“Apple is tightening up its privacy rules to ensure a new generation of health and fitness apps are not thwarted by growing concerns over how developers use personal data,” Tim Bradshaw reports for the Financial Times.
“The rules will stop personal data collected through Apple’s new HealthKit platform being used to target adverts for products such as weight loss remedies,” Bradshaw reports. “In the latest update to Apple’s iOS developer program licence agreement, Apple said developers must ‘not sell an end-user’s health information collected through the HealthKit API to advertising platforms, data brokers or information resellers.'”
Bradshaw reports, “The privacy clampdown comes as Apple seeks to differentiate itself against rival Google, which relies on targeted ads for much of its income.”
Read more in the full article here.
Apple seeks to differentiate itself from Gaggle? What a load of crap. Unbelievable the stuff these people write; and get paid for writing.
I’m sure the average “journalist” has to work hard to differentiate himself from every other guy who is trying to write the latest story before anyone else, even if it is only speculation based on a tidbit of info or rumor.
It can’t be an easy job.
I casually looked for a pair of motorcycle boots online today. My MDN page is covered on both sides now with ads for motorcycle boots.
The mind boggles with what they could do tracking my health.
I imagine cemetery plot ads appearing all over every website I go to.
Lets hope your employer does not find out about your motorcycle boots. 😉
Time to install Disconnect. The amount of tracking is just beyond the pale and something most internet users never in an informed way consented to.
It would be interesting to see how much bandwidth is hogged up by all the tracking bullshit clogging up the net these days. I would gladly support a bill to allow ISPs to charge data miners for the bandwidth they use. Why should their digital stalking apply to my data cap?
Further, I contend that much of the data mining is illegal and is little more than stalking for profit.
Is that you or a alter ego! For once, or is it twice, I agree with you. Geez that’s bad.
Thelonious: turn on private browsing in Safari. And try Disconnect.me.
Rules were made to be broken. The idea that this will stop devs selling personal data is risible. The only way is to make sure the data is encrypted in a form that only the user controls; the user can then decide who does or doesn’t see the data.
It will only take one data leak for the whole thing to become discredited and Apple with it.
THE LINK IS BAD!
For the life of me, I don’t understand why more people aren’t thoroughly concerned (outraged) about the depths to which companies like Google will go to delve into our personal lives. People continue to suck up their ‘free’ products like kids in a candy store. What’s more worrisome is, our grade schools are now on that bandwagon as well- my kids’ school system just implemented their Chromebook program this year- all students get a ‘free’ Chromebook. Ironic thing is, they refuse to let my daughter bring her MacBook Air (with Chrome browser) to school for security reasons!
I’d pull my daughter out of that school for something like that. Seriously. We do not need a new age of IT-limited nonsense and I would not want to saddle her with a lifetime of being monitored by Google or ANY other advertising company.
If Apple wants to differentiate itself from Google , ban rental apps lie the new Autodesk apps that cost $15 year for full features. Tired of in app purchases being used to mine wallets.
How does this relate to privacy? Autodesk will let use use a crippled version of it’s “free” apps in exchange for data mining.
I should be able to buy apps, not be spied on by the seller and not be bombarded with ads (yes, I refer to iAds or those from anyone else). I will gladly pay the carrying cost for an ad free, data mining free experience.
yes, as everybody expected and a surprise to no one. No news here