I‘m a little shocked rn. I am using fluffychat on ios since my legacy iphone is still working and I dont want to throw it out until its done.

But this happened the first time: I wrote „then I might need to take a taxi“ to someone and an installed taxi app immediately popped up via notifications saying „get off 25% today“ or something.

This freaks me out big time since it could mean every word I write on this phone gets checked by something/someone.

Anyone else? (It was literally the second I wrote the sentence)

  • @[email protected]
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    7110 months ago

    Apple does not sell your data to a taxi app. Apple does not transmit your keystrokes.

    FluffyChat, according to their privacy page, uses FireBase for Push notifications. If the message content is transmitted through them, and the taxi app uses firebase too, they could—theoretically—associate your data with both accounts and push you ads for another service on behalf of the taxi app.

    It’s probably just a coincidence… and I’d be alarmed too, but I’d start blaming other companies before Apple, as they tend to horde your data for their own use, not sell it. Apple hates sharing.

    • hauiOP
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      -1610 months ago

      Possible but statistically unlikely. No push notifications of this kind for days before despite heavy use of the phone, then the second I write this one sentence it shows.

      The push provider would be one possible or siri which also suggests apps based on usage data and tried to complete my sentences in mastodon, which also irritates me.

        • hauiOP
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          -110 months ago

          Absolutely possible, I agree.

          Funny that a lot of folks seem to disagree with my statement about statistical probability. Its like the difference between illegal and wrong. A huge amount of people I met think that things that are legal are also correct and vice versa, like slavery once was for example. It’s scary to them that things might be different/worse than they seem.

          Have a good one.

          • @[email protected]
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            10 months ago

            Nice tangent.

            I think people might find it interesting how one thing is statistically unlikely but the likely coincidence is… probably Apple spying on your keystrokes. Human pattern matching strikes again.

            • hauiOP
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              -410 months ago

              I dont speak sarcasm so if you were implying something you didnt write, I didnt catch it.

              From experience with big tech, it is actually not unthinkable that we dont know the extent of their actions. Of course it is more likely that someone would have caught this if it is going on for some time but it also is possible that stuff is evolving, just backwards.

              • @[email protected]
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                510 months ago

                It is. It is also possible that out of the thousands of people who received a notification, you happened to be typing something about a similar subject and nobody else found it odd in the least bit.

                • hauiOP
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                  -110 months ago

                  Absolutely. I agree that this is possible. My point here being that it being a coincidence (in our current climate with consumer surveillance being on an all time high) isnt that likely anymore.

  • @TenderfootGungi
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    3010 months ago

    If you are using a third party keyboard, the company that makes it can see every keystroke. It is why Apple did not allow them for a long time.

    • hauiOP
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      -110 months ago

      Are you talking about a hardware keyboard or an app? I was using the on screen keyboard I used from day one.

      • M137
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        110 months ago

        Removed by mod

        • hauiOP
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          310 months ago

          You‘re the reason people hate on lemmy. Disgusting attitude. Blocked.

  • @[email protected]
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    2510 months ago

    Are you sure you didn’t have a boomer moment and accidentally spotlight search the taxi app?

    • hauiOP
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      110 months ago

      That would be my first but not impossible I guess. I rechecked. Nope, I wrote a message and this popped up. None of these for days before and now hours after despite heavy use of the phone.

  • @PeroBasta
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    1010 months ago

    Had similar experiences. Check my post history. I got shit on by the apple community tho.

    • hauiOP
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      310 months ago

      I‘m not seeing any posts that suggest you were in a similar situation. Feel free to send a link to the post.

      • @doctorzeromd
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        10 months ago

        I think they’re referring to this https://lemmy.world/post/9384633

        Though from my reading of it it seems like they got a pretty clear explanation on the top post about what was going on, it doesn’t sound like OP’s situation.

        I’m very anti-apple, but PeroBasta’s post doesn’t seem like apple is doing anything weird.

        • hauiOP
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          110 months ago

          Thats why I didnt see it. The post for some reason didnt show on my instance and then got loaded in between. Lemmy and federation… anyway, I also recognized this recently and my wife actually changed a setting while I was driving and since it disappeared.

  • @Starbuck
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    10 months ago

    Do you have location tracking turned on? I feel like a few times when people looked into this, it came down to the Taxi app having location sharing on (so the app can show you fairs, of course) and that the fact that you wrote something about needing a taxi is irrelevant because the app knows you are someplace where you might need a taxi.

    And maybe someone nearby you who also had the same Taxi app had just booked a trip. They can correlate your location and people around you.

    • hauiOP
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      110 months ago

      I checked. No. It only has location when the app is in use (which it hasnt been for months), to add to this, I was at home at the time and not on the move. I have however been on the move a couple days before (which the app cant see without location) and nothing happened.

  • @weeeeum
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    310 months ago

    Yes, of course haha. Apple is as much of a data company as Google or Facebook, but they pretend to be privacy centric. Their “privacy” reputation comes from preventing apps from tracking your and limiting their data collection.

    This isn’t for the good of the consumer, it simply gives apple a monopoly on data of their customers, that they can sell for a pretty penny.

    If you want a truly privacy focused iPhone you likely have to jailbreak it. Either that or get an android phone and install graphene OS or other privacy centric off shoots of android OS.

    Remember, if a company owns the operating system, you’re being tracked. Happens just as much on windows and Mac. They’ll even track what you say, and give you recommendations based on that.

    • @TenderfootGungi
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      610 months ago

      This is mostly not true. They are extremely privacy focused. The do keep some data on you but it is anonymized and not sold. For example, the maps app will keep the route, but randomly chops both ends off so there is not an exact start and stop. Siri sucks because it runs on devise instead of a server somewhere like all the rest. And they sell adds based on keywords in the App Store. But they do not collect and sell your data like the rest.

      A big fear is a future new leadership team changing these policies for a quick cash grab. We need data privacy laws.

      • @[email protected]
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        010 months ago

        Apple is not a privacy company.

        However, the data Apple collects is not immediately shared like Google and facebook do.

        They know it has more value if they can be the gatekeeper of your data, and sell companies access to you by getting them to invest in their ecosystem and marketplace.

      • @SuckMyWang
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        10 months ago

        Isn’t it a bit like how I ate a sandwich today? I know I ate a sandwich but there’s no proof of it. I am still allowed to talk about eating a sandwich even though there’s no proof. Did I mention how I ate a sandwich today?

        Also this is a bad example because I’m actually lying about the sandwich. I never ate a sandwich. But you get the point.

        • @thrawn
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          10 months ago

          Not really. You’re making an allegation with no evidence, then incorrectly comparing it to you proving something you yourself may have done. That wouldn’t work if you were merely claiming someone else ate a sandwich, much less something like this.

          An exercise— some taxi company made the app with publicly available software. A lot of Lemmy users seem to be developers and know how the notification system works for iOS. Is it then:

          • Apple tracks all sentences typed and lets every single app know when something related to its purpose is typed so a notification can be served? And every single app developer in existence has hidden this knowledge?

          • Apple tracks all sentences typed and lets specific apps know when something related to its purpose is typed? Why would they give this data to a taxi company and not larger companies that drive more profit? If they did give it to taxi companies and up, how do they prevent whistleblowers? Privacy intrusion on this level would be massive. People will leak military secrets to prove a point in video games, but not this?

          • Apple tracks all sentences typed and only lets this taxi company know when “I need a taxi” is typed? This would be safest because it reduces the chance of a leak. And yet also tremendously risky to give this data to a taxi company, which probably isn’t overly secure, when this information leaking would cost them shareholder-angering amounts of money and poor press.

          This conspiracy is moon-landing-is-fake levels of implausible. It would require airtight security and a level of secret keeping that humans are simply not capable of. No disgruntled employee of any company would have leaked this? Apple would risk meteoric reputation damage to slightly drive in app purchases that they’d then get a 30% cut of? Be serious.

          I hate defending any corporation but the flat earth level conspiracies I see upvoted on Lemmy— with zero proof, or even waving away the thought of proof!— would be laughed at anywhere else. These takes also delegitimize real criticism because there may yet be something relatively implausible that they are doing, and noise like this muddies the water. Why not discuss the actual unethical things Apple does, of which there are many, instead of making stuff up?

          Edit: oops, you did not make the allegation, merely defended it. I’d split this up into two separate criticisms for maximum effectiveness (the other one for the confidently-said zero-proof conspiracy, and this one for the implication that evidence for conspiracies is unnecessary) but no one’s gonna read it anyway so whatever.

            • @thrawn
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              110 months ago

              Well shit, thanks. I used to do this (being long comments) on Reddit but long comments naturally filter out some readers. Which I get, cause sometimes I’m not looking to read a whole thing too, so it never offended me.

              People on Lemmy seem to have longer attention spans though, shouldn’t be too surprised. This site has me returning to older habits of thinking through comments and spending almost 20 minutes typing haha, back on the other site I just stopped commenting in the years before the API changes since I’ve never been the type for quippy one liners. So yeah weirdly thanks, odd how it kind of feels nice to have these read again. I obv can’t text monologue irl (cause it’s not text) and I’m one for brevity with text messages

          • @[email protected]
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            10 months ago

            Here are Apple’s most basic promises to developers.

            If their stated capabilities don’t sound like a security nightmare for users then you are willfully blind.

            Of course you have to make a purchase and sign an NDA to get more specific info on their capabilities. Why? Because it’s a nightmare.

            Yes they absolutely talk out both sides of their mouths when it comes to security and it doesn’t take a “genius” to put 2+2 together.

            • @thrawn
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              110 months ago

              Please quote anything that comes close to OS-level spying for developer benefit. When did it become acceptable to fake source by posting just a link and no context? I read through several of the sections and not a single one indicates you can get significant information outside your own app. Again, I am not claiming Apple is benevolent. I was reasonably clear that they should be criticized for the many unethical things they do engage in.

              In fact, none of what you said directly confronts anything I mentioned. I’d need more than vague innuendos to change my stance on what is, again, reputation ending and unprecedented spying for the benefit of small time companies.

              Also recall that Apple employees have leaked completely uninteresting things for twitter clout, leading to firings and legal action. You cannot claim with a straight face that employees will leak that but not OS-level spying. They’re bound by the same NDAs but are willing to face jail time to leak information about the next iPhone and not this? Remember that NDAs are not magic documents with 100% effectiveness.

              And that’s just Apple employees. Individual developers can leak. A software dev at Google (king of advertising) being laid off for shareholder value can leak.

              These conspiracy theories always play to the same desire to feel like the believers and their fellow theorists are the only ones who haven’t had the wool pulled over their eyes by some borderline omnipotent organization moving in the shadows. Only the special few know the truth; though they cannot prove it, they know it to be true. And these all fall apart at the foundation: plausibility. To save time, I won’t respond if you can’t provide direct quotes or real evidence that realistically suggest Apple tracks keyboard strokes to deliver ad opportunities to third party developers— implications and leaps of logic need not apply. This reminds me too much of flat earthers, and while I do enjoy reading this stuff, it’s not productive to either person to engage too much. I wouldn’t want to waste your time. Stay safe out there!

              (Feel free to respond with the innuendos anyway though, I will read it for fun. I just won’t respond if there’s no real evidence. For inspiration, think past basic ads and consider the limitless potential for US government or Chinese government spying with real time keystroke tracking, and how that is potentially connected to seasonal Covid rate spikes or military plane flight patterns. Maybe they add to Covid numbers when iOS users type “let’s eat the rich next week” too many times?)

              • @[email protected]
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                110 months ago

                If their stated capabilities don’t sound like a security nightmare for users then you are willfully blind.

                You need tech Jesus to cure your tech blindness.

                Nothing a mere mortal such as myself can do.

        • @[email protected]
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          310 months ago

          Your example should be someone else claims that you ate a sandwich but you did not. Even if you keep saying you hate sandwiches and no one ever saw you do it. But everyone else eats sandwiches, so how could you not.

    • hauiOP
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      -110 months ago

      As funny as this is to you, many are working on getting these corpos to back down. I already handed in a privacy complaint this month against apple which is currently being pursued by the State Office for Data Protection Supervision (a machine translated this).

      If this is actually something we can prove somehow, we‘re probably putting a new record for class action lawsuits in the guinness book.

  • gregorum
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    010 months ago

    No. If someone is telling you that Apple is doing that, they are lying to you. Demand proof, because no one can provide that. Because Apple is not doing that, and if they’re telling you they are, they are lying.

    • @[email protected]
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      110 months ago

      If you demand proof to state they do, you should provide proof when stating they don’t. It’s not like Apple is the most trustworthy company in the world. With big tech it’s always reasonable (definitely not certain) to assume they could be spying on your activity, and unless you are able to download your software source code, check it and compile it yourself, it’s almost impossible to tell.

    • TheEntity
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      -110 months ago

      Until it’s proven the data is E2E encrypted, it’s a fair assumption it can be read by a 3rd party, either now or in the future. E2EE is the only proof that matters, everything else is just a corporate “trust me bro”.

    • hauiOP
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      -210 months ago

      While I get the initial claim that proof is necessary, your argument is self-evident as well.

      Nobody can provide proof does not mean its not true, just that its not proven. Its very suspicious that I got this notification the exact second I wrote the text and no other notifications for days before and after.

      It is statistically very likely that someone or something triggered this in that moment. Either on the phone through siri for example who is supposed to select apps by usage, in the chat app (unlikely because open source) or in the notification provider, as mentioned by another commenter.

      • gregorum
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        110 months ago

        So you admit that you can’t back up your claims. Don’t expect reasonable or rational people to believe you. 

        • hauiOP
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          -110 months ago

          Are you joking? When did I claim anything? I said this happened, not that I know why.

  • WeAreAllOne
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    -210 months ago

    Yeah what’s the surprise there? Apple devices are known for their privacy practices…NOT!

    • hauiOP
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      -110 months ago

      The issue is that it is illegal and enforceable in the EU if I can prove it. So no, there is currently no proof that this has actually been done by apple and if it was, we‘d have a field day.

      • WeAreAllOne
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        -110 months ago

        You’d better read carefully the terms of service before you click on accept when you get a new device…

        • hauiOP
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          -110 months ago

          Yeah, no. Nobody does and companies cant just spy on you.

          • WeAreAllOne
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            010 months ago

            Then you are naive by choice my dude. You should better read some relevant articles going on around for years.

            • hauiOP
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              -210 months ago

              I‘m not naive. I am entitled to human rights. There is a huge difference.

              I simply wont accept that companies are allowed to do this and I‘m actively suing and working against this, every way I can, so are hundreds if not thousands of others.

              So no, I dont need to read 10 or 100 pages of „contract“ just because a company wants me to not do it and blows up the contract. I sue and the company has to back down. With small companies this works immediately, with large ones we just need more folks with this mindset.

                • hauiOP
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                  010 months ago

                  So, before I block you for insulting and degrading language, here the explanation:

                  When you make business with companies, these companies have certain rights, same as you but not the same as you, the individual.

                  A company is overly powerful so consumer protection kicks in and forces them to treat you fairly. For example, they cant put something in their contracts that one sidedly benefits them and is bad for you (acting in bad faith). If they do this the contract becomes unenforceable.

                  Thats how I already sued a couple companies and continue to do so. The same goes for gdpr enforcement. If a company does stupid things with my data, I tell them to stop, let them send me all my data and then delete it. This is a massive amount of work for them and some have real issues with doing this. Also, if they dont they pay a large fine.

                  So, as you dont seem to know a lot about consumer protection, I hope you educate yourself and stop insulting folks.

                  Be better.