Jump to content
Required Reading for any Longhorn ×

Apple is watching you

bernorange

By bernorange
in Daily Texan

 Share

Recommended Posts

bernorange

bernorange 8367

Posted
Posted
Quote

Apple has begun giving secret “trust scores” to users based on how they use their devices.

The firm said that it has begun tracking the number of phone calls and emails sent and received from iPhones and Apple TVs to create a measure of trustworthiness.

The scores could help Apple tackle fraud by tracking fake reviews and spam App Store accounts. However, Apple has refused to reveal the exact reasons why it is collecting the data. 

Apple’s new policy was shown in the legal agreement for its iOS 12 software update, which was released on Monday.

The agreement reads: “To help identify and prevent fraud, information about how you use your device, including the approximate number of phone calls or emails you send and receive, will be used to compute a device trust score when you attempt a purchase.”

“The submissions are designed so Apple cannot learn the real values on your device. The scores are stored for a fixed time on our servers.”

This is the first time that Apple has told its customers about assigning trust scores, and it is unclear how the number of phone calls or emails will help determine them. 

The trust scores themselves are calculated on Apple devices, and the score sent to the company cannot be used to identify an individual user or whom they have contacted. The scores are not used to target adverts.

Tracking customer behaviour is a strange development for Apple, which has publicly criticised the user-tracking business models of other large US technology businesses such as Google and Facebook.

...

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-gives-users-secret-apos-110955423.html

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
High Plains Drifter

High Plains Drifter 11054

Posted
Posted

csb time:

A 25 year old with a greasy comb-over brought me my work laptop after doing some "upgrades" (whatever that means). He said "I noticed you use Firefox as your web browser. The boss (meaning the head IT guy) only wants us to use Google Chrome on all company machines."

Sure dude, I'll get right on that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
longhornsftmfw

longhornsftmfw 129

Posted
Posted
30 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

csb time:

A 25 year old with a greasy comb-over brought me my work laptop after doing some "upgrades" (whatever that means). He said "I noticed you use Firefox as your web browser. The boss (meaning the head IT guy) only wants us to use Google Chrome on all company machines."

Sure dude, I'll get right on that.

IT boss is more concerned with security than individual users' privacy and probably believes Chrome to be more secure. He's not viewing the leaking of browser data to Google as a breach, he's more concerned about bad actors exploiting weaknesses in Firefox to do nefarious or mischievous things.

 

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, they're disclosing the fact that they're performing this tracking, probably trying to shape the optics. On the other hand, what the hell is a trustworthiness score, how is it calculated, and what is it used for specifically? I know what it said in the article but that was all vague product manager speak that doesn't actually explain anything.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
High Plains Drifter

High Plains Drifter 11054

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, longhornsftmfw said:

IT boss is more concerned with security than individual users' privacy and probably believes Chrome to be more secure. He's not viewing the leaking of browser data to Google as a breach, he's more concerned about bad actors exploiting weaknesses in Firefox to do nefarious or mischievous things.

 

 

 

 

Is this correct? Anybody know?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
longhornsftmfw

longhornsftmfw 129

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, High Plains Drifter said:

Is this correct? Anybody know?

Many studies and security scoring systems rank them the highest. Note that we're talking about straight up security, not privacy, as there's a difference. A browser can be secure from bad actors but still leak your data to the company that develops the browser, and many rankings separate the two. Firefox is typically viewed as being more private but less secure.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
longhornsftmfw

longhornsftmfw 129

Posted
Posted
Most Fridays I meet a few Friends at Hooters for a couple of beers.  Today as I’m leaving work I grab my phone to text someone and get the message “11 minutes to Hooters. Traffic is light”.


Yeah this doesn’t surprise me. I bet you have location services enabled and WiFi on most of the time, so Apple is constantly getting the GPS data from your phone and logging it. Then they can analyze that data for trends and send you notifications. The questions I have are what else are they doing with that data, and how secure is it? I’m hoping they go to great lengths to secure it, but is that secure enough? Imagine some tens of millions of users having their location data breached, whoever ends up with that data would be able to analyze it and discern the location of your home, work, the restaurants you like most, where your mistress lives, etc.

If you’re looking for a job of the future, security engineer is a pretty safe one that pays fairly well. No CR but this is also why our enemies are constantly trying to penetrate our top tech companies. The data they own is powerful enough to win a Cold War if used “properly”.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
crash_davis

crash_davis 23118

Posted
Posted

if you are any way connected, then there are companies who have a shitton of data on you.  there's absolutely no way to avoid that. 

you can mitigate some of it with VPN, burner phones, burner/spam email accounts, use diff browsers, don't sign in, etc.  but there are some core companies that no matter what you do, they can know a shitton about you.

apple for the apple eco system; microsoft if using windows; google if using android, google apps; your isp; your telecom/cell provider; your credit card company; the companies behind your IoT devices, probably your wireless router company, your tolltag company, your tollboth operators, and on and on.

they don't care specifically about you.  you just want to monetize you.  however, as mentioned above, hackers and people who work in these companies may have complete access to your info.  who knows what these individuals can and want to do with it.  

it's a trust/illusion thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...