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Some Popular iPhone Apps Secretly Record Your Screen for Analytics Purposes
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These companies just need to be sued to hell so these practices aren’t profitable. It will be the only way to stop this from happening in the future.
I remember in the 90s, people used to get this outraged at cookies that recorded your IP address. It was called "an unprecedented privacy invasion". Today, people demand cookies be kept so their online services won't break.
In the not-too-distant future, we will be watched 24/7, with no exceptions. At work, at the store, in the car, in the bedroom, in the bathroom. People will demand it because without it all their online services will break. If this seems outrageous, remember that we are all being boiled slowly and will eventually embrace it. Well, not us. All of us here will be old and hate everything anyways. It's our children and grandchildren who will have to deal with it.
In the not-too-distant future, we will be watched 24/7, with no exceptions. At work, at the store, in the car, in the bedroom, in the bathroom. People will demand it because without it all their online services will break. If this seems outrageous, remember that we are all being boiled slowly and will eventually embrace it. Well, not us. All of us here will be old and hate everything anyways. It's our children and grandchildren who will have to deal with it.
Probably, but the fact they were able to do it in the first place is suspicious.
I wonder if this could be blocked through pi-hole
Edit: Downloaded Abercrombie. Already seeing dns queries. First one:
report-anf.glassboxcloud.com
Edit: Downloaded Abercrombie. Already seeing dns queries. First one:
report-anf.glassboxcloud.com
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I get that for free apps that you do not buy anything from. But Air Canada, Singapore Airlines even Expedia all get revenue from customer purchases.
At the very least there should be clear notification when information on your activities are being collected. If the activities involve entering sensitive information then those actions cannot be monitored.
Apple need to step up and restrict the activities of these apps.
I was tempted to reply that Air Canada is just a front for the Canadian Secret Police, but it's the Internet and it's hard for people to tell the difference between dry wit and crazy conspiracist...
Mostly it's just fun sport to try and make the Canadians look like bad guys.
Agreed! I will gladly pay for a good, useful app. I know that is no guarantee my privacy will be protected but it probably improves the odds.
Always interesting when the curtain gets thrown open on something that has been going on for years. This is simply part of the standard CX toolset for almost every major website/app. There are many companies that provide similar functionality by “tagging” standard js UI events and then recreating the webpage by leveraging the raw http request and response objects. IBM Tealeaf, Clicktale, Decible, Hotjar, I could go on. Airline sites were some of the early adopters, however now, every major airline, retail, really any major consumer facing public site has a suite of CX tools implemented that gathers some level of deep analytics including session replay. This exists across all web platforms and has for years.
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There should be a lot of things happening, but there are a ton of companies that haven't been mentioned that do this with worse intentions. Many people in this forum like to buy into the whole privacy rhetoric spun by Tim Cook and Apple, but let's be less naive here.
Isn't it ironic that the company that is so stern about privacy publicly ... doesn't enforce it to the rest of its ecosystem? What's amusing about hypocrites is that some people see through them clearly, and others don't.
So apps know what information you type into them? They record what you type and tap within the app?
I kinda assumed that was necessary to actually make them work. How do you make an airline reservation without the app recording what you type and tap and reporting it back?
Did you know that when you buy something at a physical store your unencrypted receipt is seen by their accounting department? Shocked I am. Shocked!!!
I kinda assumed that was necessary to actually make them work. How do you make an airline reservation without the app recording what you type and tap and reporting it back?
Did you know that when you buy something at a physical store your unencrypted receipt is seen by their accounting department? Shocked I am. Shocked!!!
The issue is the handling of your data with legitimate apis. It’s not about being two faced. Once your info gets off your phone into some back-end dB that is not managed by Apple, it’s up to the integrity of your app developer to manage your data in accordance within the tos of the app.
It’s literally no different than a trusted friend spilling your secrets.
We do the same minus the recording the screen bit. I could basically look up and see what button you clicked and how you interacted with the app all day long if I got your name.
User XY clicked on help. User XY spent Xy seconds on the how to section. User xy closed the on boarding animation. User Xy Shared xy to app xy.
It’s kind of creepy knowing what is possible.
User XY clicked on help. User XY spent Xy seconds on the how to section. User xy closed the on boarding animation. User Xy Shared xy to app xy.
It’s kind of creepy knowing what is possible.
No this still holds true we just cant see the disclaimer "In Airplane mode only"
I can't see what all the fuss is about all the IOS users want buttery smooth smart looking apps etc etc this is the price they pay for their demands on interface. How else are developers going to meet this and help Apple, it's no surprise this is not blocked.
Every iOS app is capable of recording all your taps and swipes on the app. Otherwise how would the app know how to respond to user input? Feed those taps and swipes to the iOS Simulator, and you end up with a recreated screen recording. Any networked app is capable of sending that data back to the developer (or some random 3rd party analytics company), if so announced in the EULA. Not just glassbox, but almost any networked iOS app.
This includes almost every online game, e-commerce app, social app, etc. Read the EULAs.
Only apps that can fully run in Airplane mode (and can be killed before turning off Airplane mode) are safe from this kind of data gathering.
I would not be surprised if the banks are doing this as well as part of their fraud detection/identification system (e.g. how do you tap and swipe differently from a bot).
This includes almost every online game, e-commerce app, social app, etc. Read the EULAs.
Only apps that can fully run in Airplane mode (and can be killed before turning off Airplane mode) are safe from this kind of data gathering.
I would not be surprised if the banks are doing this as well as part of their fraud detection/identification system (e.g. how do you tap and swipe differently from a bot).
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Cant a site like Expedia just ‘recreate’ what your screen looked like while in their app? Everything you look at, click or enter goes back to their servers. The don’t need ‘screen recording’ to ‘see’ what you’re doing. Seems like a non story.
The “story” should be how Air Canada failed to mask user private information in their analytics.
But Canada is not an SEO top hitter. Apple and secret are. So voila.
I don’t want free apps. I want secure apps. I would gladly pay money to avoid this. I only use a handful of apps anyway.
Plus, the argument doesn’t hold water. Expedia isn’t a free app that I use without compensating them. They get paid when I use their service. The app is their storefront. Same with just about all the other apps. People are already paying those companies and the app isn’t their revenue generator.
Hey look, I just deleted Expedia.
And Air Canada, now that I’m starting to take a lot of Canadian trips, you get boycotted, too.
It’s a good day.
And Air Canada, now that I’m starting to take a lot of Canadian trips, you get boycotted, too.
It’s a good day.