And it begins. Apple is truly not interested in "user privacy" above all else!

Here we go, get ready Kool aid drinkers. Apple has shut off iCloud privacy for Russian citizens it's coming your way too! They care about one thing....MONEY, MONEY, MONEY. all this screaming appleistas do over Privacy and security is a bunch of brainwashing bull...

Apple appears to have disabled iCloud Private Relay in Russia for reasons unknown | iMore

 

Given where this is taking place it wouldnt surprise me if Russia demanded disabling that feature or risk losing that market altogether.

Not really surprising.

 

I thought privacy was uncompromising.

 

Privacy is only as uncompromising as those willing to go through the trouble to maintain it, as you can see, there isnt much of that. This isnt to say I am any better, I use android and while I do like to use Custom ROM's its more from a functional standpoint than a strict sense of security.

Living in the 21st century, even abstaining from many sites, social media or store fronts these places still create profiles of you on your behalf for their benefit to the point people now pay to bug their own homes and TV's that scan your network to better profile you as a consumer.

I know you want to have this black and white world where x company is bad and y company is good/"better", the fact is the world has always been quite gray. You sharing these articles is in my opinion a public good, its just unfortunate you dont seem to post much about any other vendor.

 

Yes, because NO other vendor gets on a soap box of international media outlets, gigantic bilboards in large cities and otherwise has millions of minions running about screaming how much better "they" are when it comes to security and privacy. Simple. I call out the bull. That being said, the "other" venders ARE in fact better at both of those than the rotten fruit. Again, Simple.

 

Proclamations with 0 supportive evidence doesnt move the needle much.

But this is interesting, in your view privacy only matters if a company has an aggressive pr campaign towards privacy and also maintains that privacy for you on your behalf.

Only willing to be critical of one team and no other? That's not fighting for privacy, that's tribalism.

Samsung has had plenty of issues as well. I'm sure you have opted out of allowing Samsung to sell your info with the baked in apps within the privacy controls.

 

Time for crickets.

 

Well I guess you are the type to sell out your mother-in-law to the corporations then?

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3514999/samsung-selling-data.html

I guess expecting you to have a consistent position would be asking for too much. My apologies.

 

mean?

you can toggle spy crapola on android just like windows...apple nopers(older ios).

perhaps you need better sleep

https://techwellness.com/blogs/expertise/privacy-apple-vs-google


Privacy: Apple iPhone AND Google Android? See How To KEEP THEM PRIVATE
Like it or not, your phone is an extension of you and consumers are divided over their allegiances to their device company. Self-described "techies" seem to prefer Android phones which allow for more customization and iPhone users prefer ease-of-use and tend to lean towards a white collar, soccer mom demographic. But which scores higher on privacy protection? Apple or Android?


Before we get into the privacy praises for Android and Apple especially with the new IOS 14.3 update, here are two recommendations that work for Android or Apple if you're a stickler for privacy:



1 BLOCK RAT'S OR SPY APPS ON SAMSUNG, T-MOBILE, OTHER ANDROIDS AND APPLE
Your phones camera can be hacked to view you or whatever your camera is looking at. With Android, most spy apps have to be installed on your phone- by someone who has access to it. With iPhone someone can install the spy app simply by logging into your iCloud account.--which is why a good password is particularly important.

REMEMBER, PASSWORD GENERATORS OR MANGERS ARE NOT COMPLETELY SECURE- SEE A GREAT CASE STUDY AND OUR BEST PASSWORD TIPS HERE!
Then, there's the possibility that apps you have allowed access to your photos can and will be looking through your camera lens.

I Keep my selfie cam covered anytime I'm not using it: I love our incredible Creepblockers. Webcam and laptop microphone covers. Simple, durable, and effective. Cool patterns and phrases to make you or feel good--yeah, we think we're pretty funny and nice.

2. FOR GOOGLE ANDROID AND IPHONE- A NEW PRIVACY HACK: SIDE CHANNEL ATTACKS
All phones are subject to in a trending hacking system called side channel attacks. Defined this way on wikipedia:

For computer security, a side-channel attack is any attack based on information gained from the implementation of a computer system, rather than weaknesses in the implemented algorithm itself (e.g.cryptanalysis and software bugs) Timing information, power consumption, electromagnetic (EMF)leaks or even sound can provide an extra source of information, which can be exploited.

Guevara Noubir explains in this article this article in The Conversation how sensors like your smartphones microphones, cameras, light and humidity sensors and other phone components, like the thermometer and barometer can be accessed by bad-acting apps to track your every move.

Are you worried your phone can hear you or track your location even when it's off or in airplane? Many people are - So here's one way to make sure nothing-no signal-gets in or out. It's a total seal from any wireless energy-- Locked Tight beautiful Faraday Case when you're not using it. And bonus: No EMF!

APPLE VS ANDROID/GOOGLE AND PRIVACY ISSUES:
We know that when it comes to individual privacy, using Apple products is probably the lesser of a couple evils. We know that they won't help the FBI crack an iPhone user/terrorist's by giving the phone's passcode. In terms of large-scale privacy, Apple has announced that it doesn't sell your information. BUT it still collects it.

Apple doesn’t assemble user profiles, encrypts iMessage and Facetime end-to-end and does a ton of computation involving your private information on your device rather than on an Apple server. BUT that doesn't mean that there won't be "glitches" and hackers. The recent Facetime Bug was a doozie! It allowed iphone spying when ever there was a group chat! Which, my friends is another good reason why Tech Wellness always recommends using an end to end encrytpted text app like Signal to keep your texts and chats spy-free.

Apple had been banking on the emerging phenomena of "privacy by design" in the tech marketplace: the less personal information that a potential service/product needs, the more desirable it will be to the consumer. But, Apple still allows apps and Apple to know A LOT about YOU. But gives you the control of opting out of much of that tracking.

The New IOS 14.3 gives you the choice of opting in instead of opting out.
I'm really excited about this for you. I've been toggling never on all the permissions for all the apps-unless I'm using them for a long long time. But now with iOS 14.3 and forward, all the apps you visit will have to explicitly ask for your okay to use the camera and microphone. And just in case you said yes and forgot--you'll see a little green color coded icon up on the top of the screen when the camera is being used and an orange one when the microphone is being accessed. How cool is that?!

A while back, Tim Cook, Apple CEO, announced that you can download you data anytime--and delete it when you delete your Apple account. HMMM, okay. So, each time you buy a phone you can consider a new Apple ID and erase all the information associated with you old Apple ID. This screenshot gives you an idea of just how much and what information on your phone-is held by Apple . You can download yours here

Android phones have privacy issues of their own. A year ago, the Associated Press revealed that even with location services disabled, Google was still able to access and track location information from Android phone users. With an Android, Chrome sends Google your location every time you conduct a search.

Turn off location sharing it still sends your coordinates out, but with less accuracy. Of course information is collected on your phone just by logging into any google product, but Google also uses various sensors and cues that are a part of the phone to track and get information.

With Android comes Google, With Google Comes Chrome.

Google owns Chrome. Google's reason d'etre - The reason it exists and is so powerful is SEARCH. You search for what you want and Google gets to show you ads(the one's in the search results) and Google makes money!
Chrome Places Cookies or Trackers everywhere you go online to Share With Google. Google Learns What Ads to Show You by Tracking What You Want and What You Do Then they can tell their advertisers which ads to show you so the advertiser and google are successful.

If You Use Chrome, your search activity and your online browsing activity is automatically, by default shared with Google.

If you're logged in to Chrome or use your Google account with Chrome(you'll see your face in the upper right corner) you are linking all the data google knows via your email account and all your online moves.

Google owns YouTube, so what you watch is also included in the information Google knows about you.

You can block cookies on Chrome (see below( but check this out--from the Chrome Privacy Policy:

It looks like Chrome is saying that there's a tracker on your browser--that each time we download Chrome-there's an individual token, just for our Chrome that tracks promotions--or Google or YouTube ads? Even if cookies are blocked!

 

Its not an opt-in system, its an opt out scenario. Of which was never disclosed to the consumer ahead of such a change. This is also via Samsung, not by Google which has its own policies and practices that may warrant its own critique. How many people do you think immediately go through their new device and all its sub-menu's to look for something like an opt-out prompt on the manufacturer trying to monitor what you do on your phone to sell to interested parties? I wager its not much.

As for the quoted text, this user bought the S21 for his mother in law and is on a payment plan, which in the US would mean you have less control over the phone, generally speaking. Which means you traded one company that is happy to sell you to another company for another. The only difference being the brand, hence why I state its tribalism.

Its all so very simple. If the premise is privacy being the most important attribute to the consumer then why only care when its violated by Apple and not any other vendor? Answer? Because privacy is not the most important feature in that argument.

 

ok i think i missed your point....now its clear and yes your right....thanks for the detailed explanation....i just woke up

 

Perhaps you need better sleep

Its fine, it wasnt an argument about which is better or worse. It was an effort to determine the motivations at play within this thread.

All being said, sleeping is my favorite activity!

 

lol yeah having a coffee felt tired all day....yuck....kinda ironic actually