A fairly reasonable point: as long as there’s only one supported way to install software on the iPhone, Apple doesn’t get to have a second “privacy policy” for the App Store that provides less privacy than the phone/OS policy. https://pxlnv.com/blog/oh-the-places-your-apple-id-will-go/
I probably spend too much time ranting about Apple on privacy issues. (A friend inside Apple says they ask why I’m so angry at them all the time.) Aside from being so popular, Apple is one of the few companies in tech with a privacy-compatible business model.
So when Apple does things that harm privacy, you know it’s a choice — not some business exigency. Not that the latter is an excuse.
@matthew_d_green subtle disagreement here: privacy requires sustained effort, because just about every other incentive degrades privacy.
So sometimes a privacy gap appears not because of an explicit choice, but because of insufficient pushback against other requirements.
Ultimately, this is why pressure from you and me and others is important. Privacy is not a stable equilibrium. It must be constantly fought for.
@ben @matthew_d_green I agree, but many pieces can be solved and built into infrastructure. Not everything has to be constantly fought over. Big Tech knows the value of data, so they don't want to shut themselves out of it. #F-Droid is architected to remove as much data as possible: no user accounts, servers can't see devices' locale, signed static files can safely come from any source on the internet, etc. Even if the maintainers wanted to, it would be hard to track users without rebuilding.
