Some seemingly innocuous APIs are misused to track users, Apple says.

    • oatmilkmaid@possumpat.io
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      1 year ago

      It’s what struck me when I switched to Android… the play store is awful. Good on Apple, hopefully Google will follow suit.

      • sudo@lemmy.today
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        1 year ago

        Sincerely asking, do people actually go browse the stores to try to find apps? Like, I’ve literally never done that and I’ve been using Android for over a decade. If I have a problem that needs an app I’ll research the problem, the apps, compare and contrast, and then go follow a direct link to download the thing that does what I need.

        • kautau@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Sure, but the average user shouldn’t need to go do research outside of the store to understand what data apps are collecting and to have recommendations for quality apps from verified users of said apps. The App Store is by no means perfect, but it is leagues better at informing you about what data an app will collect and why.

          I’m the mobile team lead at my company. For the app store, I need to inform about every piece of data our app will collect, in addition to whether it is given to or sold to third parties. For the play store, there is no such requirement. App Store approval is far more stringent, which makes my job harder, but it’s better for the end user, so I’m all for it. This new requirement will require us to lay out why we call specific APIs that could be used to grab user data. It will be more work for us, but I don’t mind, it will result in a more explicit explanation for our users.

        • faintedheart@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I don’t go and search for apps in playstore. I try based on looking at some discussion threads, forums or word of mouth etc. Only if I think that would be useful to me I will download it. Otherwise I wouldn’t even download it for trying.

        • OtakuAltair@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          That sounds horribly inconvenient and reminds me of how it’s like installing apps on windows.

      • b14700@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        it is a vastly different and better experience when you filter out apps with ads , it actually becomes usable , aurora store for the win

      • beanutputter@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They do, it’s just that they limit it very severely. Right now, there’s a cap of three apps per account. What I usually do is have multiple apple accounts as “dev accounts” and use them to side load my apps onto my phone. There’s no cap on how many you can put on a single phone. The real catch to this method is that you need to resign your apps every seven days. I find it to not be too much of a hassle to plug in my phone to my computer and press a button, but I know that some people get frustrated by having to do something to keep their apps on their phone.

      • Scend@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        iOS 17 will have to allow some form of official sideloading (at least in the EU) by law, so you might just be in luck