{"id":40270,"date":"2023-08-08T16:55:41","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T20:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=40270"},"modified":"2023-08-08T16:55:41","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T20:55:41","slug":"whats-the-deal-with-sensor-tower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/08\/whats-the-deal-with-sensor-tower\/","title":{"rendered":"What&rsquo;s the Deal With Sensor Tower?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/daringfireball.net\/2023\/08\/whats_the_deal_with_sensor_tower\">John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/daringfireball.net\/2023\/08\/whats_the_deal_with_sensor_tower\"><p>So, I see three ways Sensor Tower collects usage information for apps and websites that aren&rsquo;t their own: (1) ad-blocking web browser extensions, (2) screen time monitoring apps for Android and iOS, which on iOS requires access to Screen Time, and (3) the Adblock Luna VPN. (Perhaps I&rsquo;m underestimating how much data they can collect from users who play Melody Run.)<\/p><p>These apps may well be popular&#x2009;&mdash;&#x2009;again, they claim that Adblock Luna has been installed by over 15 million users&#x2009;&mdash;&#x2009;but is the data they collect from them representative of the general public?<\/p><p>[&#8230;]<\/p><p>The news media so badly wants to know usage data that they just accept Sensor Tower and other such firms&rsquo; pronouncements at face value, without ever describing&#x2009;&mdash;&#x2009;let alone questioning&#x2009;&mdash;&#x2009;how they ostensibly know what they claim to know about very private data.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/05\/15\/post-twitter-diaspora-options\/\">Post-Twitter Diaspora Options<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/05\/05\/browser-and-os-marketshare-in-2023\/\">Browser and OS Marketshare in 2023<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/14\/most-fraudulent-apps-still-on-the-app-store\/\">Most Fraudulent Apps Still on the App Store<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/11\/removing-the-manual-boost\/\">Removing the Manual Boost<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/22\/the-app-store-isnt-catching-the-most-egregious-scams\/\">The App Store Isn&rsquo;t Catching the Most Egregious Scams<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/29\/apple-cracks-down-on-screen-time-apps-that-use-mdm\/\">Apple Cracks Down on Screen Time Apps That Use MDM<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/12\/in-app-purchase-scams-in-the-app-store\/\">In-App Purchase Scams in the App Store<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Gruber: So, I see three ways Sensor Tower collects usage information for apps and websites that aren&rsquo;t their own: (1) ad-blocking web browser extensions, (2) screen time monitoring apps for Android and iOS, which on iOS requires access to Screen Time, and (3) the Adblock Luna VPN. (Perhaps I&rsquo;m underestimating how much data they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2023-08-08T20:55:44Z","apple_news_api_id":"90b0c5f4-ad05-441c-bd9b-7d96ef00669c","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2023-08-08T20:55:44Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AkLDF9K0FRBy9m32W7wBmnA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[248,249,31,2185,26,2428,2443],"class_list":["post-40270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-android","tag-androidapp","tag-ios","tag-ios-16","tag-iosapp","tag-marketshare","tag-sensor-tower"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40271,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40270\/revisions\/40271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}