Bottom line is that I was an iPhone 3 and 3GS user, then have been on several Android iterations. I use a Windows PC and have both an iPad and an Android tablet. I love a lot about Android and have customized it to the extent possible without rooting.
The most surprising aspect of Android is the inability to control privacy. The way permissions are handled -- and most everyone here probably knows this -- is completely upside down from iOS. When I install an app on Android, it's all or nothing. If a flashlight app wants access to my photos, I have one choice: install and give it permission or don't install it.
This choice is really not a problem most of the time -- find a flashlight app that doesn't need to see your photo library. The problem comes in with your mainstream apps like Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn, or other big names. If you want Facebook on your Android phone it's going to know exactly where you are at all times that location services are turned on (using navigation, e.g.). It does not need any special permission to look at contacts, location, photos, etc., beyond the initial install permission list.
And now, Google, in all their information hungry glory, doesn't even tell you about most permission changes during an app upgrade.
So... and sorry it's taking me so long to get to the point... what are the privacy drawbacks about iOS? Is there anything someone may be accustomed to on Android, privacy-wise, that is not possible on an Apple phone? My hands-on Apple knowledge is dated back to iOS 6 (on my iPad) plus following Macrumors and other news sites regularly.
A couple other annoyances on my Android:
- Turning on location services on the latest version (4.2.2) I get nagged to allow Google to collect the location data every single time. So every time I turn on GPS, I get two pop-ups. If I say yes to Google it will continue tracking that data until I dig through menus and turn that back off.
- PIN lock. I don't get why I have to press enter after putting in my 4-digit PIN on Android. There may be an app or something to fix this, but it's just crazy that it's not built in.
On another note, I am going to sorely miss the ability to have an icon that is a contact's pictures that is a one-touch dialing button for that contact.
The most surprising aspect of Android is the inability to control privacy. The way permissions are handled -- and most everyone here probably knows this -- is completely upside down from iOS. When I install an app on Android, it's all or nothing. If a flashlight app wants access to my photos, I have one choice: install and give it permission or don't install it.
This choice is really not a problem most of the time -- find a flashlight app that doesn't need to see your photo library. The problem comes in with your mainstream apps like Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn, or other big names. If you want Facebook on your Android phone it's going to know exactly where you are at all times that location services are turned on (using navigation, e.g.). It does not need any special permission to look at contacts, location, photos, etc., beyond the initial install permission list.
And now, Google, in all their information hungry glory, doesn't even tell you about most permission changes during an app upgrade.
So... and sorry it's taking me so long to get to the point... what are the privacy drawbacks about iOS? Is there anything someone may be accustomed to on Android, privacy-wise, that is not possible on an Apple phone? My hands-on Apple knowledge is dated back to iOS 6 (on my iPad) plus following Macrumors and other news sites regularly.
A couple other annoyances on my Android:
- Turning on location services on the latest version (4.2.2) I get nagged to allow Google to collect the location data every single time. So every time I turn on GPS, I get two pop-ups. If I say yes to Google it will continue tracking that data until I dig through menus and turn that back off.
- PIN lock. I don't get why I have to press enter after putting in my 4-digit PIN on Android. There may be an app or something to fix this, but it's just crazy that it's not built in.
On another note, I am going to sorely miss the ability to have an icon that is a contact's pictures that is a one-touch dialing button for that contact.
.