from Hacker News

iPhone = Privacy?

by z0mbie42 on 9/27/22, 2:03 PM with 105 comments

by hardnose on 9/27/22, 2:28 PM
Apple seems to prioritize privacy more than the competition, while for Google collecting, and combing through to monetize, your personal data is a big part of their business model.
Much of this criticism seems misplaced or invalid. Apple tracks your IMEI? Well, sure, unless you choose otherwise, and they've given you a convenient place to turn off. Apple chipsets track your location down to the meter? Well, yes, that's a feature most people enjoy - and they've given you a convenient place to turn off, if you don't. Apple is using third party app Siri interactions to train Siri? How is this even a privacy issue... has any real world privacy problem ever occurred because of this? If you don't want Apple to hear your voice or process your Siri requests... don't use Siri? They've given you a convenient place to turn it off.
The only one I agree on is the image scanning for CSAM. The idea of a device I own acting as a state informer using AI to detect what it thinks is a crime is not my idea of a step forward.
by matai_kolila on 9/27/22, 2:34 PM
> Thus, anyone who has access to your iCloud account, whether it be a hacker, an Apple employee, or a government agency, has also access to that data.
Lost a lot of credibility here by including Apple employees, as that’s not a thing.
Honestly this just reads as a bunch if FUD for what appears to be no reason. There’s no new info, no new perspective, no attempt at fair explanation of why those things might actually be desirable for the customer…
Just a bunch of bad faith interpretations of how an iPhone works to try and scare or confuse the reader, and no discernible reason for why.
by bb123 on 9/27/22, 2:40 PM
For me it's a question of incentives. Apple makes the vast majority of its income selling hardware to people. That makes me the customer. Google makes the vast majority of its income selling user data to advertisers. That makes me the product and advertisers the customer. Which company has more of an incentive to compromise my privacy by accessing my data in a dishonest way?
by Algent on 9/27/22, 2:22 PM
> When you put your phone in airplane mode, you are simply telling your phone's OS to stop using the mobile network. The baseband system is still on and can be pinged by the mobile network.
I just started reading and there is already a sentence I don't believe very much, even less as a generalization. Does anyone here have a basis that could explain this bold statement ?
by jeffbee on 9/27/22, 2:41 PM
The place where Apple is the most dishonest is in their scaremongering popup dialogs that constantly prompt me to re-authorize Google Maps, which I use daily, to access my location. They exempt themselves from this authorization by laundering Apple Maps location access through "System Services". iOS will never, ever pop up a dialog asking if you were aware that "System Services" has accessed your location on behalf of Apple 10000 times in the last month for the purposes of improving maps and providing traffic data to other Apple Maps users. Even if you, like me, never intentionally use Apple Maps, Apple silently accesses your location for these purposes. And even if you, like me, have been an intentional and fully-informed user of Google Maps for 15 years, Apple will still regularly urge you to revoke location data access from Google Maps.
To me, this seems really dishonest.
by russianGuy83829 on 9/27/22, 2:35 PM
> Another innovation announced yesterday for the iPhone 14 event was Satellite communication. Apple is now able to locate an iPhone anywhere in the world (where it would require connectivity to the mobile network, Wifi, or another device before.
Thats just plain wrong. Poorly researched article.
by v0idzer0 on 9/27/22, 2:27 PM
iPhone = Not perfect but better than all comparable alternatives
Perhaps the biggest advantage of the iPhone, aside from Apple making most of their money selling real products not your data, is that every concern he had was accompanied by a setting to disable it
by kraf on 9/27/22, 2:42 PM
I feel that GrapheneOS is a good compromise. It's significantly more private than an iPhone and after 2 years of using it I really don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.
by zimpenfish on 9/27/22, 2:36 PM
I like how "First, it generates a lot of false positives" is linked to an article about Google, not Apple, scanning cloud photos, not on-device, and it was only a false positive in the intent of the photos - the actual photos (of a child's penis) are exactly what should be flagged, no?
(Human review with explanation and consultation with the doctor / police should have led to "ok, false positive this time".)
by fsflover on 9/27/22, 2:16 PM
> With all that information, I think it's reasonable to say that iPhones are far from private. But, as the alternatives are even worse
Android smartphones are indeed worse, but it's not the only alternative. Consider GNU/Linux phones if you care about privacy and want to support it: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5 and https://pine64.org/pinephone.
There are also things like /e/OS (Edit: and GrapheneOS), but they are installed on Android phones and must obey their planned obsolescence due to the proprietary drivers (tied to an old Linux kernel).
by pathartl on 9/27/22, 2:33 PM
Are there articles that actually audit the data sent from your phone? My biggest gripe is we're supposed to take all marketing at face value.
by imgabe on 9/27/22, 2:22 PM
> iOS sends a lot of data about your phone to Apple, such as your phone number, your unique device identifier, your location and your IMEI number
Oh no! The manufacturer of my phone knows the unique identifier they created and assigned to my phone? Whatever shall I do?
by giantg2 on 9/27/22, 2:20 PM
No phone == privacy
by pookha on 9/27/22, 2:43 PM
Privacy wise, I'd argue that GrapheneOS and the like are not at all worse than an IPhone. You have a significant level of control with one of these rooted phones that have stock android.