Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Some iOS Apps Sending an Alarming Amount of Data to Facebook and Most Users Are Unaware

Maybe Apple could design and include a quality, easily configurable firewall in iOS.

Also, Apple can design automated testing to make sure apps are not compiling and sending out data before they approve the apps for the App Store.

Apple could stop this if they wanted to, but they choose not to.
And Facebook playing the ignorance card is a bunch lies. They know about it and they benefit from it.
 
It's funny how I (I'm 32) stopped using Facebook years ago because it kept showing me brain f**ts and shared links from people I haven't been in touch with for ages. Now I start seeing all these headlines like "Facebook is detrimental to your mental health", or "Facebook is designed to be maximally addictive", or about fake news or data collection. Now I keep asking myself whether I am, ahem, a trendsetter, or just have a low key depression, ha ha.
 
The 3 apps in the news screenshots are all free, right?
Free apps mostly make money from selling users data. This is key to understand as a user.
 
DynoRunnerr said:
You guys must all be idiots. These apps can’t send anything to Facebook if you don’t use Facebook to login to these apps. This is not a iOS or android issue, it’s an issue when you use Facebook to authenticate on any third party application or website. Ridiculous how everyone is so clueless but still chime in with non sense.DO NOT LOG INTO APPS WITH YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT
Click to expand...
I would suggest you read the WSJ article. They tracked 70 Apps and found that 11 of the Apps regularly fed data to Facebook, EVEN IF the person using those Apps did not have a Facebook account.
 
  • Like
Reactions: macsba
stylinexpat said:
Germany and China long ago warned about Facebook. One of the reasons China never allow Facebook in China.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but China has its own "Facebook" called Wexin a.k.a WeChat and it's like Facebook, but also integrates payments (think combining Facebook with all the info card companies - VISA, AmEx etc - have on you) and allows "installing" and using mini-apps from within the main app for things like hailing cabs, ordering food, e-transit card, so think of bundling social and payment info with what Apple and various apps have on you.

Edit: Oh, and everyone's on it. People don't even text, they text on WeChat, because an SMS costs 0.1 RMB ~ 1 cent and WeChat uses data allowance which is paid for in advance.
 
Lerxt said:
Don’t forget there are a large amount of people here who are working for other phone manufacturers a.k.a. The Samsung Army. I would reject most of these type of posts. After all, why would anyone come to an Apple website if the didn’t like a Apple?
Click to expand...

By your logic, there must be a lot of people here who work for Apple too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iSilas
Ladybug said:
I am literally the only family member that has never had a Facebook account nor will I ever. When Facebook first started up I warned the whole family Not to use it. No one listened :(

As for needing Facebook to stay in touch, that’s just silly. We already had US Mail, email, text, and calling..not to mention FaceTime and Skype. You can even catch up with family face to face...Facebook is not necessary. As much as I love my family I do not need to know their every move 24/7. My family used to think I was being too cautious, now even they are concerned. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I thought I was the only one on the planet not on Facebook! Why would want to be in contact with people I didn’t like in high school anyway? :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: Heineken, Ladybug and I7guy
I am sooooo sick and tired of Facebook (and other companies) trying to track EVERYTHING about EVERYONE that it makes me want to give up smart phones completely and go back to a prepaid flip phone and a stand alone, point and shoot digital camera.

I am usually not a fan of government intervention but it is long past time for Congress and/or the DOJ to start reigning in companies like Facebook either through anti-trust laws or adopting new EU style privacy protections. Congress LOVES holding hearings - how about putting some of that energy to work finding out how much our national security is being put at risk through catfishing scams / extortion / blackmail of defense contractors and military / intelligence / law enforcement personnel enabled through social media and data aggregators.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ladybug and Naaaaak
cmaier said:
That's the way facebook would like you to frame the issue.

The problem is Facebook Is Evil.
[doublepost=1550858409][/doublepost]

How is Apple supposed to prevent this? Spend a week analyzing each release of each app, after it has been released (because developers can change the behavior on-the-fly by building in date checks or server checks), and from random coffee shops (because developers can detect Apple's IP range and prevent bad behavior while the reviewers are reviewing the app)?
Click to expand...

How is this Facebook’s fault? It’s not as if they twisted these app developers’ arms to send them data. Unless I misunderstood the entire article, it’s the app developers that are surreptitiously sending data to FB for their own self gain without the user’s consent.
 
It feels like every week even sometimes ever other day there’s a new creepy thing coming out about Facebook, how close are we to them either going under or being forced to make a radical change or does this simply this just keep going on for eternity?
 
Let's see if this works. Well, that didn't work. Trying to find a way.
 

Attachments

  • You Give Apps Sensitive Personal Information. Then They Tell Facebook. - WSJ.pdf
    2.3 MB · Views: 129
unclemax said:
Sorry, but China has its own "Facebook" called Wexin a.k.a WeChat and it's like Facebook, but also integrates payments (think combining Facebook with all the info card companies - VISA, AmEx etc - have on you) and allows "installing" and using mini-apps from within the main app for things like hailing cabs, ordering food, e-transit card, so think of bundling social and payment info with what Apple and various apps have on you.

Edit: Oh, and everyone's on it. People don't even text, they text on WeChat, because an SMS costs 0.1 RMB ~ 1 cent and WeChat uses data allowance which is paid for in advance.
Click to expand...

WeChat is quite good if you ask me. I think it is better compared to Facebook.

I must say though that from a Business point of view perspective Facebook can be quite good if you operate or run a retail form of a business. If used as a marketing tool then Facebook is pretty amazing actually but if used as a personal tool it is not something I recommend due to privacy invasions but these privacy invasions can work as great marketing tools for business owners.
 
Is it the apps that are voluntarily sharing the data or is it Facebook that's pulling the data from the apps because they can?
 
acorntoy said:
Facebook is freakin creepy.


Stop using it people. Just stop.

The massive amount of people using Facebook is what has allowed it to garner this type of power with third parties. Facebook continues to have massive scandals and the same people who are outraged go and check on it two minutes later. People need to stop using it, delete their accounts, and eventually it will not have this kind of power.
Click to expand...
Maybe everyone with these apps should all turn on the "send to Facebook" option and overload their computers.
[doublepost=1550901139][/doublepost]
omihek said:
In this particular case it doesn't matter if you stop using it. They are still getting your data from other apps you use. Just delete any apps that are found to be doing this. Or turn off all your technology and go live out in the woods. Seems that might be the only way to maintain privacy these days. Smh.
Click to expand...
Have never had a desire to use Facebook - or any of the anti-social media, for that matter. This is as close as I come to it.
Where is the list of apps that send data to Facebook?
 
gldoorii said:
Is it the apps that are voluntarily sharing the data or is it Facebook that's pulling the data from the apps because they can?
Click to expand...
Either voluntarily or someone is getting paid. When Samsung builds Facebook into its OS with no uninstall option that means Facebook paid them to integrate and remove uninstall option for a reason. Surely people can download that Facebook app on their own from App Store.
 
DynoRunnerr said:
You guys must all be idiots. These apps can’t send anything to Facebook if you don’t use Facebook to login to these apps. This is not a iOS or android issue, it’s an issue when you use Facebook to authenticate on any third party application or website. Ridiculous how everyone is so clueless but still chime in with non sense.DO NOT LOG INTO APPS WITH YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT
Click to expand...

Thats not how it works. Our app for example has Facebook pixels built in with different events so even if you have no Facebook we can see and target people who have not done a certain event / action inside the app in a while. for example „user Xy didn’t launch the app in Xy days, sent him a push notification“ or „user Xy is opening the section Xy in our app a lot ... send him a voucher for items in the category Xy“. We can even see in what orientation you hold the phone most of the time and if it’s on WiFi or mobile data and at what screen brightness level
 
Two things:

DNS blocker apps will not stop this. For example, Google Chrome has Google's own public DNS servers hard-coded in it*, possibly along with its own DNS resolver which bypasses the OS. Soon there will be DNS-over-HTTP(S) which will be pretty much unstoppable. Google may do this under the guise of "helping" a user with bad DNS... or it could be because they're evil and need to DIAF.

Firewall (outbound connection blocker) type apps (like the iOS equivalent of Little Snitch) will not stop this if they become widespread, unless you block all network access. The app maker will simply send all connections back to their servers, then split off the analytics and proxy them to Facebook on the app maker's server side. That is, a connection to required-to-run.suspiciously-cheap-app.com could end up going to Facebook by way of Suspiciously-Cheap-App's server(s). This will continue as long as app developers see a time-savings or monetary advantage in doing so.


To stop this, there should be a simultaneous, possibly-coordinated overreaction by Apple, litigators, and legislators, to make it really clear to all parties--via both civil and criminal mechanisms--that this sort of behavior is not to be tolerated. (Which will never happen.)


*Consider this if you are unfortunate enough to use Google Chrome.
 
  • Like
Reactions: stylinexpat
isomorphic said:
Two things:

DNS blocker apps will not stop this. For example, Google Chrome has Google's own public DNS servers hard-coded in it*, possibly along with its own DNS resolver which bypasses the OS. Soon there will be DNS-over-HTTP(S) which will be pretty much unstoppable. Google may do this under the guise of "helping" a user with bad DNS... or it could be because they're evil and need to DIAF.

Firewall (outbound connection blocker) type apps (like the iOS equivalent of Little Snitch) will not stop this if they become widespread, unless you block all network access. The app maker will simply send all connections back to their servers, then split off the analytics and proxy them to Facebook on the app maker's server side. That is, a connection to required-to-run.suspiciously-cheap-app.com could end up going to Facebook by way of Suspiciously-Cheap-App's server(s). This will continue as long as app developers see a time-savings or monetary advantage in doing so.


To stop this, there should be a simultaneous, possibly-coordinated overreaction by Apple, litigators, and legislators, to make it really clear to all parties--via both civil and criminal mechanisms--that this sort of behavior is not to be tolerated. (Which will never happen.)


*Consider this if you are unfortunate enough to use Google Chrome.
Click to expand...


Good reasons not to use Google Chrome.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back