Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

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Are iPhones Better for Privacy? Comparative Study of iOS and Android Apps (petsymposium.org)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/198544

While it has been argued that the choice of smartphone architecture might protect user privacy, no clear winner between iOS and Android emerges from our analysis.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

This is a study of 24,000 Android and iOS apps and looks at tracking in particular. The authors conclude that neither platform is better than the other. What I felt was missing from the analysis was just and overall comparison of anti-tracking features in both Android and iOS. I think that's more important (especially since privacy is not the default in most cases and requires user intervention) and would love to see some information on that if anyone has any.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Android, especially AOSP ROMs, can be rooted, at which point it will let you configure the HOSTS file to sinkhole tracking domains. iOS can't do that, the best you can do is use a VPN or DNS server that blocks trackers.

Also, iOS has no equivalent to F-Droid and other FLOSS app store alternatives.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

Yes, Google and Apple each have their own preferences in breaching the user's privacy. Like, Google loves targeted ads while Apple wishes to know your location whenever

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

The apps are not the main privacy issue, the OS is.