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Re:Epic, Spotify, and Tinder form advocacy group to push for... by simion314 on Friday September 25, 2020 @09:31AM (#24589488)
Those poor people will never buy an iPhone or expensive phone, you should compare how many Samsung Galaxy or Pixel users in US vs iPhone users in US that have same financial situation get infected, otherwise you could compare iOS users in US with XP users in China it is "lying with statistics".

The guy that reviews the Apple Store has no idea if the developer sells the data to a third party, the chances that somehow Apple finds this out in time to help you is minimal, it would help if Apple would let you give this people fake data or more granular data (like I want to give them a first name, 1 picture, and a city location but not much more details). Many existing apps are using FB SDKs, other advertising related library in the apps, loot boxes and other dark patterns and Apple is not blocking this because they have a financial interest.

Re:Epic, Spotify, and Tinder form advocacy group to push for... by nodamage on Friday September 25, 2020 @03:16PM (#24593181)
I don't understand your point. Are you actually suggesting that poor people don't count?

If you consider the US alone you're still looking at ~17 million malware infections last year on Android devices.

> The guy that reviews the Apple Store has no idea if the developer sells the data to a third party, the chances that somehow Apple finds this out in time to help you is minimal

The fact that they can ban these developers serves as a deterrent. What you're suggesting is the equivalent of saying there's no point in having laws against stealing because some people will steal anyway. What you should be considering is the net effect of the rules against the overall frequency of the problem, not whether it prevents them 100% of the time (which is impossible anyway).

> Many existing apps are using FB SDKs, other advertising related library in the apps, loot boxes and other dark patterns and Apple is not blocking this because they have a financial interest.

Now imagine how much worse it would be if Facebook (and every other app) was directly distributed and had zero oversight whatsoever.

Re:Epic, Spotify, and Tinder form advocacy group to push for... by simion314 on Saturday September 26, 2020 @09:11AM (#24598550)
My stats point is this, let me show a simple example. Say in my small poor country nobody has the latest BMW and most people use some 20 years Renaults. Then you can create some stats to show BMW is perfect and Renault is crap. Where would be fair to compare cars that are in the same price category, same age, same driver category etc.

Is the same statistics shit Apple fanboys use when they want to show that Apple can't be a monopoly/duopoly the use a world wide stat(where in fact in US Apple and Google are around equal (iOS appears on top on this source but who knows how credible it is https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/united-sta...)

About laws, it is more like because someone is getting hurt with his power tools then we ban power tools and we allow only children friendly tools. This is not how it is sone, we can ask for safer tools but if someone injures himself with his power tools it is his fault. (and now I expect the argument about "Apple branding needs to be protected" dude Apple shipped bad keyboards and refuse to aknowledge the issue until a a lawsuit, Apple fucked witht eh battery behind the users back and a lawsuit had to happen for this to be shown, Apple branding is not something as a user you need to care about because it promotes antiuser behavious.

Re:Epic, Spotify, and Tinder form advocacy group to push for... by nodamage on Saturday September 26, 2020 @08:42PM (#24603313)
Sounds like you're reaching for excuses to dismiss the obvious malware problem on Android.

No one is advocating banning power tools. There are plenty of power tools (Android devices) out there for people who want to buy them. What you're advocating is that Apple shouldn't be allowed to sell their own, safer, tools to people who want to buy those instead.

Re:Epic, Spotify, and Tinder form advocacy group to push for... by simion314 on Sunday September 27, 2020 @05:27AM (#24605368)
My main point is that:

- if Apple wins vs Epic then Google and Microsoft have precedent and they can lock down their platforms , previous legal precedent was with IE bundling

- because Linux exists that does not mean the Microsoft can do whatever they want, similar because at this moment Android devices exists and some power users can side load and an even small umber of users can root them does not mean that others can lock things down.

Your statistics are misleading and you are avoiding to compare apples to apples. Show me how much malware is on OSX because that platform was not as much locked,

Re:Epic, Spotify, and Tinder form advocacy group to push for... by nodamage on Sunday September 27, 2020 @05:48PM (#24610389)
> - if Apple wins vs Epic then Google and Microsoft have precedent and they can lock down their platforms , previous legal precedent was with IE bundling

Bundling IE with Windows was never established to be illegal in the United States, the issue was overturned by the appeals court and precedent was never set. What was found to be illegal was forcing other companies (like OEMs) to include IE on computers they manufactured as a condition of obtaining Windows licenses.

> - because Linux exists that does not mean the Microsoft can do whatever they want, similar because at this moment Android devices exists and some power users can side load and an even small umber of users can root them does not mean that others can lock things down.

The difference is Microsoft had 95% of the market during their antitrust case. If they had 5% of the market the outcome would have been very different.

> Your statistics are misleading and you are avoiding to compare apples to apples. Show me how much malware is on OSX because that platform was not as much locked,

Are you unaware that Mac malware is a growing problem?

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/02/11/malwarebytes-mac-malwar...

30 million adware detections on Mac last year kind of puts a hole in your theory that only poor people get malware, doesn't it?

Re:Epic, Spotify, and Tinder form advocacy group to push for... by yazaddaruvala on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:40AM (#24590955)
It is my expectation that Apple verifies the identity of developers submitting to the AppStore. It is my expectation that if the initial review doesn't catch the abuse, and my contacts list is scraped and sold that Apple will eventually find out and ban the app from the store.

It is also my expectation that Apple will file a suit for damages, and help a legal firm file a class action suit against the developer on behalf of the victims.

If you are right and this isn't happening yet, I hope Apple starts doing it.

Re:Epic, Spotify, and Tinder form advocacy group to push for... by simion314 on Friday September 25, 2020 @12:27PM (#24591488)
Yes Apple will terminate a dev account for not respecting the terms but I am not aware of Apple or Google trying to bring to justice developers that sold private data, at least in US there is a big resistance against having a GDPR like law so you could use the courts to punish some developers. Also we know that Apple (like Amazon and others) used contractors to have them listen to private recordings of users without asking consent (like hey user , I do not understand this can I send it to the cloud so strangers can listen and do stuff with it ?) , so for Apple privacy is a tool for making money, it aligns with your interest until a point (but as with Siri example you can see it is not 100% aligned with your interests)