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As of iOS 13, apps are no longer able to present an "always allow" option when requesting access to a user's location. The only way to immediately grant an app continuous access to location is to navigate to Settings > Privacy > Location Services, tap on an app, and select the "always" option if available.

iOS 13 also periodically reminds users about apps that are continuously tracking their location, complete with a map of those locations. An on-screen alert provides users with options to continue to "always allow" ongoing access to their location or to limit access to while the app is being used.

ios-13-location-tracking-reminder.jpg

In light of those changes, The Wall Street Journal today reported that some developers are concerned that the location tracking reminders will hurt adoption of their apps, while some iPhone users are said to have expressed frustration that the reminders appear every few days despite repeatedly selecting "always allow."

Apple responded to the report with a statement insisting that the changes were made to further safeguard user privacy.

"Apple has not built a business model around knowing a customer's location or the location of their device," an Apple spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal, adding that Apple builds its hardware and software with privacy in mind.

The amount of location data collected by apps while in the background has dropped by 70 percent since iOS 13 was released, according to Jason Smith, chief business officer of data intelligence company Location Sciences. Given how easily the data can be used to identify and track individuals, that is a promising sign.

Article Link: Apple Responds to Report on iOS 13's Frequent Location Tracking Reminders, Emphasizes Privacy
One hundred percent in agreement, thank you Apple
 
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This almost reminds me of Windows Vista and their crappy implementation of the UAC dialog.

If I select always allow, I don't need nanny Apple to remind me every few days. I'm not an idiot [though they think all their users are].
Well as a seasoned developer and long time tech-support person, I can tell you that the vast majority of users are "idiots" and you have to develop your apps with that in mind.
 
Or “Little Snitch” for iOS
But that wouldn’t work because apps aren’t allowed to be that deeply integrated with iOS, though it would be nice.


What are you even going on about? Are you just trying to be miserable for the sake of being miserable? It's not a welcome feature.
It's a hassle.
Give a me a screen in settings to tell me which apps are on permanent so I can check them easily. But keep telling me about it when I've already said ALWAYS grant access, is just a ball ache.
It’s a hassle to you yes, but it seems the overwhelming majority disagrees with you.
 
Well what about Clippy in Word? "Looks like you're typing a letter. Want help???!!!" "Go away Clippy! No one likes you!" "CLIPPY HERE AGAIN: NEED HELP!?!!?"

You, Sir, live in the past. Clippy hasn't been a part of MS Office since Office 2007...
 
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But that wouldn’t work because apps aren’t allowed to be that deeply integrated with iOS, though it would be nice.



It’s a hassle to you yes, but it seems the overwhelming majority disagrees with you.

wow. OVERWHELMING MAJORITY.

those tend to be comprised of cattle.
 
There are so few apps that need to be “always on” instead of while using.

i agree that asking frequently can be a hassle but maybe Apple can compare how often the app tracks you to how often you interact with it to decide whether to remind you.
If it was constantly rotating, then the identifier would be completely useless and there would be no point in having one.

The whole point of the identifier is to correlate data over some period of time. The important part is timescales. For example, people leave their house usually no more than 10-11 hours to go to work. So if your ID rotates less frequently than that, you can see where people work and live.

Another example would be person A is at the scene of a crime, and goes home 30 minutes later. If your rotation is much more an half an hour, you now have a trace of person A being there and going home.

Apple hasn't disclosed how often it rotates, so that's the important question here.
I’d assume it’s a “rolling code” like a garage door opener which means every time, but maybe I’m too trusting.
 



As of iOS 13, apps are no longer able to present an "always allow" option when requesting access to a user's location. The only way to immediately grant an app continuous access to location is to navigate to Settings > Privacy > Location Services, tap on an app, and select the "always" option if available.

iOS 13 also periodically reminds users about apps that are continuously tracking their location, complete with a map of those locations. An on-screen alert provides users with options to continue to "always allow" ongoing access to their location or to limit access to while the app is being used.

ios-13-location-tracking-reminder.jpg

In light of those changes, The Wall Street Journal today reported that some developers are concerned that the location tracking reminders will hurt adoption of their apps, while some iPhone users are said to have expressed frustration that the reminders appear every few days despite repeatedly selecting "always allow."

Apple responded to the report with a statement insisting that the changes were made to further safeguard user privacy.

"Apple has not built a business model around knowing a customer's location or the location of their device," an Apple spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal, adding that Apple builds its hardware and software with privacy in mind.

The amount of location data collected by apps while in the background has dropped by 70 percent since iOS 13 was released, according to Jason Smith, chief business officer of data intelligence company Location Sciences. Given how easily the data can be used to identify and track individuals, that is a promising sign.

Article Link: Apple Responds to Report on iOS 13's Frequent Location Tracking Reminders, Emphasizes Privacy
One of the better feature of IOS 13.
 
Cell carriers still sell (or give away for free) your exact location down to the city block every few minutes, so whatever.

It's still good to discourage devs from using it needlessly. Like, Facebook Messenger doesn't let me send my current location, only share while in background, which is insane. Having to enable it in settings is fair given how few apps truly need it. Periodic reminders on top of that make no sense.
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What are you even going on about? Are you just trying to be miserable for the sake of being miserable? It's a welcome feature.
Absolutely nobody asked for this feature. "Yes please remind me of something I deliberately turned on with 6 button presses in Settings"
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You, Sir, live in the past. Clippy hasn't been a part of MS Office since Office 2007...
That's the latest version I have installed :D but I don't think Clippy is in it either, at least not by default.
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Yes the popup is a bit annoying every few days but far better than the alternative of letting apps do whatever they want to re-enabling settings you didnt want
That's not the alternative. Apps don't get to change your settings to begin with.
 
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I really love this feature. I have very few apps (maybe two) that need location data in the background. Although it did pop up with a couple apps that I forgot about giving permission to. So this is a good reminder for those of us who give permission for a while but forget to turn it off when we don't need it anymore. I have hundreds of apps on my phone. It's easy to forget what you have given access to.

As for the Wifi location data people are talking about, I think you can turn that off in system services section of the location permissions section. I've been doing that for years.

A few other things I do for privacy sake:

-Reset advertising identifier regularly
-Set my DNS to 1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1, 2606:4700:4700::1111, 2606:4700:4700::1001 (cloud flare)
-Use Duck Duck Go for search instead of google
-Never use any of facebook's apps, only in a browser
-Set up a VPN on my home network with a raspberry pi, piVPN, and openVPN app (cheap and pretty easy with the added benefit of being able to access things on my home network without going through an outside server)

Doing these things has given me a ton more battery life as well. I almost never need to charge up in the middle of the day.
 
Steve said:

“Privacy means people know what they’re signing up for, in plain English, and repeatedly. Ask them. Ask them every time. Make them tell you to stop asking them if they get tired of your asking them. Let them know precisely what you’re going to do with their data.”

Steve Jobs D8 Conference

Makes you wonder what steve would have thought about social scoring and handing over iCloud encryption keys to totalitarian regimes like china...
 
I really love this feature. I have very few apps (maybe two) that need location data in the background. Although it did pop up with a couple apps that I forgot about giving permission to. So this is a good reminder for those of us who give permission for a while but forget to turn it off when we don't need it anymore. I have hundreds of apps on my phone. It's easy to forget what you have given access to.

As for the Wifi location data people are talking about, I think you can turn that off in system services section of the location permissions section. I've been doing that for years.

A few other things I do for privacy sake:

-Reset advertising identifier regularly
-Set my DNS to 1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1, 2606:4700:4700::1111, 2606:4700:4700::1001 (cloud flare)
-Use Duck Duck Go for search instead of google
-Never use any of facebook's apps, only in a browser
-Set up a VPN on my home network with a raspberry pi, piVPN, and openVPN app (cheap and pretty easy with the added benefit of being able to access things on my home network without going through an outside server)

Doing these things has given me a ton more battery life as well. I almost never need to charge up in the middle of the day.

why would you trust cloud flare DNS (aka crimeflare) more than your local ISP???
It is very unlikely your Data is safe with them.
If the product is free... you are the product. Just like with Google DNS.



Cloudflare's roots go back to 2004 when Mr Prince and Cloudflare co-founder Lee Holloway were working on a computer industry project they called Honey Pot.

The idea was that people with websites signed up for free, to install software which then tracked people who sent unsolicited emails.

Five years later Mr Prince was doing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Harvard Business School, and the project was far from his mind, when he got an unexpected phone call from the US Department of Homeland Security asking him about the information he had gathered on attacks.

Mr Prince recalls: "They said 'do you have any idea how valuable the data you have is? Is there any way you would sell us that data?'.

"I added up the cost of running it, multiplied it by ten, and said 'how about $20,000 (£15,000)?'.

"It felt like a lot of money. That cheque showed up so fast."

Mr Prince, who has a degree in computer science, adds: "I was telling the story to Michelle Zatlyn, one of my classmates, and she said, 'if they'll pay for it, other people will pay for it'."
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Jobs would have had no problem with that.
are you sure? what makes you think that?
 
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are you sure? what makes you think that?

Being aware of Jobs over many decades, I've yet to see him take a position or speak out on any social issues; ie human rights, etc. Also, as a capitalist, I suspect he'd not be willing to forego China's large percentage contribution (around 20%, before trump's trade/tariff fiasco with China, knocking that back substantially) to Apple's overall revenue. To put that in perspective, Apple's NPM is around 21%.
 
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why would you trust cloud flare DNS (aka crimeflare) more than your local ISP???
It is very unlikely your Data is safe with them."

Actually it's working pretty well. I don't get targeted ads. The only ads I see are for things I recently searched for on Amazon. Not even related items, just the exact item I searched for. Anyway, it's gotta be safer than google, and they specifically say they will never sell your DNS request data. Until there is evidence that they are lying, I'll trust them over a service that was specifically designed to sell my data like google. I never use google for anything if at all possible. Also, It is faster than my isp. There is also the case of when I use a unfamiliar wifi network where they could be using google or some shady ISP's DNS. So far Cloud Flare is the best option. The article you posted didn't really make an argument that they are selling my data now, just that there was a time in the past that might have considered it. It just takes a little extra time to log in to a new wifi because there is no way to make it a global default in iOS.
 
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If the product is free... you are the product. Just like with Google DNS.
No, it's not always like that. Google's business model is mainly selling ads and the free products they offer are all aimed at collecting personal data to fuel that business model, but this is not true in general.

Cloudflare's main business model is their CDN services, not advertising. Privacy is for them a selling point, not a drawback interfering with their business. The reason they offer a free public DNS resolver is likely due to the service giving their brand very good visibility with focus on privacy and performance.

Considering that the public DNS operating costs are likely negligible for them, it's basically a very good marketing deal.
 
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Intention is good but the pop-up is not so good. Specially if you already trust that app and still keeps getting a pop-up about it.

Its actually silly you already know that the app is trust worthy and still you keep getting this pop-up. I think this show what Apple thinks of its user base :)

and also, WTF are you thinking installing some apps that is asking location services when they don't need one.
and another thing you already have the power to remove access to location services per apps bases, do you really need to be reminded that often?

My opinion is it has something to do more on marketing than anything else.. this is a nice way to market the device as a privacy focused device :)
 
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Yep ... devs can go screw themselves. I'll take my privacy, thanks.
This feature isn't only used to invade privacy.

For example I have an app that sends a push notification ahead of any severe weather events. This works in part by tracking your location in the background to compare to local radar stations.

Because it's installed on all three of my iOS devices I have to repeatedly acknowledge that I'm fine with it having access to my location in the background.
 
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Being aware of Jobs over many decades, I've yet to see him take a position or speak out on any social issues; ie human rights, etc.
Jobs did speak out on privacy multiple times, including as far back as 1981 when he was asked to comment on the wartime japanese government using census data to find and arrest people with family ties to america, and how Apple's technology might be involved in similar human rights abuses one day.

His publicly stated position on the issue, both in 1981 and all the way through to shortly before he died was that people should be educated and informed about privacy so they can make their own decisions about what to share.

Apple's current position on privacy and China is perfectly in line with how Steve Jobs felt. It's something the company clearly discussed often while he was still alive and the entire leadership team reached a consensus on.
 
Where it starts to feel excessive is when iOS prompts you daily for apps like Google Maps. There needs to be some reason & logic put into the approval notification... a developer trust score, or a 3-time confirmation maximum would do the trick. Otherwise it’s just intrusive. I don’t need to be reminded every 3 days that I have authorized Google Maps to track my location for GPS navigation & timeline.

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I never get that with Apple Maps. I don't know why people still choose Google Maps over Apple Maps. Honestly.
 
Because Google Maps is so much better in traffic reminders etc... plus, Apple Maps is pretty basic in other countries compared to Google Maps. Also: of COURSE you don’t get any iOS prompts from APPLE maps. That doesn’t mean it’s not (ab)using your location, you‘ll just won’t get any notification about it.
 
wow... how do to things wrong..

I get Apple's stance on privacy, but when does the line cross to 'red' when users start getting angry of too many reminder popups ?

If Apple wants to do privacy, fine, but don't annoy people with it...

"Allow once" in settings,, switch it on and perhaps alert the user once ONLY,, not an ongoing issue.

"Apple likes to annoy and claims privacy... The only thing it claims is frustration..."

That's my tagline :)
 
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wow... how do to things wrong..

I get Apple's stance on privacy, but when does the line cross to 'red' when users start getting angry of too many reminder popups ?

If Apple wants to do privacy, fine, but don't annoy people with it...

"Allow once" in settings,, switch it on and perhaps alert the user once ONLY,, not an ongoing issue.

"Apple likes to annoy and claims privacy... The only thing it claims is frustration..."

That's my tagline :)
I think Apple could dial the notifications back a bit, to say one per week. Hitting a button four times a month doesn’t seem too burdensome (to me) 🤷‍♂️
 
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