(SCHMEGGA)
Apple updated its privacy policy today, with an important, and dare we say creepy new paragraph about location information. If you agree to the changes, (which you must do in order to download anything via the iTunes store) you agree to let Apple collect store and share “precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device.”
Apple says that the data is “collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you,” but for some reason we don’t find this very comforting at all. There appears to be no way to opt-out of this data collection without giving up the ability to download apps.
Here’s the full text:
Location-Based Services
To provide location-based services on Apple products, Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device. This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services. For example, we may share geographic location with application providers when you opt in to their location services.
Some location-based services offered by Apple, such as the MobileMe “Find My iPhone” feature, require your personal information for the feature to work.
Privacy Policy [Apple via Mashable]
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I guess it’s easier to write a sensationalistic post than it is to understand what’s going on. Oh no! Not reading!
Every localized app is *opt-in*. It prompts you before collecting any information and gives you the option to prevent it. You can opt-in once and than later go into settings and disable the same app. You have control.
I understand the concern when it’s expressed the way it was in this article (badly), and I also understand why some people would avoid any phone that collects data (although they all know where you have been: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june10/cell_06-22.html ).
What I don’t understand is the view that the Android is a more private alternative. Google knows more about you than any company on earth, and thanks to Android, that information is going to third parties as well:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/199621/20_percent_of_android_apps_can_threaten_privacy_says_vendor.html?tk=hp_new
Kinda creepy? Or kinda going after page hits? LOL! Nice – did you ever consider that you dump more info about yourself in the average browser session than Apple is collecting – wait for it – by asking you to allow or deny in each and every instance of using the location indicator? Ohhhhhh yeah – that’s right – Apple requires every app (and all of their apps too) to request permission from you directly BEFORE it uses said info. You can refuse the location data tag. Isn’t that interesting? Or did you miss that piece of the controls in your rush to get the creepy little blog entry out there to grab for some topical page hits this week. But then Google does that too via Android as well as collecting all kinds of other info as you use their “free” apps. And amazingly, as has been noted in here previously, they bury the fact deep in their TOS, in fact it’s in the basement closet of the TOS, in the bottom drawer of a rusty file cabinet, underneath a bear trap. In a padlocked box. NOT in your face and obvious, like Apple.
So much for consumer advocacy.
So you get lost and are driving through a shady area and an ad pops up “Need meth? Speak to Alex at the next traffic light”.
Another reason (as if we needed more) to avoid Apple like the plague.
So what we have here is just another reason to stay away from legal methods of obtaining our music/movies/books/etc. I really do look for legit ways of obtaining material and strongly believe in supporting quailty material. The publishers have gone out of their way to make things difficult on honest consumers that the only way to get this stuff is through file-sharing or some other means. Apple used to be one of the easiest ways to get this stuff and that too is now gone. For me this is just another reason to avoid King Steve’s castle Cupertino and their mind control (j/k) devices.
I do not buy AAPL junk, woe unto those that do.
Wake up, people. Google has done it for years now, reading your emails (automatically, admittedly), and sets up every kind of service to get its hands on your personal data, also to serve you with targeted ads, and still, everyone is still happily using their services.
They only want to trust them about their “don’t be evil” motto.
Sorry, but no, their recent issues with supposedly accidental wifi packets capture and analysis show there’s no way these guys will end these non-kosher practices.
When Google does it, everyone seems happy to run in their arms, when it’s Apple, they spit at it. Why?