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Comment by zmk5 | Hacker News Reader

I don't really follow android much anymore, so does anyone know how this would compare to iOS's privacy systems?

Permissions for third party apps are pretty much identical to iOS now. People are always brigading these HN posts with useless snark because they think that Apple respects them.

I think the main difference is the default. Android is now opt-out, iOS is opt-in. Defaults are significant.

Defaults of what exactly? Permissions default to off on Android as well. Trackers and analytics default to on on Android and on Apple devices (where Apple devices differ only in the fact that they split tracking from apps and OS itself and enable Apples own tracking by default and prevent non-Apple tracking).

Nevertheless, there's a massive amount of tracking going on in Apples ecosystem as well - all big analytics, marketing and mobile data services (like Facebooks's SDKs, Mixpanel, etc.) are iOS first and still provide massive amount of behavioural data on iOS users first and support Android second.

I think guelo is specifically referring to the Advertising ID that allows for apps' cross tracking. In Android, this ID is on by default, while in iOS is off by default.

Regaring the permission managers, I agree that both are currently on par.

Your comment would have been free of useless snark too if not for the last sentence.

They're very simillar these days, although Android is still easier to fingerprint just due to the higher amount of devices available out there. There's simply more informational content that can be gathered by the fact that you have a "T-Mobile firmware version of Galaxy S22" despite Google being pretty decent at plugging identifier leaks since Android 10 to new 12.

Both operating systems assume something very basic though - that you trust the manufaturer of hardware and the developer of the OS. That is - Apple on one side and OEM/Google on the other.

Essentially, since Google is an ad company, and is supported by selling ads based on user tracking, they will integrate their ad tracking platform directly into Android itself.

Meanwhile, Apple just blocks tracking behaviors.

Every time Google implements a new "privacy" feature, it's because they've figured out how to be mostly unaffected while harming their competitors.

According to analysts, Apple made $5bn in ad revenue in 2021 [0].

[0] Apple’s privacy changes create windfall for its own advertising business. https://www.ft.com/content/074b881f-a931-4986-888e-2ac53e286...

"According to analysts" tells you that you shouldn't take this very seriously. Analysts have a long and storied history of getting pretty much everything wrong about Apple for decades now.

Please, take the first-hand account of the multi-trillion dollar company over the results of independent studies. Next up, you should ignore the UN's accusations of Apple abusing Uighur labor in China because they're primarily comprised of nations that are not the US, which gives them a vested interest in badmouthing a spotless domestic company like Apple.

It all makes so much sense now!

Whenever Google talks about privacy they are just joking. Don't take it seriously

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