Apple should suspend these apps from the App Store indefinitely!
Suspend the devs.
No apps should have access to user contacts either. Should be off limits to apps. There’s no way there should be an iOS OS-level feature where a user can share the private details of everyone they know with a simple “Ok” on their screen. I’d much rather devs have access to my location than my entire contact book—it’s insane. And sacrosanct.
The chances of IBM, the developer of "one of those apps", being suspended is nil IMHO.
Why on earth isn't there a simple on/off control for Location Services in the Control Center just like wi-fi, cellular, & bluetooth communications? Pet peeve.
Just because you don’t want ONE app to access your location, doesn’t mean another should not be able to access it. You can already turn access on or off on a per app basis.
Well, cellular data already has an overall switch in the Control Center as well as per-app switches, so there is precedent.
i understand that it doesn't fix bad app behavior, but a simple, convenient way of denying all apps of location data unless needed could reduce the exposure window.
i already severely limit location data access on a per-app basis.
There was a Jailbreak app that I was my go to for control center called CCControls. It allowed you to add and customize toggles in control center. This would allow the OP to do exactly what he is looking to do with location services.
This is one of many apps from my jailbreaking days that truly wish Apple would add to IOS. I know the "dangers" of jailbreaking but there are some very nice tweaks that in my opinion should be part of IOS available via jailbreak.
I don't JB anymore, but I do miss having my phone exactly the way I wanted it.
The user needs to be able to control location resolution. It may be useful for a app to know which country or state/region/city you’re in but precise location data is rarely required.
Apple needs to address the whole area of information access. Why does my auction app require full access to my photo library rather than just the photos I need to give it and write access too? Apple should create a system-level picker to apps - same for photo import from the lightning/USB port. iOS needs work here.
The user needs to be able to control location resolution. It may be useful for a app to know which country or state/region/city you’re in but precise location data is rarely required.
Apple needs to address the whole area of information access. Why does my auction app require full access to my photo library rather than just the photos I need to give it and write access too? Apple should create a system-level picker to apps - same for photo import from the lightning/USB port. iOS needs work here.
Google Play has an Android app called "Bouncer" that allows the user to remove permissions requested by a 3rd party app when it's closed. Pretty useful and a big help for tracking concerns. I've used it for a few weeks now and it works just like it says. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samruston.permission&hl=en_US
You might see if the App Store has an equivalent app. If not perhaps some developer here on the forums will recognize a need when he sees it and run with it.
1) ship an app without the option While Using. I've seen a lot of apps that have only Never and Always as options. It's really inconvenient to go into Settings to toggle apps to limit data transmission. While Using should always be an option.
2) Ship an app that requires Location Services on to function at all, when entering your City and State, or Zip Code would provide the same general location. I've come a cross a couple of weather apps, and three or four others (can't remember the who or what) that required this.
None of these apps needed to use Location Services to function. A city and state or Zip Code would have sufficed. Sure, an app might be so granular that as you move about your city, the weather report could change.
And there is convenience in traveling from one city or even state, to another and getting local weather without jumping through hoops. There should still be an option for entering a city or cities of choice instead of only using LS.
I don't know if this is the responsibility of devs or Apple, or the wonkiness of my iOS' condition, but the app toggles for LS should persist through reboots and iOS upgrades. Granted some of this may be my memory, but I am constantly finding apps with LS on, when I know I turned them to Never (or maybe While Using). Every month or two, I take a quick tour of the apps in LS and always end up turning a few off. When I download a new app and Notifications show me a '...would like to access', the answer is no. Only if/when I find a need to turn it on, do I.
I send these complaints to applefeedback every time I encounter them. Again, it's likely only cathartic value, but I feel better.
Apple should suspend these apps from the App Store indefinitely!
Essentially, I assumed that ANY app that provided unlimited location
services to (whether the app was open of not) was selling my location. Maybe it would be better to force them to clearly describe in language easily understood exactly what they are sharing and to whom -- and to update the user if it changes.
WeatherBug is one of my most heavily used apps and I would miss it greatly. I actually kind of liked the TheWeatherChannel better, but it doesn't run well on my 6+, so I stick with WeatherBug.
Or too, these apps, could offer a purchase option or subscription to make up for lost advertising revenue.
There are a number of options.
The Weather Channel app already offers a $3.99/year subscription to remove ads. It's too bad they don't offer to remove all the videos you are bombarded with.
I always think most Apps collect your data albeit anonymously. They need that so their services could work accurately. They don't break the rule as long as those data are not tracking identified users. As what they do for said data is none of Apple's business. If you worry about privacy, you can always turn off location services individually or turn off background app refresh.
Tip 'o the iceberg. Google Maps tracking despite the user explicitly turning it off? No consequence. Oh, wait, they pay Apple 8 billion a year...we'll let that one go I guess
Not quite. That article talks a lot about "On an Android..." but doesn't give clear examples on iOS. In iOS, if you disable the location services for it, the app can't use it. The article talks about Google's internal setting called "Location History", and the confusion as Google says it means something other than what some people think it means. But it's not circumventing iOS platform rules or API rules. Thus no punishment from Apple is necessary.
As long as the internet has been around, this kind of stuff should have been sorted out long ago. Apple is also worthy of some wrath.
We should be able to control which websites put cookies in our browser- not on or off as in the current release of Mac OS and we should be able to specify which kind of cookies. I do not mind reputable businesses putting a cookie in to speed up logins, but do not want anything to do with advertising and do not want every website I listed to read one linked story on planting 50 cookies in my browser.
Yes I know about extensions- Ghostery Lite is on my Mac as I type and eero Plus has some web blocking capabilities from Zscaler on my home network, but we still get too many cookies.
Apple should suspend these apps from the App Store indefinitely!
Suspend the devs.
No apps should have access to user contacts either. Should be off limits to apps. There’s no way there should be an iOS OS-level feature where a user can share the private details of everyone they know with a simple “Ok” on their screen. I’d much rather devs have access to my location than my entire contact book—it’s insane. And sacrosanct.
That's a very interesting point. Some apps would no doubt need on-device access to contacts, e.g. Wahtsapp and other messaging apps have a legitimate reason to use contacts but in theory, allowing an app to upload to the cloud the personal data of someone else would surely be illegal in Europe?
Everyone else probably knows, but I've always wondered if selecting Share location "while using app" means as long as it the app is even up in the background (meaning I can app switch to it). Does it? Or only when the app is up on my screen? I have every single app set to not allow or only when using, but always figured they were gathering more. Weatherbug is coming off my phone right now.
Comments
I will tell you what is shocking and disturbing: that no one ever taught you that you NEVER start a sentence with a number, but spell it out.
Apple needs to address the whole area of information access. Why does my auction app require full access to my photo library rather than just the photos I need to give it and write access too? Apple should create a system-level picker to apps - same for photo import from the lightning/USB port. iOS needs work here.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samruston.permission&hl=en_US
You might see if the App Store has an equivalent app. If not perhaps some developer here on the forums will recognize a need when he sees it and run with it.
1) ship an app without the option While Using. I've seen a lot of apps that have only Never and Always as options. It's really inconvenient to go into Settings to toggle apps to limit data transmission. While Using should always be an option.
2) Ship an app that requires Location Services on to function at all, when entering your City and State, or Zip Code would provide the same general location. I've come a cross a couple of weather apps, and three or four others (can't remember the who or what) that required this.
None of these apps needed to use Location Services to function. A city and state or Zip Code would have sufficed. Sure, an app might be so granular that as you move about your city, the weather report could change.
And there is convenience in traveling from one city or even state, to another and getting local weather without jumping through hoops. There should still be an option for entering a city or cities of choice instead of only using LS.
I don't know if this is the responsibility of devs or Apple, or the wonkiness of my iOS' condition, but the app toggles for LS should persist through reboots and iOS upgrades. Granted some of this may be my memory, but I am constantly finding apps with LS on, when I know I turned them to Never (or maybe While Using). Every month or two, I take a quick tour of the apps in LS and always end up turning a few off. When I download a new app and Notifications show me a '...would like to access', the answer is no. Only if/when I find a need to turn it on, do I.
I send these complaints to applefeedback every time I encounter them. Again, it's likely only cathartic value, but I feel better.
All your our trips start/stop at your house? Bingo.
Otoh. I’ve alwsys assumed TANSTAFL. No app is “free”, coders get paid some how, some way.