Apple’s privacy ambivalence

John E. Dunn for Sophos: Apple says no to Facebook’s tracking
“Later this year, users running the next version of Apple’s Safari browser on iOS and macOS should start seeing a new pop-up dialogue box when they visit many websites…this will ask users whether to allow or block web tracking quietly carried out by a certain company’s ‘like’, ‘share’ and comment widgets.” And the dialog text in the demo to which the article refers specifically mentions Facebook.

On the other hand: Caleb Chen for Privacy News Online: Apple could have years of your internet browsing history; won’t necessarily give it to you – “Apple has years of your internet browsing history if you selected “sync browser tabs” in Safari. This internet history does not disappear from their servers when you click “Clear internet history” on Safari … Additionally, the data stored and provided seems to be different for European Union based requesters versus United States based requesters. Discovering these sources of metadata is arguably one of the side effects of GDPR compliance. ”

And: New York Times: Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends –
“The company formed data-sharing partnerships with Apple, Samsung and
dozens of other device makers, raising new concerns about its privacy protections.” And commentary by Help Net Security: Facebook gave user data access to Chinese mobile device makers, too

David Harley