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A comment on Facebook says Apple is too powerful – they're right. Parent comment

Re:Facebook says Apple is too powerful – they're right by swagasaurus-rex on Monday June 20, 2022 @12:24PM (#31812214)
> The important thing to appreciate is that App Tracking Transparency isn't something Apple can enforce with code

Wait - why not? Apple controls iOS, they control the sandbox apps run in. Of all protections, app tracking seems like they aren't really fixing the problem by using monopoly power and threatening to pull apps.

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Re:Facebook says Apple is too powerful – they're right by whimsicalism on Monday June 20, 2022 @12:31PM (#31812321)
It is pretty difficult to ensure that tracking IDs are not passed between apps with a sandbox. The legal enforcement is a much bigger deal on these things.
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Re:Facebook says Apple is too powerful – they're right by simondotau on Monday June 20, 2022 @06:57PM (#31817311)
The entitlement cannot be enforced by the kernel. There is literally no API call associated with it. If the user requests no third-party tracking, there's literally no API for the sandbox to lock out.

The entitlement is enforced by legal contract. The only thing stopping Meta from blatantly ignoring this policy is the fear of consequences by Apple.

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Re:Facebook says Apple is too powerful – they're right by everforward on Wednesday June 22, 2022 @12:21AM (#31831980)
Then the corollary is that viruses can't be stopped, because there's no "don't install viruses" API call?

Apple can absolutely make API changes to prevent tracking. They could implement DNS blocking as part of the DNS lookup API. They could add a toggle that requires the user to whitelist any network connections. They could do analysis and provide users reports of which apps they think are doing tracking, with options to disable whichever feature they think is accomplishing the tracking. They could add temporary grants (i.e. "allow network access for the next 15 seconds").

Hell, Apple doesn't even need it's own app store to threaten Meta. They can blacklist binaries and network connections at the OS layer.

Apple likes this setup because they remain the gatekeepers of users, which is extremely profitable.

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Re:Facebook says Apple is too powerful – they're right by native_samples on Tuesday June 21, 2022 @04:56AM (#31821823)
It's because "tracking" isn't a well defined thing to begin with, so it can't be enforced in code because. Doing so would require privacy advocates to figure out precisely what it is they are getting upset about.
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Re:Facebook says Apple is too powerful – they're right by kec on Monday June 20, 2022 @01:04PM (#31812714)
How do you keep an application from taking an entitlement it shouldn't have (such as location or bluetooth access for fingerprinting) via code? Sandboxes can be enforced via entitlement checks in code, but the act of holding an entitlement is policy.
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Re:Facebook says Apple is too powerful – they're right by hermitdev on Monday June 20, 2022 @06:12PM (#31816823)
Surely the entitlements are enforced via code on iOS, right? It cannot be on the honor system.
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Re:Facebook says Apple is too powerful – they're right by kec on Monday June 20, 2022 @06:33PM (#31817050)
Using the entitlements are enforced at runtime yes, but granting them in the first place is enforced at app review time. If an app asserts an entitlement the developer can't justify it will fail review.
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Re:Facebook says Apple is too powerful – they're right by sitharus on Monday June 20, 2022 @06:33PM (#31817057)
The usual way - entitlements are held in a kernel data structure, and the kernel and associated system services won't allow access to APIs when the entitlement isn't there.

Try it on iOS, if you don't have the right entitlements system API calls will fail.

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