Apple 'Records Every Tap' in App Store to Filter New Personalized Recommendations Feature

[burgman]

The website you're posting on does basically the same thing, it's nothing new.

I wonder how many ranting about this have looked at a privacy report on MR trackers

 

[TracesOfArsenic]

Apple have been gathering their own data like this for the better part of a decade. They know everything you do on your phone and while they might not on-sell it they definitely use it to benefit themselves in what I would consider no better than other nefarious corporations. Nothing new here, it's just that the mask has somewhat been lifted for more people.

 

[jimscard]

This is an invasion of privacy and another reason Apple shouldn't be able to control how you install apps on your phone or computer

It's not. It's a red herring. And the protections provided by Apple's App store mitigate all the non-existent "issues" that mysk has come up with.

Well, they do. Every letter tapped triggers and refines the search results.

Type G and you get all sorts. When you keep tapping until “game of” that’s when Game of Thrones appears.

Sure, they could wait for you to press Enter to trigger the search but they apparently decided to have some sort of live results filtering after every tap.

Exactly. This is normal and poses no privacy risk or anything to the user.

 

[maxoakland]

It's not. It's a red herring. And the protections provided by Apple's App store mitigate all the non-existent "issues" that mysk has come up with.


Exactly. This is normal and poses no privacy risk or anything to the user.

It proves that the App Store was nothing more than a false sense of security because we can’t even trust Apple

And since no competition is allowed, we can’t choose to go to a more privacy respecting option that doesn’t track our every move

 

[maxoakland]

Every body should type into the search, ", F$$K YOU Apple, stop tracking what I type".

Love this idea. Just did it

 

[Dirk Pieters]

Apple have been gathering their own data like this for the better part of a decade. They know everything you do on your phone and while they might not on-sell it they definitely use it to benefit themselves in what I would consider no better than other nefarious corporations. Nothing new here, it's just that the mask has somewhat been lifted for more people.

This has nothing to with privacy. Your data stays inside the company and is (probably) used to improve things.

I used to have an app that allowed users to create bicycle routes on a map. It all worked anonymously. Users could save their routes on my server, share them with others, view them on other devices etc.

For users who did not want to create routes themselves (you’d be suprised how many people prefer to re-use other’s routes instead of making their own) there was a search function. They could enter a region and see if it contained routes. And download the ones they wanted. I stored those searches as well, remember: all anonymous.

Every week I would group those searches and see which region was queried most. For that region I would create routes myself and make them available, to cater to user’s needs.

So yes, I stored data. And yes: it was all anonymous. I knew nothing about my users.

That’s a vast difference with a company like Google that links your youtube usage, Chrome usage, Android usage, usage of whatever they offer for “free” in order to sell that data to their own customers, in order to make money.

All this post shows is Apple tracking your input in order to show you live search results after every letter tapped.

There is no other way to offer this functionality.

Apart from that: having developed apps I think the AppStore has turned into a ********. I build most of my software in the browser now. Not having to deal with Apple’s screwed up and ever changing review process is a breath of fresh air.

2 things can be true at the same time.

 

[dhack01]

Very disappointing from a “Privacy First” company

 

[MVMNT]

There's a lot of misinterpretation going on in this thread.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Yep, look at all the trackers they have as well, it is ridiculously hypocritical.

Thing is, those are just web trackers. I can block those. What Apple is doing here is at the system level. Probably not even blockable at the network level.

 

[Techwatcher]

Anyways incoming lawsuit.

 

[burgman]

Anyways incoming lawsuit.

Over what? A company indexing what you willingly type on their site, after agreeing to their terms? Obviously all those ranting never read the App Store privacy legal document you agreed to. This and more is plainly written. Not reading it is on all of you.

 

[Brien]

Boo-urns. Really feels like 2026 is the year everyone took a hard pivot towards Big Brother.

 

[eifelbube]

It’s also very possible that in a later beta, Apple will introduce a toggle to turn this off - even more likely if people start complaining about this more.

I expect Apple to include the option to turn it off starting with the public beta the latest.

 

[MrSnirf]

This has nothing to with privacy. Your data stays inside the company and is (probably) used to improve things.

Literally every company who collects your data claims they're collecting it to "improve things." That's how silly this line of reasoning is. And claims your data "stays inside the company" which comes with a giant asterisk. That assumption also evaporates the moment there's a breach, a government request, or a policy change. How many times have T-Mobile and AT&T been breached?

I used to have an app that allowed users to create bicycle routes on a map. It all worked anonymously. Users could save their routes on my server, share them with others, view them on other devices etc.

Users voluntarily uploaded their routes to your server. That's opt-in by definition. iPhone users have zero choice but to use Apple's App Store. There is no opt-in, there is no way to install apps you downloaded from a 3rd party source unless you live in the EU and now Brazil and even then Apple still requires you go through their store to get access to 3rd party stores.

For users who did not want to create routes themselves (you’d be suprised how many people prefer to re-use other’s routes instead of making their own) there was a search function. They could enter a region and see if it contained routes. And download the ones they wanted. I stored those searches as well, remember: all anonymous.

Every week I would group those searches and see which region was queried most. For that region I would create routes myself and make them available, to cater to user’s needs.

So yes, I stored data. And yes: it was all anonymous. I knew nothing about my users.

That’s a vast difference with a company like Google that links your youtube usage, Chrome usage, Android usage, usage of whatever they offer for “free” in order to sell that data to their own customers, in order to make money.

You just described exactly what Apple is doing, except Apple's version is tied to your Apple ID, which links your App Store behavior to your purchases, iCloud, devices, and payment information, Safari usage, Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Maps, etc. That's the cross-service identity linkage you just criticized Google for. The only difference is the logo.

All this post shows is Apple tracking your input in order to show you live search results after every letter tapped.

There is no other way to offer this functionality.

That's technically wrong. Live autocomplete doesn't require persistent logging of every keystroke, you can process input transiently and discard it after returning results, or do it entirely on-device. The fact that this data shows up in Apple's personal data dumps via privacy.apple.com proves it's being stored, not just used momentarily for a search suggestion. That's a design choice to collect and store user data to be used for ad targeting, not a technical necessity.

Apart from that: having developed apps I think the AppStore has turned into a ********. I build most of my software in the browser now. Not having to deal with Apple’s screwed up and ever changing review process is a breath of fresh air.

2 things can be true at the same time.

Actually, no 2 things can't both be true when they directly contradict each other. You can't market yourself as the privacy-focused alternative while logging every keystroke and uploading it to your servers to power personalized recommendations and ad targeting. That's not 2 things being true at the same time, that's just hypocrisy. And consumers have been wired to believe that's not invasive.

 

[eifelbube]

Yeah, I've never understood folks that can do it (or want to do it).

It's crazy how much more capable, functional and quick to accomplish tasks I am on macOS.

I guess I'm just too much of a power user for the iOS/iPadOS only stuff.

Yes, I feel more at home on Mac OS too and am still holding back on entering the glass age. In recent months, I find myself more often grabbing my MBP rather than my 12” iPad when I go my favorite local coffee place. And: I have no hopes, Apple will ever put Mac OS on the Pro iPads.

 

[eifelbube]

As a Certified Information Privacy Professional, this kind of crying wolf doesn’t benefit anyone. …
… If a user decides to use the Personalized Recommendations feature, of course data is going to be used to create those recommendations.

Agreed, but will the user get to decide (see MR below)? And if they do get to, how transparent and convenient will that be, or will the opt-in/out be hidden far down in the settings?

MR:​

But there's an argument to be made for Personalized Collections to be opt-in, rather than the all-in feature Apple has rolled out. ​

 

[eifelbube]

This is an invasion of privacy and another reason Apple shouldn't be able to control how you install apps on your phone or computer

It's not. It's a red herring.

! Privacy ! What is Privacy? Privacy is Me. I get to define.what constitutes invasion, intrusion, violation. My iPhone is my digital house. I agreed to let Apple in but for whatever they want to do in my house, they need my permission. Tracking for personalized recommendations requires my explicit consent with the option to decline.

 

[eifelbube]

After turning on personalized recommendations of course. But, then, why turn on personalized recommendations in the first place? You can just email your sentence to Apple.

You must be better informed than MR then (emphasis mine):

Is capturing everything you do in the App Store app an intrusion of privacy? Opinions will differ. But there's an argument to be made for Personalized Collections to be opt-in, rather than the all-in feature Apple has rolled out. ​

 

[maxoakland]

! Privacy ! What is Privacy? Privacy is Me. I get to define.what constitutes invasion, intrusion, violation. My iPhone is my digital house. I agreed to let Apple in but for whatever they want to do in my house, they need my permission. Tracking for personalized recommendations requires my explicit consent with the option to decline.

I like that. It's a good way to give people choices while also making it possible for Apple to make the case that our experience will be better if we say yes

Ironically, this is exactly what they forced all 3rd parties to do with the "Ask app not to track" thing, which was a great idea. But now Apple wants to be the only one who can do certain things and that's a huge anti-competitive move that puts them at an unfair advantage in the market

 

[extrachrispy]

For crying out loud: how does Mysk think predictive search works? You send the word or partial word and start working through a trie and show potential matches.

That's all I'm seeing here. Now, if they are somehow keeping a browser fingerprint or some other uniquely identifying information, that would be something else, but predictive search? *yawn*