A Day in the Life of Your Data: Apple Details How Companies Can Track You Across Apps and Websites

[Commodore 64]

Or imagine an online world where advertising no longer exists at all (except by voluntary opt-in) and where companies generate revenue and funding to sustain their platforms from all the other non-advertising related methods of commerce...

You’re premise is wrong by conflating free online platforms with advertising penetration. There are other ways of companies earning money you know. The ad-supported model is hopefully on its way out, giving rise to a more cleaner, more conscious, less cluttered and simple internet experience

I agree. It’s odd that for everything in life we think it’s ok to pay for quality but when it comes to online services and the like there is an idea that it should all be free.

But how about a third option? Why shouldn’t our personal data be seen as our own property, that companies should pay us for?

I’m used to answering polls (yeah, there’s an app for that). In exchange for my time, effort, opinions and data I get points, enough points releases gift cards. I’ve bought a lot of neat stuff and saved a lot of money.
What if it could be the same with data harvesting? Especially if that data was ours to license to companies. If they would re-license to others they would have to ask us for permission first and we would receive royalties for every re-licensing.

I think Apple is moving in the right direction with transparency, but we still don’t know where our data ends up in the end. How about I don’t care if Facebook itself has my data (licensed for a price!), but when they want to re-license I want my share plus I want to choose who gets it. I might want to share with say Volvo or a university research on behavior during pandemics. But I would like to easily reject re-licensing of my movements and purchase patterns to some unknown-company-in-a-country-I-barely-heard-of or “ShadyEnterprise” or a political organization or an aggressive government.

Then we could really talk about transparency and user control.

 

[DanielDD]

How private are pictures in iCloud?

Apple, why don't you change iCloud? Where is the end to end encryption?

Apparently they are encrypted in transit and Apple's servers.
There is end-to-end encryption for all iCloud services you access in the online portal (such as Keychain or health data)

iCloud data security overview - Apple Support

iCloud uses strong security methods, employs strict policies to protect your information, and leads the industry in using privacy-preserving security technologies like end-to-end encryption for your data.

support.apple.com

 

[SWAON]

Hmm, where's the catch, Apple?! You're not as innocent as you seems to be, showing the dirty clothes of others.. What about your own? Apple contributed in this to happen and now is taking advantages, trying to cover their own *ss. What's done in the dark will be brought in light at some point. After years we will know everything.. for those who live to see and tell.

 

[diego.caraballo]

I was really excited for some changes that Apple announced time ago. However they materialized as half-baked. One is clipboard pasting, don’t show me a warning: put a switch so I can disable it.

Also the Photos access is completely wrong. You need to select the photos allowed at the moment of the one-time message asking for access!!! John wouldn’t be able use the bunny app with that setting enabled unless he was opening the app for the very first time.
Most people needs to revert the setting back to “all photos” in order to allow the app to access their latest pictures.

 

[LeeTom]

I just read the document and it was very nice. They showed how an average person is tracked in a simple but easily understandable way. This can be shown to non tech enthusiastic people who do not know or care about Privacy.

I came here to say the same thing! ^

 

[macintoshmac]

I want to know why does Apple even allow code in the app that can track all this in the first place. Sure, making users aware and letting them reject or accept is all fine, but they could tighten their own operating system's code to take care that no such tracking occurs. Or could they not?

What am I missing here? In my opinion, they are already checking apps before they release them out to the public, surely they could check for tracking code?

 

[LeeTom]

Yeah, and 2011 i filled a security issue to Apple about the clipboard being readout by many apps, incl. by user copied usernames/passwords, etc.. When did they add that Clipboard Info feature again?2019/2020! They surely can’t wear the white vest. Btw. just managed to bypass my 2FA(code request), but I needed a unconfigured ios device, my username and password for this... thinking about if i should open a issue or not, they don’t care anyway.

File it! Keep pushin' on them...

 

[LeeTom]

I can't say I'd be bothered, at all, since I exist on no social media platform, or use Google, or whatever. But, I expect a lot the now very vocal privacy advocates and FaceBook-haters will be unpleasantly surprised when the services they rely on and the apps they want raises their monthly "internet-services-bill" a couple of hundred dollars a month.

But you did just post on a site that uses Google Analytics, and you use other sites that use Google Analytics, so you're being tracked whether you use Google/Social Media or not! Personally, I think these companies SHOULD have to get money from the services they provide, not from underhanded tactics. And if people don't want to pay for that service... C'est la vie...

 

[M115CLE]

Well done Apple for publishing however I feel that this information would reach more people if it was presented as a animated video. That video would be viral within 24 hours!

 

[neuropsychguy]

Most people needs to revert the setting back to “all photos” in order to allow the app to access their latest pictures.

That’s true for many apps but it can be programmed as you said. eBay does it correctly, for example. You can give access to selected photos and then later add more without having to give access to all photos.

 

[jlc1978]

Or imagine an online world where advertising no longer exists at all (except by voluntary opt-in) and where companies generate revenue and funding to sustain their platforms from all the other non-advertising related methods of commerce...

The issues is can they makeup for the loss in ad revenue by other means?

You’re premise is wrong by conflating free online platforms with advertising penetration. There are other ways of companies earning money you know. The ad-supported model is hopefully on its way out, giving rise to a more cleaner, more conscious, less cluttered and simple internet experience

Less cluttered and cleaner also means far fewer sites as many simply will not be able to generate enough revenue to be an ongoing enterprise. Take MR, how many of the casual viewers would be willing to pay if it required that for opting out?

You'd likely wind up with a few sites dedicated to various topics, most likely run by companies that can afford the loss leader. The model will be one Amazon used when they bought the photography site DPReview.

 

[randolorian]

Excellent PDF; but should be a video series.

Watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Considering just how deep this goes, I often wonder how much me protecting my own privacy matters. As soon as you start interacting with other people that have Facebook installed or use Google for everything, your information starts getting linked together to the point that I bet those companies have a lot of data about me, even though I don't use them at all. It's not that privacy doesn't matter, but it seems like once you go online or have a phone number, you've lost most of the battle. About all you can do is make your own phone track you less.

 

[DelayedGratificationGene]

It’s 100% about transparency. That’s all it is nothing else. It’s an opportunity to provide you with a choice without any secrets. The whole world except Zuck would welcome that

 

[icanhazmac]

The document is a great read and will hopefully get a few non-tech readers to reconsider their privacy choices. I have forwarded this on to a quite a few friends and family.

 

[Killbill2]

Thursday is Data Privacy Day, and Apple is marking the occasion in a few ways, including sharing a new "A Day in the Life of Your Data" document that details how third-party companies can track user data across websites and apps.

Apple says that, on average, mobile apps include six "trackers" from third-party companies for the "sole purpose of collecting and tracking people and their personal information," fueling an industry valued at $227 billion per year. "A Day in the Life of Your Data" aims to show what advertisers, data brokers, social media companies, and other entities can learn about a father and daughter who spend a pleasant day at the park.

One example is the father and daughter taking a selfie at the park, editing the photo with a filter app, and sharing it on social media, a seemingly innocent series of actions that still resulted in data being collected and tracked across multiple apps:The document goes on to list various Apple privacy features that would have given the father and daughter more transparency and control over their data, including the choice to give the filter app access to only their selfie, instead of the entire photo library.

The document also highlights Apple's four key privacy principles and provides more information about App Tracking Transparency, a privacy measure that will require apps to request permission to track users starting with the next iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and tvOS 14 betas. Apple says the software updates will be released in the early spring.

"Privacy means peace of mind, it means security, and it means you are in the driver's seat when it comes to your own data," said Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi, in a statement shared today. "Our goal is to create technology that keeps people's information safe and protected. We believe privacy is a fundamental human right, and our teams work every day to embed it in everything we make."

Apple CEO Tim Cook will be speaking on data privacy today at the Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection conference, based in Brussels. Cook is scheduled to speak at 8:15 a.m. Pacific Time, and a live stream will be available on YouTube.

Article Link: A Day in the Life of Your Data: Apple Details How Companies Can Track You Across Apps and Websites

Apple WTF? A PDF page sucks for accessibility! This belongs as a web page not some printer centric distribution format. Even worse, It was created by someone using Adobe InDesign! Web First content, this "page" should have been a link for people that wanted to print and share. Get this crass page fixed ASAP!

 

[GeoStructural]

Yeah, and 2011 i filled a security issue to Apple about the clipboard being readout by many apps, incl. by user copied usernames/passwords, etc.. When did they add that Clipboard Info feature again?2019/2020! They surely can’t wear the white vest. Btw. just managed to bypass my 2FA(code request), but I needed a unconfigured ios device, my username and password for this... thinking about if i should open a issue or not, they don’t care anyway.

They care if they can make a PR fest out of it.

 

[nwcs]

This is why I have had a pi-hole device for some time. Nothing is perfect in blocking out the privacy invading crud but it helps a great deal.

 

[ikramerica]

Well Google lets you delete your data, they claim. Except they require a google ID and logging in to do that. Except they are building a profile on you whether you have an ID or not.

Which seems highly illegal, though it probably isn’t.

 

[DelayedGratificationGene]

The document is a great read and will hopefully get a few non-tech readers to reconsider their privacy choices. I have forwarded this on to a quite a few friends and family.

Forwarding is a great idea. I’ll do the same

 

[ikramerica]

Well done Apple for publishing however I feel that this information would reach more people if it was presented as a animated video. That video would be viral within 24 hours!

Except if it was a video I wouldn’t have watched it. Not everyone clicks on videos all day when they know how to read.

 

[LeadingHeat]

I respect what Apple claims they are doing/valuing, and I do believe they are doing relatively better than most in the industry. But if data from Little Snitch is anything to go by, they aren't exactly knights in shining armor either - not since the later days of High Sierra at the very least. I mean, the list goes on and on but at the most basic level, why should iTunes on Mojave need to send "something" to Apple servers each time I play a cue, or skip a cue, or seek through the same cue?

What about how they need to pay the artist? How would they know who to pay if they don’t know which artist you’re listening to?

 

[LeadingHeat]

Yeah, and 2011 i filled a security issue to Apple about the clipboard being readout by many apps, incl. by user copied usernames/passwords, etc.. When did they add that Clipboard Info feature again?2019/2020! They surely can’t wear the white vest. Btw. just managed to bypass my 2FA(code request), but I needed a unconfigured ios device, my username and password for this... thinking about if i should open a issue or not, they don’t care anyway.

If you’re saying you were able to bypass a security feature, I’d look into the bug bounty program. You could get a payout potentially if what you’re saying is actually true.

 

[BimBamSmash]

What about how they need to pay the artist? How would they know who to pay if they don’t know which artist you’re listening to?

I forgot to mention that I was talking about locally stored content when I wrote my previous post. Those have obviously been paid for in full already.

 

[Lemon Olive]

"Tracked" lol.