iOS 14 Privacy: Users Can Give Apps Access to Limited Selection of Photos

[Kabeyun]

Uber app for one.

Yet another reason to avoid Uber. Any others?

 

[ipedro]

also „selected photos“ seems strange. How am I supposed to know if or when I have the need to share a specific photo?

I think it means photos you specifically select at the time of the prompt. The app will prompt you again next time it needs to access photos and again you can choose which ones to let it use.

 

[fbr$]

So like Chrome on my iPad doesn't have specific photos access, yet I can still open photos to choose a pic to upload,

I disabled Photos access to the app ScanPro on my iPhone, then tried to use the app to make a pdf file from some photos (the app would just have to read from Photos, not write on Photos, the resulting pdf file would be written to the Files app), I got the message "Access to your photo library is denied. Open Settings." So it didn't work for me the way you said...

 

[D.T.]

also „selected photos“ seems strange. How am I supposed to know if or when I have the need to share a specific photo?

What would be nice would be selecting an album, so you could make isolated groups of photos for specific use cases (like an album called "Profile Pics", that's edited head shots).
[automerge]1593008842[/automerge]

I disabled Photos access to the app ScanPro on my iPhone, then tried to use the app to make a pdf file from some photos (the app would just have to read from Photos, not write on Photos, the resulting pdf file would be written to the Files app), I got the message "Access to your photo library is denied. Open Settings.". So didn't work for me the way you said.

It's an implementation specific thing, there's a couple of ways to access resources. Like PDF expert has a photo browser, just like you said, it didn't have permissions on my iPad, so it prompted me when I went to select a photo. However, Monday.com, native app on my iPad, no explicit permissions, opens up a photo selector for my profile.

 

[mr.bee]

I have deleted all access to my photo library from my social apps.

If I want to share a photo, I'll use the share functionality in the photos app to that social app.

I think the outcome is almost the same for privacy.

 

[oscarmeier]

I’d love to see the same for Contacts. No way I’m giving WhatsApp access to my entire contact list... but I’d be fine to share for just the specific people I want to with.

 

[BWhaler]

“Spotted by...” ???

Apple mentioned it in privacy section of keynote.

 

[Pfunstuff]

I wish iOS allowed a pin code to view the photos app. Also I wish photos saved from the web went into a special folder and not the camera roll.

PIN or FaceID. It can be done with a note in the Notes app. Why has it not been implemented in the Photos app?

 

[orbital~debris]

How come not every app has the „add photos only“ option?

This.

Apple need to enforce the ability of the OS to offer the options.

Currently some apps don’t offer all options (e.g. ‘Add Photos Only’) even though they’re already available. It takes too long for developers (some of them big) to implement the new features Apple come up with.

 

[audiophilosophy]

I agree with some of the above, disagree with some of the above. All in all, there's a bunch of hyperbole. Privacy is not an all or nothing process. It's an evolving circumstance. One just doesn't flip a switch and declare privacy is done.

So yeah, TC PR compaign, does hold up to scrutiny. Apple is doing more than other companies to ensure the correct handling of your information. Also you are confusing, imo, privacy and security.

Since TC became CEO, the company did not implode as some predicted. That you dumped your Apple shares, you gave up future gains on the stock. How long are people going to keep saying Apple will implode? From WWDC it should be apparent they are anything but directionless, but maybe there is much bias out there.

I’m not confusing privacy with security. Apple does not care about your privacy as much as they say they do. They turn over texts and emails to the feds and police when asked to do so. They intentionally will not allow the option to encrypt iCloud backups and data storage in order to continue to do so. https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1ZK1CT

 

[ls1dreams]

Nice, always thought they needed something like this.

 

[orev]

Yet another reason to avoid Uber. Any others?

This is for the DRIVER app, not the customer app. If you are a driver, every time you start they need to verify the driver is actually the person who owns the account. There are a number of people who run Taxi-style companies using Uber and hire any person off the street who would not pass the Uber background check. They activate the app and then hand the phone to the unqualified person to do the actual driving.

Uber is protecting people here. There are reasons to not like Uber, but this is not one of them.

 

[jont-fu]

When I give Facebook messenger app access to my mic and camera, why can’t I set it to have access only when the app is open— and how is Apple assuring me that the app isn’t accessing the mic and camera while it’s running in the background?

The status bar is red (or in newer iPhones, the clock background is red) if an app is using the microphone in the background. The app can't override this. And I believe it's not even possible to use the camera while in background.

 

[orev]

The biggest concern with this is not that companies will upload your actual photos, but it gives them access to all the metadata in the photos. All photos contain information like GPS coordinates where it was taken, and possibly other things. A company would need a huge amount of processing power and AI to do something useful with the photos themselves, but grabbing the metadata is very easy and can give you a person's entire history of where they have been.

 

[I7guy]

I’m not confusing privacy with security. Apple does not care about your privacy as much as they say they do. They turn over texts and emails to the feds and police when asked to do so. They intentionally will not allow the option to encrypt iCloud backups and data storage in order to continue to do so. https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1ZK1CT

You may not be aware, but Apple is required to turn over information when presented with the appropriate legal paperwork. And they probably don't encrypt icloud backups to avoid having a law enacted making it illegal, which screws all of us, but will mitigate this kind of post as this is now some of the criticism that can be leveled at apple about iclouc, is out of apples hands. But it's an easy solution, don't backup to icloud. No?

But as I said earlier, privacy is not binary and because you don't like one policy doesn't mean Apple isn't leading the industry by doing.

 

[Expos of 1969]

That is creepy as hell.
All this time, all these apps had access to my entire photo library. I’m surprised Apple has allowed this for so long, given their intense focus on privacy.

...given their intense focus on marketing privacy.....

would be the more accurate phrasing

 

[Kabeyun]

This is for the DRIVER app, not the customer app. If you are a driver, every time you start they need to verify the driver is actually the person who owns the account. There are a number of people who run Taxi-style companies using Uber and hire any person off the street who would not pass the Uber background check. They activate the app and then hand the phone to the unqualified person to do the actual driving.

Uber is protecting people here. There are reasons to not like Uber, but this is not one of them.

So Uber requires drivers to periodically selfie themselves throughout the shift in order to re-verify identity?

 

[AKDub]

I’d love to see the same for Contacts. No way I’m giving WhatsApp access to my entire contact list... but I’d be fine to share for just the specific people I want to with.

Yeah me too, I had mentioned it in a iOS 14 wishlist thread that I'd prefer to only give access to certain contacts for apps likes whatsapp. I'm sure they piece it all together anyway, but Its a step in the right direction I think.

 

[Ironman226]

Finally! Long overdue. Also, there should be a way by now to allow specific apps to have “write to” privileges to the stock Photos app while also not allowing “read” access to the entire damn photo library. For example, it annoys me that in order to let my eufy security cam app have the functionality to save recordings to Photos, I have to grant the app privileges to acces my whole Photos app library. The eufy app only needs “write to” privileges to my Photos! While watching all the improvements that Apple debuts the last few years to iOS, I can’t help but think that none of these new features should be new. They should have been correct right from the beginning, but they weren’t. Apple’s just patching stupidity they built into their products. There’s nothing innovative or revolutionary about that. And Tim Cook’s PR campaign that Apple cares more about your privacy really doesn’t hold up when the company, for many years, has granted 3rd party apps full (non-customizable) access to your entire Photos library. When I give Facebook messenger app access to my mic and camera, why can’t I set it to have access only when the app is open— and how is Apple assuring me that the app isn’t accessing the mic and camera while it’s running in the background? Because of things like this, I have stopped buying what Apple says about caring deeply about user privacy— it’s just a marketing angle that isn’t backed up with real actions that matter. I dumped all my shares of aapl Monday evening. The company is directionless and just trying to maintain where Steve Jobs left off.

So which mobile platform was offering more granular access rights to Photos, Contacts and others comparing to iOS? Android is enabling similar level of granularity in the latest 11 version which is still in beta.

 

[C DM]

When I give Facebook messenger app access to my mic and camera, why can’t I set it to have access only when the app is open— and how is Apple assuring me that the app isn’t accessing the mic and camera while it’s running in the background?

Apple's Craig Federighi Highlights iOS 14 and MacOS Big Sur Privacy Updates in New Interview

iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and macOS Big Sur include some notable privacy updates that offer useful privacy protections for those that invest in and use...

www.macrumors.com

 

[orev]

So Uber requires drivers to periodically selfie themselves throughout the shift in order to re-verify identity?

I don't know how often they require it, but yes.

 

[kagzer]

I do not know how this works but it seems that permission not controlled by Apple but developer.
I found an app which access all photos even I gave only selected permission.