> they'd need to have me log in and send the config data to their servers
You'd have to log in. That's a hurdle that involves implicit consent.
You'd have to log in. That's a hurdle that involves implicit consent.
It's a power-play on Apple's part to intermediate themselves where their inter-mediation isn't necessary. And all kinds of customers (enterprise in particular) won't appreciate Apple getting a free "hi hello" signal on how much their company uses some service that leverages this scheme. Especially if Apple is a potential competitor to them.
Because a) it's even more code we now have to support, both in our apps even on android and on web -- a huge investment we are not prepared to make, and b) because for what we do, we actually do need to know the user is who they say they are (we offer the ability to contract a service between third parties, which means anonymity is NOT desired). I was never really comfortable using social login at all, for that second reason, but was pressed to by my peers; after Apple's shenanigans we came to the mutual decision that it was time to cut the cord. The login screen is already busy enough, we don't need yet another button. So we'll simplify.
For this latest change, it won't affect us much because I have always made it a policy neither to trust, nor to rely on, the data in Local Storage, and only to use it for performance boosting via caching. If data isn't there, it isn't there, and we go get it. This is largely due to historical reasons where browsers have always borked the LS implementation in one way or another, but it's beneficial now in that it won't really change anything for us.
I do feel for folks that are using it for genuine storage though, I know some apps that use it in order to AVOID storing private data on their servers, which will now have problems and be forced to reduce privacy in order to adapt.
This is definitely a power play on Apple's part to further weaken the web ecosystem. Device sales have been falling for years, they know their cash cow is their 30% cut on app purchases and IAP, and they aren't going to let the browser cut into that. Any "privacy" benefit in this case is purely incidental (and as noted above I believe it will do the opposite in many cases).
If you are coerced into giving consent, it isn't consent, and most of the time if you're doing it so you can be part of the world around you, it is coerced, whether people want to recognize that or not.
1) I don't want social media to track me everywhere
2) If the people developing this app have taken this shortcut, what other bad, leaky implementations do they have on their site/app?
-> No thanks, exit this way
We're actually getting rid of social login in our apps. And we're not alone, alot of platforms I use have recently moved the same direction, and I think for the same reasons.
Google, Facebook, Github, Twitter logins proliferated because
a) the cost of implementing an auth system is high, and those offered a turnkey solution that was cheap and quick to implement. This is no longer true, there are lots of options now to host your own auth while federating the hard work to someone else (e.g. Auth0, Cognito, et al)
b) for awhile, people LOVED the idea of having "an online identity" and a single login everywhere. Over time this has not really panned out, because it's the prisoner's dilemma; for it to work, everyone has to do it (which is why G and F have tried so hard to get everyone to use them). But also, because privacy questions have reduced the shiny appeal of that scenario in the first place. Combine that with easy to use password managers now, and it's much less necessary.