“Apple is planning to introduce some important new policy changes that will extend its user privacy protections, reports The Information,” Juli Clover reports for Mac Rumors. “With iOS 9, Apple will no longer allow advertisers to access app download data for ad targeting purposes, meaning companies will not be able to see all of the apps that are downloaded on a user’s device.”
“Currently, companies like Twitter and Facebook are able to see which apps you have downloaded on your iPhone or iPad, sometimes using that information to deliver targeted ads,” Clover reports. “Advertisers are misusing a communication API in iOS called ‘canopenURL’ to get the app download data, something that will no longer be possible when iOS 9 is released in the fall.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good. Apple products are for people who value their privacy.
SEE ALSO:
FYI: Facebook collects all the text you typed but decided against posting – April 22, 2015
European Commission: Don’t use Facebook if you don’t want to be spied on – March 27, 2015
Facebook, Google, and Amazon are getting even creepier – December 9, 2014
Edward Snowden’s privacy tips: ‘Get rid of Dropbox,” avoid Facebook and Google – October 13, 2014
Tim Berners-Lee: You should own your personal data, not Google, Facebook, Amazon, and advertisers – October 8, 2014
How to hide Twitter, Facebook buttons in iOS 8 sharing panel – October 2, 2014
Facebook’s scary Messenger app highlights iOS security vs. Android security – August 8, 2014
Facebook conducts massive psychology experiment on 700,000 unaware users, and you may have been a guinea pig – June 28, 2014
Why Apple really values your privacy – unlike Google, Facebook, or Amazon – June 25, 2014
U.S. NSA used Facebook to hack into computers – March 12, 2014
How to permanently delete your Facebook account – December 16, 2013
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
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MDN: “Good. Apple products are for people who value their privacy.”
But we didn’t value it until iOS9,
Ouch! What kind of fanboy are you? Honest questions and thoughts not allowed here.
But idiotic trolls ARE allowed; welcome.
In a fast evolving thec world it doesn’t happen autoatically especially at Apple that taes its time to learn analyze and reinvent.
Yeah maybe the ADD generation doesn’t appreicate that the process required for greatness is much longer than virtual…
More good reasons to dump Google! 😀
And Facebook and Twitter.
How does this apply? Apple uses CanopenURL and OpenURL as their version of Intents in Android.. CanopenURL is a method that checks to see if a resource (App/webiste) can be accessed and then OpenURL is used to access it. Android Intents post a system message and any Apps that can handle the request (e.g. send an email) pick it up. If there are multiple valid Apps on the device the OS displays a dialog so you can choose one to use. The calling App never knows the name of the responding App so is more ‘secure’ than iOSes implementation in this case.
Damn typos:
In a fast evolving thech world it doesn’t happen automatically, especially at Apple that takes its time to learn analyze and reinvent.
Yeah maybe the ADD generation doesn’t appreicate that the process required for greatness is much longer than virtual…
You mean previously the frakkin’ advertisers _could_ see what other apps I had on my iPhone. Great Googly Moogly! that sucks!
Wow.. How blown up can this news be? CanopenURL is a method call that tests to see if the App can open a specifically named app/website without a fail code. So in effect the calling app has to know the specific URL for the app to test if it exists on the device. The function does NOT return a list of apps on your device. The policy change Apple is implementing does not change the function itself but makes it so that you have to list the URLs the App will have access to in the App manifest.
Yes, and no.. They can’t get a list of what apps you have on your device.. But they can test to see if you have a specific App installed. Sort of like calling out a name in the dark, if you get a response the app is installed, if not then you assume not.