Apple to Launch New App Usage Tracking Tools for Developers to Balance User Privacy

I hope this doesn't mean lots privacy lawsuit articles on macrumors...

Apple, please get this right.

charlieegan3 said:

I hope this doesn't mean lots privacy lawsuit articles on macrumors...

Apple, please get this right.

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Seems to be a decent balance that will shut up the paranoid people in BOTH camps (consumers AND devs) who keep thinking the sky is falling.

It's about time I can't wait

nice thanks

Advertisers are already kicking up a stink because IE10 will have "Do not Track" enabled by default in the settings, claiming it'll hurt them because they can't track users and deliver targeted ads.

Kaibelf said:

Seems to be a decent balance that will shut up the paranoid people in BOTH camps (consumers AND devs) who keep thinking the sky is falling.

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If I am reading your post correctly, I would not agree that the desire to retain what remnants of privacy that remains constitutes paranoia.

I realize that I sacrifice privacy every time I go online or use certain apps, but anything that attempts to preserve some vestige of that privacy gets my vote.

It ain't paranoid if people are watching you...

This is going to be interesting...

I understand, advertisers are asking to have IOS users and potential IOS users shot with a trank gun, taken to a secure location, then users and potential users are to have GPS/RF tracking devices implanted.

Local vets and wildlife centers are competing to see who gets the contract.

Man ! Tim Cook sure is doubling down on secrecy isn't he ? Wow.

Something that will "better protect user privacy than existing approaches" should come with an on/off switch controllable by the user. No developer has any right to know how I am using their app, as much as they might like to know.

Shrink said:

If I am reading your post correctly, I would not agree that the desire to retain what remnants of privacy that remains constitutes paranoia.

I realize that I sacrifice privacy every time I go online or use certain apps, but anything that attempts to preserve some vestige of that privacy gets my vote.

It ain't paranoid if people are watching you...

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I'm talking about the people who say "oh my god there was a ping file on my phone - Apple's going to steal my baby in the night! "

Benjy91 said:

Advertisers are already kicking up a stink because IE10 will have "Do not Track" enabled by default in the settings, claiming it'll hurt them because they can't track users and deliver targeted ads.

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Well, they’re right: it will hurt them.

A little.

And I just can’t feel any sympathy. I am not for sale unless I choose to be!

LaWally said:

Something that will "better protect user privacy than existing approaches" should come with an on/off switch controllable by the user. No developer has any right to know how I am using their app, as much as they might like to know.

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As a developer I would like to know if a specific device is using my App, where he lives (only the country/state/province/etc, no need for GPS coordinates), maybe local time, etc.

It's not about tracking you, it's about getting statistics about who's using the App.

Here's an example: Imagine I make an App and that I find out 90% of my users are in Canada, I might want to add more Canada-specific features to it.

And if I then find out that in those 90% of users, 70% are in Québec, I would make sure my App is 100% bilingual.

And then I find out that 85% of those users are girls/women, I might fill re-skin the interface to pink colors and add ponies. Just kidding.

But you see how that might be useful to developers. I'm guessing the "unique ID" will be unique for at least each device+app. Maybe even device+app+installation. Delete the app, re-install it and you might even get a new ID.

LaWally said:

Something that will "better protect user privacy than existing approaches" should come with an on/off switch controllable by the user. No developer has any right to know how I am using their app, as much as they might like to know.

Click to expand...

They can do that now. UIDs have nothing to do with how you're using an app. What it does do is allow a company to pinpoint multiple apps on one device. UDIDs were supposed to change when you restored a phone or other type of behavior - but they stopped doing that after iOS 2 I believe.

There is a lot of misunderstanding what a UDID is. Its just a generated ID that is device - not app - specific. Any app can create a ID that is app specific. Any app can even share that ID across multiple apps very easily (OpenUDID). Not unless you ever transmit your name and stuff alongside the UDID can they associate you as a person to an ID. 99% of the usage of UDIDs were completely anonymous. Its that 1% that was bad.

But even OpenUDID (which Apple can't stop because its not using a device ID) can do nearly everything a UDID can - including that 1% of bad behavior.

The only way Apple can make it more private is if they re-introduce a UDID - but allow the user to make it return garbage or some nil value AND developers use that exclusively. Otherwise I, as a developer, could hypothetically use this new UDID, but if it returns nil I use OpenUDID. Of course if it returns some random number then I won't actually ever know either, so that's one thing Apple could do.

I must be the only one who doesn't mind seeing targeted ads instead of irrelevant ones.

Benjy91 said:

Advertisers are already kicking up a stink because IE10 will have "Do not Track" enabled by default in the settings, claiming it'll hurt them because they can't track users and deliver targeted ads.

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Companies that rely heavily on targeted ads are in big trouble if all the "Do not track" options actually work and are easy to use. Companies like Google and Facebook rely heavily on targeted ads because they're the only ones that have any potential to be effective.

Advertisers won't spend money on generic web ads, they already know they don't work. If they don't spend money, the Googles and Facebooks of the world don't turn a profit.

Yvan256 said:

As a developer I would like to know if a specific device is using my App, where he lives (only the country/state/province/etc, no need for GPS coordinates), maybe local time, etc.

It's not about tracking you, it's about getting statistics about who's using the App.

Here's an example: Imagine I make an App and that I find out 90% of my users are in Canada, I might want to add more Canada-specific features to it.

And if I then find out that in those 90% of users, 70% are in Québec, I would make sure my App is 100% bilingual.

And then I find out that 85% of those users are girls/women, I might fill re-skin the interface to pink colors and add ponies. Just kidding.

But you see how that might be useful to developers. I'm guessing the "unique ID" will be unique for at least each device+app. Maybe even device+app+installation. Delete the app, re-install it and you might even get a new ID.

Click to expand...

Of course I can see how it would useful to developers. That is not the point. The point is I should not have to be a "target" of your statistical gathering just because I buy your app. If users of your app want to opt-in that's fine by me. I just want to have a way to opt-out.

This is just for third party apps right? The UDID will still exist so I can register my device's UDIDs for iOS 6 Beta. Can someone confirm this?

Ok, but what's with that "Software version: 3.2" ****?

I do not want to be tracked but at the same time this seems to be a necessary feature as developers can target app features and ads toward people using them in a more specific area/country or what ever and sell more apps and/or make more money of adds. Because if devs didn't make money i don't think we would see that many apps simple as that.

Being tracked by Apple is so cool! Hope they don't me charge extra for it.

LaWally said:

Something that will "better protect user privacy than existing approaches" should come with an on/off switch controllable by the user. No developer has any right to know how I am using their app, as much as they might like to know.

Click to expand...

Paranoid much? An ID does NOT show "how I am using their app".

Glad this is being done, there really was no other option. Some apps need a way of recognising the user, for things like remotely saved data. By having this, apps dont need to make you register for a username/password and can just instantly pick up that its device XYZ.

The problem with the old method of the device id was that if you sold your iPhone/iPad/iPod, the new owner inherits that device id, so its no longer unique to you. Hopefully this new method solves that sufficiently.

MacRumors said:

The company earlier this year began rejecting apps that continued to use the UDID rather than implementing unique identifiers that would enhance privacy by remaining unique to the developer's app.

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Does this mean that apps that used their own type of UDID are safe? I don't recall this detail; I thought all apps that used UDIDs were being blocked. For instance, if an online app scrambled a UDID when a user went online, would that app be accepted?