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Academics Probe Apple's Privacy Settings and Get Lost and Confused
Friday April 5, 2024. 11:20 PM , from Slashdot/Apple
The lengths to which Apple goes to secure its ecosystem -- as described in its Platform Security Guide [PDF] -- has earned it kudos from the information security world. Cupertino uses its hard-earned reputation as a selling point and as a bludgeon against Google. Bourdoucen and Janne Lindqvist don't dispute Apple's technical prowess, but argue that it is undermined by confusing user interfaces. 'Our work shows that users may disable default apps, only to discover later that the settings do not match their initial preference,' the paper states. 'Our results demonstrate users are not correctly able to configure the desired privacy settings of default apps. In addition, we discovered that some default app configurations can even reduce trust in family relationships.' The researchers criticize data collection by Apple apps like Safari and Siri, where that data is sent, how users can (and can't) disable that data tracking, and how Apple presents privacy options to users. The paper illustrates these issues in a discussion of Apple's Siri voice assistant. While users can ostensibly choose not to enable Siri in the initial setup on macOS-powered devices, it still collects data from other apps to provide suggestions. To fully disable Siri, Apple users must find privacy-related options across five different submenus in the Settings app. Apple's own documentation for how its privacy settings work isn't good either. It doesn't mention every privacy option, explain what is done with user data, or highlight whether settings are enabled or disabled. Also, it's written in legalese, which almost guarantees no normal user will ever read it. 'We discovered that the features are not clearly documented,' the paper concludes. 'Specifically, we discovered that steps required to disable features of default apps are largely undocumented and the data handling practices are not completely disclosed.' Read more of this story at Slashdot.
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/04/05/2014205/academics-probe-apples-privacy-settings-and-get-lost...
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