Hacker News Reader

Comment by baddox | Hacker News Reader

What if someone posts a status update saying "I'm in San Francisco."? What if they post a picture of themselves with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background? Is it reasonable for them to assume that Path will filter these things out, simply because they turned off Location Services?

I think it's ludicrous. iOS is quite clear in its explanation of Location Services, and their explanation is not at all "technical" or intimidating to non-technical users. Also, the permission to access your photos is completely separate from the Location Services permission. Maybe you the author would have a point if iOS automatically gave apps access to your camera roll, but that's not the case.

I don't doubt that some users will be surprised by the photo's geotag, but I suspect it would be an extremely low number of users (the fact that this if just now being blogged about seems to corroborate this, unless Path have just recently added this behavior).

View on HN

I think you're conflating two very different scenarios. Someone saying "I'm in San Francisco" or posting a picture of them at the Golden Gate Bridge is clearly aware that their location can be determined. EXIF data hidden within a JPEG file is not so clear cut and most users are unlikely to be aware of it.

As you said, Location Services and Photo access are different permissions. Users are therefore likely to assume that location data is not being retrieved if they deny permission to it. If I deny location data to an app, it's because I don't want that app to have my location data. It seems somewhat underhanded, to me at least, to assume that the user wouldn't mind me accessing location data from their photos, knowing full well that the majority of users will not know what EXIF data is. I'd go so far as to say that I would explicitly ask the user if EXIF data should be read alongside the standard location services.

But really, you're the one speculating that a user's intent is different than what their explicit actions on the phone indicate. You're guessing that a user is not aware that photos are geotagged, despite that fact that the Location Services permission is optional on the Camera app as well.

Judging by the post we're commenting on, it's not exactly a shot in the dark guess. Technically, Path has done nothing wrong. They've been given permission to the photos and that's what they're accessing with all the information it brings.

But, to me, if I was told that my app can't access location information, I would assume that it's because the user doesn't want my app to access location information and have my app run with that mindset.

You want your iPhone's camera to access location for one app, but not for another. What would you do? What you're saying is that the user has no choice and it's all or nothing. Give location data to all apps requiring photos or disable it completely.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com