{"id":31506,"date":"2021-02-01T16:50:58","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T21:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=31506"},"modified":"2025-08-04T10:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T14:34:10","slug":"misleading-and-inaccurate-ios-privacy-labels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/01\/misleading-and-inaccurate-ios-privacy-labels\/","title":{"rendered":"Misleading and Inaccurate iOS Privacy Labels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Geoffrey A. Fowler<\/a> (Hacker News<\/a>, MacRumors<\/a>):<\/p>\n

I downloaded a de-stressing app called the Satisfying Slime Simulator that gets the App Store’s highest-level label for privacy. It turned out to be the wrong kind of slimy, covertly sending information — including a way to track my iPhone — to Facebook, Google and other companies. Behind the scenes, apps can be data vampires, probing our phones to help target ads or sell information about us to data firms and even governments.<\/p>\n

As I write this column, Apple still has an inaccurate label for Satisfying Slime. And it’s not the only deception. When I spot-checked what a couple dozen apps claim about privacy in the App Store, I found more than a dozen that were either misleading or flat-out inaccurate. They included the popular game Match 3D, social network Rumble and even the PBS Kids Video app.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Apple’s big privacy product is built on a shaky foundation: the honor system. In tiny print on the detail page of each app label, Apple says, “This information has not been verified by Apple.”<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Irony alert, there’s a tech giant that is more transparent: Facebook. With a setting called “off-Facebook activity” that it launched in 2020, you can actually see all the different apps and websites that are feeding your data to Facebook and ask the social network to stop using the data to target you with ads.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n