
The Paywalled Garden: iOS Is Adware - notlukesky
https://stevestreza.com/2020/02/17/ios-adware/
======
tzs
Related:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22352184](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22352184)

At first it might appear to be a dupe, since that has the same title, but that
is actually an article that links to and summarizes the current submission
plus links to and summarizes a bunch of responses from others, including a few
well known people.

~~~
mrzool
Yep — as a matter of fact, this one would have been the right article to post
here on HN.

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IridiumFX
that is brilliant: Apple Music has ads about the Apple music service. Apple
Arcade about the arcade service. The App store about App store deals. Apple
Card about the Apple Card product. Ok, note taken.

Now checking my android phone, main screen just there on the top ... oh hey
google in a multicolor G ...

yes they both qualify as adaware. The difference seems that the Apple approach
is at least context-aware. You don't get random ads or suggestions system-
wide. You get ... newspaper ads in the newspaper app, or music ads in the
music app.

I honestly wish we had the same on the android front. Google is decidedly much
more invasive these days

~~~
Semaphor
The google logo counts as an ad for you? Or does google actually show ads on
stock-android?

~~~
nottorp
Is there such a thing as stock Android?

Anecdotically, I have an Android phone that I use for development (i.e. it
sits on my desk most of the time). Every time I turn it on I get notifications
that I have updates available or something has been updated or whatever - with
the google logo - that I cannot disable anywhere.

I also get some of those from manufacturer supplied "helpful crap" but I
suppose we can't blame Google for those...

~~~
Semaphor
By stock I meant OEM. People on XDA call the OEM image stock.

~~~
nottorp
In that case the "stock" Android is full of spam. From Google and from the
manufacturer.

------
JMTQp8lwXL
I never understood the argument that Apple was a privacy-focused company,
specifically because they enable so many companies that are the complete
opposite. For example, I could use Facebook on a desktop browser which won't
out-of-the-box have location services, bluetooth information, and contact
lists available. By virtue of using an iOS device, you are more likely to
provide far more information to companies like Facebook than you would be on a
browser. Apple willingly provides APIs to apps to pull this information. This
enablement this leads me to reasonably believe they don't actually care about
privacy.

~~~
kitsunesoba
Browsers have had location access APIs across all operating systems for a
while now. Chrome at least can surface Bluetooth and USB information to sites
(not sure about Firefox, but I think it can too). The only thing that’s
missing on desktop browsers is contacts access APIs.

Putting that all aside, there exist legitimate uses for those APIs, and just
because Facebook abused them doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t exist. Lack of
those APIs wouldn’t be seen as privacy friendliness, it’d be seen as a feature
deficiency and would push people to other platforms.

It just means that the platform in question has to put reasonable limits on
access (“Allow access only while app is open”, “require permission again after
X days”, etc) and users need to be more discriminative as to which apps/sites
they approve access for.

~~~
JMTQp8lwXL
I think if you consider the amount of damage Facebook has done to society,
it's clear we shouldn't be prioritizing the legitimate use cases for things
like contact list access when weighing the negative externalities.

Oil, for example, is generally useful for automobiles and transportation.
Should we completely ignore the climate consequences of using fuel since it
makes getting around convenient? The pros have to be weighed with the cons.
The marginal value of saving a couple minutes via functionality like contact
list imports, or reading bluetooth data, is not worth the downsides that come
with it.

