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Period tracking app refuses to disclose data to American authorities (www.newsweek.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/privacy@programming.dev
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[+] -10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (17 children)

Apple is very clear how they make their money. Desirable products at high margins, free customer support, and an ecosystem that encourages the purchase of additional devices and services.

They have also been very clear about their commitment to privacy, and have consistently led the industry in customer-focused privacy software. It’s the primary reason many customers choose Apple over their competitors.

Realistically, why would Apple blow up a $3.3T global success for an extra $10M? That 1/330 of the company value. For comparison, Apple sells ~$54M in Apple Pencils every year.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago* (13 children)

    What apple wants or doesnt want to do is completely irrelevant. The fact that they have the ability to remotely modify your device is a disqualifying factor for any rational person thinking about risk of life level privacy.

    Also they can be legally forced to put backdoors into their software while, under the threat of state violence, being prohibited from telling the public about it. Thats how the US legal system works.

    They can also be forced to put on a theater to make it look like they are not giving the feds access btw.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago (12 children)

    How can Apple remotely modify your device? Software updates? They have no access to your data.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago* (11 children)

    Correct, forced software updates i.e. remotely modifying your device. Also what makes you think they have no access to your data already? Do just trust them when they say "we promise uwu" ?

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (10 children)

    Updates aren’t forced. You have the ability to enable automatic updates, but they are turned off by default. They also cannot affect user data. iOS and app software is sandboxed. The kernel keeps application and OS layers independent, just like Linux. User data is stored in a separate partition.

    Apple users will experience the same thing that all other computer owners experience when they disable updates entirely; outdated security software and limited compatibility.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (8 children)

    Brother in christ, how hard is this to understand.

    Updates aren’t forced

    How do you know? Have you checked the code that runs the updates? Just because the phone usually gives you the option to postpone regular updates doesnt mean that they cant be forced.

    They also cannot affect user data.

    What makes you believe that? Did you write the software that keeps it sandboxed?

    Do people just believe anything that companies claim? If we could believe the things that companies claim, then the world would be a much nicer place but its not.

    If its not proven, then its not the case as far as anyone should be concerned. Do we believe in religion now because the pope says that god is real?

    And i havent even talked about code quality. Nobody can verify how well designed their software is. It could be a complete shitfest filled with old and insecure code that nobody does any auditing on.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    Yes. I worked for Apple for over a decade.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    You could be Tim Cook and i would still not believe a word out of your mouth.

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  • [–] -5 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    You don’t have to. Opinions are subjective, and you’re entitled to believe whatever you’d like.

    That still doesn’t mean you’re correct.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago* (4 children)

    I am 100% correct in my assessment that iOS source code is not public which proves every single point i made beyond any doubt. Not a matter of opinion whatsoever.

    Edit: I would be very happy if you could use your apple employee access to leak the source code ofcourse :)

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  • [+] -7 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    All you’ve proven is that neither your claim nor mine is provable.

    That still doesn’t make you correct. It means neither argument can be proven.

    At least my argument is logical. You’re convinced Apple would risk blowing up a $3.3T empire for $10M.

    Get real.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Updates aren’t forced.

    No. Apple claims updates aren't forced. With proprietary software, we have no way to verify if they have some way of forcing an update through.

    You have the ability to enable automatic updates, but they are turned off by default.

    No. Apple claims that only the user can enable automatic updates. With proprietary software, we have no way to verify if Apple can enable them remotely.

    Also, are you really going tell users to not update?

    They also cannot affect user data. iOS and app software is sandboxed. The kernel keeps application and OS layers independent, just like Linux.

    No. Apple claims that updates cannot affect user data. Again, with proprietary software, there is no way to truly verify.

    Apple users will experience the same thing that all other computer owners experience when they disable updates entirely; outdated security software and limited compatibility.

    Oh...so updates are good now, and we should update, even if it puts us at risk of something malicious?

    You are taking Apple's claims as truth and pretending they are good. They probably aren't.

    But, as someone else mentioned in the thread: The US government can force companies to spy for them. Even if Apple was as good as they market themselves to be, they cannot outrun the government.

    Now, it's not realistic to force everybody to switch away from iPhones. But, we should stop treating proprietary software as truly trustworthy with our data.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Realistically, why would Apple blow up a $3.3T global success for an extra $10M? That 1/330 of the company value

    Because they know that even after being caught harvesting user data for advertising, people will still claim they don't do that even on a specialist privacy community on lemmy. Now think just how long it will take for the average apple user to realize it

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago

    Yes. There was an issue with iOS 14.1 that enabled personalized ads by default if you didn’t restore from a backup. I was working for Apple at that time. It wasn’t intentional or malicious, and a hotfix was implemented as soon as the bug was identified. The lawsuit was just. Apple fucked up.

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