Apps Are Using Background App Refresh to Send Data to Tracking Companies

[dysamoria]

Show of hands who’s surprised by this...


I disable as much of everything as I can. Partially for battery conservation and partially for a feeling of agency over this endless pile of tech companies (and their garbage products) failing to consider their actual users. I’m not interested in fad apps. I also avoid Google and Facebook as much as possible these days.

It used to be that products and services were actually about *products and services* offered in exchange for money, not this weird psychological warfare of abusing consumers as much as possible and plastering advertising in every conceivable space, just to squeeze *the rest of the money* from consumers.

Stories like this just continue to justify my position on hating the whole computer industry and laissez-faire capitalism. Give capitalists an inch and they will find a way to be your ruler... and tax you for mere existence... and then the capitalism apologists will throw justifications at you like “it’s their fiscal responsibility to [destroy civilization for the ultimate profits shareholders]”.

 

[AEWest]

Show of hands who’s surprised by this...


I disable as much of everything as I can. Partially for battery conservation and partially for a feeling of agency over this endless pile of tech companies (and their garbage products) failing to consider their actual users. I’m not interested in fad apps. I also avoid Google and Facebook as much as possible these days.

It used to be that products and services were actually about *products and services* offered in exchange for money, not this weird psychological warfare of abusing consumers as much as possible and plastering advertising in every conceivable space, just to squeeze *the rest of the money* from consumers.

Stories like this just continue to justify my position on hating the whole computer industry and laissez-faire capitalism. Give capitalists an inch and they will find a way to be your ruler... and tax you for mere existence... and then the capitalism apologists will throw justifications at you like “it’s their fiscal responsibility to [destroy civilization for the ultimate profits shareholders]”.

I will say it again - apps need to be paid for somehow. It is not reasonable to expect truly free apps - they cost a lot to develop and maintain.

If they can't charge consumers upfront, they must recover the costs and make a buck somehow. Tracking usage and selling this info is one way. Direct targeted ads in the app also works but is distracting. Any other ideas? We all want productivity apps - if not we should go back to flip phone.

 

[Brien]

Weather Channel: DELETED
Yelp: DELETED
Mint: DELETED
Spotify: NEVER USED, DELETED

Time to just make bookmarks to the mobile website. This is a major flaw with app security and privacy right now. I don't love web apps, but this is a vote in their favor.

Except Yelp is all but unusable on mobile since it aggressively tries to redirect you to the app. Liking Yelp less and less lately anyway... pretty sure most of the reviews/ratings are being faked. Nearly all of the four and five-star places I’ve been the last year have sucked.
[doublepost=1559190454][/doublepost]

Show of hands who’s surprised by this...


I disable as much of everything as I can. Partially for battery conservation and partially for a feeling of agency over this endless pile of tech companies (and their garbage products) failing to consider their actual users. I’m not interested in fad apps. I also avoid Google and Facebook as much as possible these days.

It used to be that products and services were actually about *products and services* offered in exchange for money, not this weird psychological warfare of abusing consumers as much as possible and plastering advertising in every conceivable space, just to squeeze *the rest of the money* from consumers.

Stories like this just continue to justify my position on hating the whole computer industry and laissez-faire capitalism. Give capitalists an inch and they will find a way to be your ruler... and tax you for mere existence... and then the capitalism apologists will throw justifications at you like “it’s their fiscal responsibility to [destroy civilization for the ultimate profits shareholders]”.

I’m more annoyed at the ‘lets-make-everything-require-an-account’ thing that goes along with this so they can track you better. Why do I need an Adobe ID to read a freakin’ PDF?

 

[FairlyKors]

Of course it does. But by your statement, you think it's OK if an application sends the same telemetry when it's deliberately brought to the foreground?

Of course you don't.

That's why the idiotic "gotta disable Background Refresh immediately" comments are just that. Idiotic. Remove the app. Let software publishers know that what they're doing is not acceptable.

Umm, I think it’s a lot fairer if an app only uses the permissions you’ve granted it when you’re actually using it. So, yes.

 

[FireFish]

As if I needed another reason to delete Spotify.

View attachment 839374

Wow didn’t realize it was still downloadable.

 

[robbysibrahim]

I gladly allow AdGuard to Background Refresh its filters for me. Then again, I leave all features on for 90% of the apps I use. Like one poster said, I haven't heard of any harm coming from a users metadata being collected so far. And my world improves from the useful features provided by the clever developers I choose to suport.

 

[Just sayin...]

...Liking Yelp less and less lately anyway... pretty sure most of the reviews/ratings are being faked. Nearly all of the four and five-star places I’ve been the last year have sucked.

I’ve come to this conclusion as well. There are SO MANY fake and sponsored reviews, that Yelp is now my 3rd choice now for go-to reviews.

 

[1146331]

I just turned off the majority of BA usage. I left on only 3 items, weather, something about the AW, and a third item.

 

[mrxak]

When I installed a new wifi system at my church, I over-specified the capacity, simply because of this "background noise" that is coming from 500 internet-connected, "smart" devices, which just happen to be in the building at the same time. It was accounting for a non-insignificant part of our previous system's bandwidth.

You should save the parishioners some trouble and just block all the trackers with a DNS filter on the network.

 

[macfacts]

I disable as much of everything as I can.

Bad apps can still send the collected info when run them in the foreground. Disabling background app refresh isn't helping much.

 

[ghanwani]

Settings > General > Background App Refresh > Off

Just did this.

 

[Just sayin...]

Only ones I left on were 1.1.1.1, 1Password, Maps and Pocket Casts.

 

[Abazigal]

I think a lot of people here miss the point.

The issue isn’t about leaving background app refresh on or off. Even if you disabled it, the app will likely still find a way to send your data back. If the developer intended to steal your data, you think he will just stop there?

The real problem are bad actors who create malicious apps designed for this very purpose.

And am I the only one seeing a contradiction here? On one hand, you all criticise Apple when they wield their ecosystem power to ban bad apps. On the other hand, you all complain when Apple does nothing (or appears to do nothing).

I think we are at an inflection point where customers are starting to value their privacy and security more. And I think that Apple can and should do moving forward is to continue to tout their first party apps. Use only / mainly Apple’s default apps and keep your data within the Apple ecosystem, away from other third party apps.

Which is why I feel Apple needs control of their own ecosystem and their own apps.

 

[lazerferrari]

It's better to turn off the BG app refresh. Also, you can use a VPN all the time so stay away from trackers. I use Ivacy VPN but I know that is not enough.

 

[BenTrovato]

It's better to turn off the BG app refresh. Also, you can use a VPN all the time so stay away from trackers. I use Ivacy VPN but I know that is not enough.

How do you like Ivacy? Did you consider Disconnect at all? Wondering if either are worth buying.

 

[Timemaster]

Oh look another arctle for head lines but light on real facts.
Based on the response from the members here they got exactly what they wanted. Head lines and clicks but the article itself leaves out tons of useful infomation.

Take the Weather Channel for example (bad app) kind of needs to track your location if you want to get local weather updates as yes we all move. If you want weather alerts or storm warning that are useful it does need to know your current location...... I could make some cases for one drive that can trace back to some security as your phone generally is with you but if you are all of a sudden trying to log in from somewhere else completely different in this world yeah it should send up red flags.

Lastly saying tracking your IP address...... Sorry that is a cake walk to get. You hand that over every time you connect to the internet and request data as it is in your standard header files.

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

I’ve come to this conclusion as well. There are SO MANY fake and sponsored reviews, that Yelp is now my 3rd choice now for go-to reviews.

What’s your first and second choice now then? I would like some alternatives too! I not only dislike the policies of Yelp, but also the awful UI. It’s so ugly. Hurts my eyes.

 

[ovo6]

Apple doesn’t even care anymore, China owns them

 

[JayJohnPaul]

I’ve always had Background App Refresh for all apps turned off since it just drains battery life and I don’t really see the point of leaving it turned on...

 

[derek]

So Apple is lying to us when they show us those stupid “privacy “ commercials on tv? How dare them!

No. This is abuse of Apple's policies. Blame the developers, if indeed they are collecting this data for customer abusive, exploitive, 'You are the product' purposes. Apple, meanwhile, can make the effort to catch abusive collection of user metadata and stop it, as well as provide a tool for customer detection and control of abusive collection.
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Agree. As a Mac user, why do we install 3rd party apps in the first place? Maybe it's not in the Play Store...but if your concern is privacy, then better not install it at all. Maybe the Play store has an alternative app on the 3rd party app you want?

"Play Store"?! That refers to the Google Play Store. Oops, wrong platform. This is iOS, not Android.

On iOS, users have a right to be annoyed and upset at Apple when nefarious apps are allowed to be available at the App Store. On Android, anything goes. Google, despite statements and professed efforts to the contrary, has proven to have profoundly ineffective app vetting. On iOS, app abuse of users is relatively rare. On Android, it's literally an every day occurrence with millions affected on a monthly, if not weekly basis. It's useful to know the difference.

 

[dysamoria]

Bad apps can still send the collected info when run them in the foreground. Disabling background app refresh isn't helping much.

I’m not surprised by this, either.
[doublepost=1559747644][/doublepost]

I will say it again - apps need to be paid for somehow. It is not reasonable to expect truly free apps - they cost a lot to develop and maintain.

If they can't charge consumers upfront, they must recover the costs and make a buck somehow. Tracking usage and selling this info is one way. Direct targeted ads in the app also works but is distracting. Any other ideas? We all want productivity apps - if not we should go back to flip phone.

I’d rather pay up front. But you know what is happening? Even the companies that charge up front are out to get that extra money by monetizing their customers like data cattle. Then there is the even more egregiously abusive subscription model, and they do the same there. This isn’t about companies staying afloat and affording their development costs.