Nannies and Spyware

[JustJones]

I have a friend that's Apple to the core... computer/tablets/phones and he's easier to find than the nose on your face. He showed me how he could find his wife and she could find him 24/7. I couldn't believe it though he said you can turn that off but from what I can tell it isn't on most people's radar to do so. They think it's great. I think it depends on how much you want to lock down than the device you're using.

 

[audio_tony]

I have a friend that's Apple to the core... computer/tablets/phones and he's easier to find than the nose on your face. He showed me how he could find his wife and she could find him 24/7. I couldn't believe it though he said you can turn that off but from what I can tell it isn't on most people's radar to do so. They think it's great. I think it depends on how much you want to lock down than the device you're using.

Android used to have these feature several years ago, but I don't think it's possible any more (perhaps it has to be enable in some menu somewhere but I've not seen it).

 

[mhardy6647]

There is a clear product there and it is being paid for. Roku gets money in both of those transactions; where is my discount for them harvesting my info?

How much would they charge if they didn't [harvest one's info]?

 

[mhardy6647]

I have a friend that's Apple to the core... computer/tablets/phones and he's easier to find than the nose on your face. He showed me how he could find his wife and she could find him 24/7. I couldn't believe it though he said you can turn that off but from what I can tell it isn't on most people's radar to do so. They think it's great. I think it depends on how much you want to lock down than the device you're using.

The funny thing about Apple is that they do a very good job (arguably even an admirable job) of circling the wagons and not just giving in to third parties who want the info. The "issue" (from my perspective) is that they collect all kinds of information from their clientele (those within the circled wagons... umm, I mean, ecosystem) and then -- do whatever they do with it. No discounts; heck they charge as they see fit, since for what they sell, they have no essentially competition. If you want what they're selling, you'll only get it from them.

I remain of the opinion that Apple's products are the Ford Model T of the current era. You get what they want to sell you -- and folks (literally) line up to get it. Apple's genius was to stuff schools with their products. We lived in the Silicon Valley in the late '80s/early '90s. Thanks to Prop 103, the schools had no money (our daughter's kindergarten class had over 30 students and no aide) -- but boy howdy did they have technology.

______________
* EDIT: in fairness, and in full disclosure, our daughter was fortunate (lucky!) to have an excellent teacher (brand new hire, she was, too) they year, and in first grade. Indeed, she's still in fairly regular contact with her first grade teacher, AFAIK.

 

[Ron Texas]

@somebodyelse your position is definitely a minority point of view, biased, and highly argumentative. Apple when compared to its computer and mobile phone peers is miles ahead in privacy no matter what dirt anyone can dig up about controversies which were resolved in favor of the consumer's privacy. Had the resolution been otherwise, you might have a case. As for WhatsApp it's a different product, country, regulation and business model making your analogy irrelevant.

 

[Ze Frog]

I never go online without a VPN, but nothing is ever really truly hidden. Pretty much everything these days has the ability to track and spy on you, but it's passed off as an convenience. Not really much you can do about that, you could leave online and go off grid, but if an organisation at government level wants to find you, then they certainly will.

 

[Ron Texas]

I never go online without a VPN, but nothing is ever really truly hidden. Pretty much everything these days has the ability to track and spy on you, but it's passed off as an convenience. Not really much you can do about that, you could leave online and go off grid, but if an organisation at government level wants to find you, then they certainly will.

I use a VPN from time to time. Usually, I just set my DNS to Cloudflare so my ISP can't sell the data. The situation is absurd. I'm not going off grid and nobody cares that much about me. It's not like I'm an activist or someone important.

 

[srrxr71]

Welcome to Apple ecosystem:

MacOS is talking back home a lot … and stopping it is very hard.

You should activate (at least):
- advanced data protection: your data are encrypted and apple does not have the keys or do not use iCloud
- disk encryption
- add a vpn (proton for ex)
- add security keys (physical or via an Authenticator app)
- long password I know I know
- activate the firewall
- install Lulu (https://objective-see.org/products/lulu.html) and most software from objective see
- if you use safari, then you should filter it (AdGuard or similar)

I can make a longer list if you want, we have one at work that I believe is shareable.

MacOS is not much better than windows … switching to Linux is an improvement security wise but makes a lot of other stuff more complicated.

I found out recently that I needed to enable lockdown mode too. It’s getting wild out there these days.

 

[srrxr71]

I have a friend that's Apple to the core... computer/tablets/phones and he's easier to find than the nose on your face. He showed me how he could find his wife and she could find him 24/7. I couldn't believe it though he said you can turn that off but from what I can tell it isn't on most people's radar to do so. They think it's great. I think it depends on how much you want to lock down than the device you're using.

I knew a guy who was bragging how when he needs to know where he was at any given time he can just log into Google and find out where he was.

 

[MaxBuck]

I certainly am not critical of anyone who wants to absolutely minimize how much information other people can gather about them without permission. But I feel compelled to offer a counterpoint: I just don't care.

Government oversight seems to be a common concern, as does corporate snooping into our lives. I've solved those concerns by not doing anything that anyone else would particularly care in knowing. I recognize that other people may not be able to follow this approach.

ETA: none of this applies to my financial accounts. Obviously I guard those very, very carefully. But if you want to snoop my net worth or stuff I own, have at it.

 

[srrxr71]

I certainly am not critical of anyone who wants to absolutely minimize how much information other people can gather about them without permission. But I feel compelled to offer a counterpoint: I just don't care.

Government oversight seems to be a common concern, as does corporate snooping into our lives. I've solved those concerns by not doing anything that anyone else would particularly care in knowing. I recognize that other people may not be able to follow this approach.

ETA: none of this applies to my financial accounts. Obviously I guard those very, very carefully. But if you want to snoop my net worth or stuff I own, have at it.

Yeah this is what it has come to. Can’t say you’re wrong. But there is a principle at play here and you’re right it’s too late.

The funny thing is while “they” can see everything there is no shortage of people committing identity theft and other cybercrimes. One wonders why these things cannot be stopped or prevented.

Meanwhile some agency will have at you for not reporting some $601 Venmo payment you got. Or worse raid your farm for selling raw milk.

It’s always easier to catch the low hanging fruit while letting the real organized criminals run amok.

 

[valerianf]

"One wonders why these things cannot be stopped or prevented. "
Because Big Tech companies do not care about protecting their customers.
Real life example: you own an iPhone that is stolen.
Big price for the teaf: through hacking the Apple account they get access to all your bank accounts. Bingo.
I went to the Apple store and ask them to block the iCloud account. Waste of time.
They told me that it is not them that own the iCloud accounts system but another independent entity.
"Sorry we cannot do anything".
Safety of the customers is not the priority of Apple, richest company in the World.

Lesson: never place any bank account credentials in the Apple system.
Writing them on a paper hidden in a safe box is safer.

 

[srrxr71]

"One wonders why these things cannot be stopped or prevented. "
Because Big Tech companies do not care about protecting their customers.
Real life example: you own an iPhone that is stolen.
Big price for the teaf: through hacking the Apple account they get access to all your bank accounts. Bingo.
I went to the Apple store and ask them to block the iCloud account. Waste of time.
They told me that it is not them that own the iCloud accounts system but another independent entity.
"Sorry we cannot do anything".
Safety of the customers is not the priority of Apple, richest company in the World.

Lesson: never place any bank account credentials in the Apple system.
Writing them on a paper hidden in a safe box is safer.

Wow that’s terrible.


So I had followed this guide and used screen time to add another layer of a passcode to prevent this and some darn update disabled it:

How Screen Time Can Save You When Your iPhone Is Stolen

This usage monitoring app can actually help keep your Apple ID data out of a hacker's hands.

lifehacker.com

Seriously even though Apple is probably the “best” for security they really don’t give a damn. They just do what they need to advertise privacy and security and pass muster with the media.


So using a 3rd party password manager is safer in some sense but really do you trust that provider?

ExpressVPN was considered good until apparently some company that sells hacking tools bought them. Anything can change.


But really most important thing is whenever the phone asks for the passcode make sure nobody is watching. Once someone has that code your data is theirs.

I think one easy but overlooked (by this $3T corporation) is the ability to have a different passcode for the password manager. That way even if someone saw you enter your passcode at least they won’t have all your passwords.

So many settings like access things on the lockscreen. Why? Just for convenience. I just went in and disabled all that.

 

[valerianf]

I agree that a third party vault (i.e. an app) that is separated from Apple/Google/Microsoft unlocking mechanism is safer.
But good question is who is the owner of the third party app?
Modern world is unsafe: even some crypto currency exchange companies were playing casino with the customer money!
It is very important to read user advices on various forums and doing some digging on the companies that we rely on.

 

[srrxr71]

I agree that a third party vault (i.e. an app) that is separated from Apple/Google/Microsoft unlocking mechanism is safer.
But good question is who is the owner of the third party app?
Modern world is unsafe: even some crypto currency exchange companies were playing casino with the customer money!
It is very important to read user advices on various forums and doing some digging on the companies that we rely on.

The easiest way is to rely on the same company and that’s what Apple is marketing now in an almost elitist way.

“We are one of the good ones”

All they really need to do is to add a layer of security to their password manager. Just a different passcode like they did for screen time.

Doing a little research why all these settings are under what is the child protection settings is apparently that kids were messing with the security and account settings so they put it there.

A kids account obviously needs another passcode so that adds a layer of security against your kids doing stupid things with their devices.

It turns out some of those are great to protect your device from thieves also. So they put those settings there.

Now they need to use their collective heads and add a separate passcode for the password manager. They haven’t even thought about it from a security perspective but rather the child lock perspective.

Also the ironic thing (to me at least) is that I feel safer with one of the big 3 - Apple, MSFT or even Google than putting data in the hands of some of these upstarts. Which compounds the monopoly problem but this is the problem is modern tech. Trust

 

[srrxr71]

So it turns out iOS 17.3 released a stolen device protection mode finally. It requires biometrics to change major settings and to access the password manager. Finally.

Edit: just tried it. It will not let you see passwords without Face ID.

 

[Ron Texas]

So it turns out iOS 17.3 released a stolen device protection mode finally. It requires biometrics to change major settings and to access the password manager. Finally.

Edit: just tried it. It will not let you see passwords without Face ID.

I will have to try that this morning. Also, Apple dropped Sonoma 14.3 for the Mac, an update for the watch and I haven't checked Mrs. T's iPad.

 

[007Shortz]

Browsers:
Brave Browser
Librewolf

DNS:
https://dns.sb/

Android:
GrapheneOS

It's far away from being perfect but that's what I'm doing