WiFi SSID has been behind a location permission gate on Android for several releases

It looks like this was released either in 8.x[0] or 9.x[1] series. Unclear to me which one. That means that only up to about 1/3 of Android devices[2] have the feature. Version distribution is one of the things that seems to tip stuff like this in favor in iOS[3].

Admittedly, the distribution of Android devices on 8.x+ is higher than I even expected before looking at this.

[0] https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/wifi...

[1] https://developer.android.com/about/versions/pie/android-9.0...

[2] https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards

[3] https://developer.apple.com/support/app-store/

Location access started being required for WiFi scans in Android 6.0 Marshmallow (2015).

https://developer.android.com/about/versions/marshmallow/and...

By eye, that covers nearly 75% of current devices.

Thank you. I figured I was probably missing something on that point.

And yet "Phone status and identity" are somehow still one permission like a decade later.

How on earth it occurred to someone in the first place, that determining whether the phone is in use or not and reading the phone #, IMEI, etc. should be the same permission is beyond me.

This kind of comment indicates how effective the marketing/media kool-aid has been. Having paid very close attention to how both systems work (and having used both iOS and Android extensively in recent months), I don't think I'd necessarily declare either of these platforms a clear privacy champion.

If you’re trusting third-party apps with important data and not effectively restricting their permissions, then the OS doesn’t really matter. I’m glad that Apple is doing more to make permissions granular. If you don’t install anything outside of what your phone came with, iOS would certainly be the clear privacy champion.

On iOS, your adversaries are third-party app developers. On Android, your adversaries are third-party app developers and the OS vendor, whose entire business model is hoovering up your data. iOS is, in mathematical jargon, strictly better on that basis alone.

How exactly is in case of Android the OS vendor the adversary? Considering the fact it was Apple that lied about not streaming Siri conversations while giving them out to 3rd parties? With no ability to revoke consent or even choose?

Also Apple (as opposed to Google) is the one actively cooperating with Chinese government and giving them decryption keys for iCloud.

If you look beyond the marketing spiel it's kinda ridiculous marking one of those corporations to be more trustworthy than the other.

> Considering the fact it was Apple that lied about not streaming Siri conversations while giving them out to 3rd parties?

Sorry, what?

1.) Apple plasters a building sized "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone" ads to mock competition in CES: https://9to5mac.com/2019/01/05/apple-privacy-billboard-vegas... [January 5th]

2.) Apple admits it was giving Siri recordings to contractors with no ability to opt out of the functionality. This included false activations not meant for Siri. Seemingly what happened near iPhones did not stay on iPhones:

https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/23/20830120/apple-contractor... [August 29th]

3.) In 2016 Apple shifted their iCloud servers to China to abide Chinese limitations and give access to content on governmental request. It seems, again, what happens on iPhone does not stay on iPhones: https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-apple-chin...

But of course, this whole topic on HN shows that the money on marketing is well spent. Lesson for Google and Facebook: up the marketing spending to keep repeating how privacy concious they are. ;)