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So privacy on iOS is fake
Big difference between third-party apps doing it and the system / non-deletable apps, like Facebook on the Galaxy Note. I looked at that and now have no idea why anyone would buy such a phone.[doublepost=1536367415][/doublepost]
I just added all the hostnames listed on the Guardian Mobile Firewall page ( https://guardianapp.com/ios-app-location-report-sep2018.html ) referenced in this article into my Pi-Hole blacklist.

Here are my top blocked domains right now.
View attachment 780196
Looks like a pretty broad definition of tracking. Crashlytics is just crash reporting for mobile apps. g.symcd.com is supposedly a certificate revocation server, which IDK much about but seems like something I wouldn't mess with. Wonder why they've chosen to block that.

uBlock Origin blocks some non-malicious sites entirely just because the author of the list hates the company; saw it on a few advertising company sites. I'm not saying this is the same, but it reminds me that the people controlling these can have weird reasons to block things.
[doublepost=1536367696][/doublepost]
Ironically, the Waze UI is so bad that "just kill the app (and relaunch it from scratch)" is my default technique for navigating through the app.
Lol, I still don't know how to restart a route when using Waze. I kill it every time instead. Go Bears.
 
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Went through my location services. Changed a few apps from "Always" to "While Using"... now Tesla is the only app that is set to "Always" (the app automatically locks and unlocks your car. Need it to periodically figure out how far I am from the car so it can know how long it can wait until it pings next.)
 
The best way to be able to still use some of these apps (like Pay By Phone parking) that need your location to work well, but not share your location all the time, is to make sure Location Privacy is set to "While Using".

Any app that tries to keep using your location in the background when set to "While Using" will pop up a big blue banner saying "<app> is currently using your location." You can then remove the offending app, or at least kill it. Waze has this issue, but I suspect it's a longstanding bug and not intentional.
Waze is owned by Google...just saying...
 
So privacy on iOS is fake

It’s only fake because you knowingly gave your location to an app and trusted the app developer. Apple gave you the option to give location, only while using the app, and not at all. It’s hardly their fault.
 
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Bluetooth is always required with an Apple Watch. Hardly a practical recommendation.
...and thanks to Timothy Crook and co., turning off wifi and bluetooth became less convenient to do in iOS thanks to taking the functionality off of that pull up menu (whatever its called).
 
Yes, at the risk of stating the obvious, for most apps there is a huge difference between granting Location Services access "While Using" versus "Always." For example, I do use GasBuddy, but I'm not too concerned about it because I set Location Services to "While Using," and I only fire it up once a month. There are virtually no third-party apps on my phone that I grant "Always" access to.



Ironically, the Waze UI is so bad that "just kill the app (and relaunch it from scratch)" is my default technique for navigating through the app.
Yes but isn’t this saying that apps like GasBuddy collect location data regardless of your location privacy setting? Like it could be set to While Using but GasBuddy is still accessing your location Always in background?

Waze confuses the heck out of me. Why does it continue to track your location unless you force quit the app?. Doesn’t setting it to While Using mean iOS cuts off location access once you exit out of the app? If so how can GasBuddy continue to collect data?

It's not on iOS. It's a network thing. You set up Pi-Hole on your network and point all DNS to it and it takes care of all this crap and more.

it can even be setup using OpenVPN to filter your DNS even when on cellular networks.

I'm blocking over 1.2 million domains with mine.
View attachment 780198
Would you mind explaining all this in a bit more detail? Not familiar with much of what you’re talking about.
 
A lot of this crap can be minimized with the use of Pi-Hole.

Only for Linux!?
More like a Question, can this be done by running Linux in a VM on my Mac and then use that one to set the DNS.
This seems to me a bit geeky if you ask me.
I do have a second generation Raspberry Pi, would that work, is there any non geeky way to set this up, most of the time if you go to those sites explaining this stuff makes it too hard for non geeks.
I am by no means a dummy but networking is not easy at all.

It's not on iOS. It's a network thing. You set up Pi-Hole on your network and point all DNS to it and it takes care of all this crap and more.

it can even be setup using OpenVPN to filter your DNS even when on cellular networks.

I'm blocking over 1.2 million domains with mine.
View attachment 780198

Would you mind explaining all this in a bit more detail? Not familiar with much of what you’re talking about.

Yup, I too would like to know more about it, seems like you need some kind f Linux distribution to get this to work.
 
If you don't want your location information shared with third parties to make money buy an iPhone. Otherwise that is your fault for buying an Android phone, Apple doesn't allow your information to be sold like it is on Android devices.

What, this article is about iPhones? Never mind :D
 
There is something ironic about suggesting Pi Hole as the answer. I mean, it will only cover you when you are at home on your wifi, not when you are mobile when the location data they are farming is probably more of interest than "oh look, he's in his house, again"
 
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Nah, you have an option to whether or not share your location info, plus you can also choose share your location only at the time you use the app.

Unfortunately that's not to full truth, though.
Apps can activate themselves to capture location data, even if not run by the user.

I observed this with the Swarm app from Foursquare. I've had it set to "use location data only when in use" in the beginning. But as I was wondering about it's battery usage and set it to "Never": Once this was set, from the home screen the app prompted me every few hours for granting location permission even though I had not opened the app for days.

I would recommend to try and set the privacy to "Never" for suspicious apps. This will eventually reveal if those are running in the background and still capture and transmit location data even if the user would not expect it to do so.
 
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Privacy is an illusion in this country and most countries. Yes companies do this and so does our government. Especially our government. Nothing is for free and even when you pay for something digital, it has a way to be tracked. No company is excluded. No setting on your phone can change this.

Please please please watch this.

Check out “Terms and Conditions May Apply” on Netflix
https://www.netflix.com/title/70279201?s=i&trkid=13752289
 
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Would you mind explaining all this in a bit more detail? Not familiar with much of what you’re talking about.

Only for Linux!?
More like a Question, can this be done by running Linux in a VM on my Mac and then use that one to set the DNS.
This seems to me a bit geeky if you ask me.
I do have a second generation Raspberry Pi, would that work, is there any non geeky way to set this up, most of the time if you go to those sites explaining this stuff makes it too hard for non geeks.
I am by no means a dummy but networking is not easy at all.

Yup, I too would like to know more about it, seems like you need some kind f Linux distribution to get this to work.
Pi-Hole can be set up on Linux or Raspbian. If you use Linux, don't run it on Ubuntu LTS 18.04 because it isn't yet supported.

I've tested and run it on a Raspberry Pi (Raspbian OS), Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on a Dell Optiplex 990 and I've run it in a VM (virtual machine) under Ubuntu in VMware Fusion on a Mac Mini. Currently I'm just using the Raspbery Pi as the DNS server, or Pi-Hole.

All you have to do once set up is to tell your WiFi router/access point and/or firewall to use the IP address of the Pi-Hole for it's DNS. You can also manually set each device, phone, tablet, PC, laptop et al. to point to the Pi-Hole for it's DNS.

Once you get it setup then you can add curated blocklists to the 'gravity service' of Pi-Hole and it imports all those domains on the list into your Pi-Hole for blocking. You can also blacklist and whitelist domains as needed too. There will always be some false-positives or sites that are blocked that you don't want blocked and once you square off those rough edges its smooth sailing.

Here are some sites that I get most of my block lists from:
Here is the Raspbery Pi hardware I'm using. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D92SSX6/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm happy to answer more questions if you have them. I love the Pi-Hole and never want to be on the Internet again without it.

Here is a video on the setup process.
 
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There will always be apps that try to bypass Apple regulations and steal customers’ data. Apple needs to clean up their approval process and remove these apps. I’m confident they’ll fix the issue. Thankfully I don’t use any of these apps.
 
Pi-Hole can be set up on Linux or Raspbian. If you use Linux, don't run it on Ubuntu LTS 18.04 because it isn't yet supported.

I've tested and run it on a Raspberry Pi (Raspbian OS), Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on a Dell Optiplex 990 and I've run it in a VM (virtual machine) under Ubuntu in VMware Fusion on a Mac Mini. Currently I'm just using the Raspbery Pi as the DNS server, or Pi-Hole.

All you have to do once set up is to tell your WiFi router/access point and/or firewall to use the IP address of the Pi-Hole for it's DNS. You can also manually set each device, phone, tablet, PC, laptop et al. to point to the Pi-Hole for it's DNS.

Once you get it setup then you can add curated blocklists to the 'gravity service' of Pi-Hole and it imports all those domains on the list into your Pi-Hole for blocking. You can also blacklist and whitelist domains as needed too. There will always be some false-positives or sites that are blocked that you don't want blocked and once you square off those rough edges its smooth sailing.

Here are some sites that I get most of my block lists from:
Here is the Raspbery Pi hardware I'm using. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D92SSX6/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm happy to answer more questions if you have them. I love the Pi-Hole and never want to be on the Internet again without it.

Here is a video on the setup process.

Thanks, much appreciated.

So, it works with blacklists, I myself use Gasmask (App) on my Macs, needs to run on every device, AFAIK it's only available for Macs, no iPhone support.
The good thing about this App is is you can have multiple Host files and change them rapidly.
Go me thinking, if I share my internet connection then this more or less works out the same as Pi-Hole.
Wish I had 2 network cards in my Mac, then I could share it over ethernet to my router/switches.
 
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A lot of this crap can be minimized with the use of Pi-Hole.
Not really, if you're not at home, then you could very well be on cellular and/or other wifi. Plus setting up a linux box in your network requires a level expertise that not everyone has or is comfortable
 
Not really, if you're not at home, then you could very well be on cellular and/or other wifi. Plus setting up a linux box in your network requires a level expertise that not everyone has or is comfortable

Yup, that's what I said more or less, it's too geeky and those sites/geeks are awful explainers, don't know how to write easy manuals and or skip parts of it.
As if everybody knows Linux lingo.
 
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Not really, if you're not at home, then you could very well be on cellular and/or other wifi.
It can also be setup with OpenVPN so you can be covered while away from your own network.
Plus setting up a linux box in your network requires a level expertise that not everyone has or is comfortable
It's fairly simple to set up. See post #45 and the video.

But hey, you don't have to use it. I'm just putting it out there for people to consider.
 
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