other words, the user wouldn't know if an app is measuring their heart rate while using the app.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2021/10/23/apple-iph...

And there is also a standardized method to read the accelerometer from the browser.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Acceleromet...

Yes, but also browsing the web from your phone is stupid and no one should do it.

65% of browser traffic comes from mobile and 95% use mobile for browsing sometimes according to a quick internet search. What should they be doing, carrying around their laptop with them?

Wait until you're home to browse the internet. I'm such much of that browsing was just boredom. If any of it was important, it could have either been planned ahead of time, or you could have just waited until you got home. If it were so important you'd remember it when you got home to a real computer.

Your advice is now that people shouldn’t use apps or browse the web on mobile in 2025?

They might as well carry around flip phones.

It's clear improvement. People keep trying to solve these technology problems by layering on yet more technology, or by switching to other technologies. That's a game of cat and mouse. The much better path is abstaining from use. The vast majority of what people do on their phones is mindless scrolling. Actual work can wait until you're in front of a laptop or a desktop. It will be much more efficient and capable than a phone. There might be some edge cases where a phone really is best, but these are not common.

Most people think their phones are useful, when really their phones are addictive.

why would adtech companies pay apple millions to keep their app as default option if it was not for getting data . Same thing but hey it requires common sense.

So you don’t see the difference in using Google as your default search engine where Google can only track you when you are searching on their website and having them control your entire OS?

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