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Apple admits to secretly giving governments push notification data
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2023
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The only push notifications I get are from post mates.
What other, more sensitive information would they be collecting this way?
Pretty much any app that has message details in the notification. For instance, if I get a comment response on Lemmy, my app sends a push notification. If that notification contains details about the message, the government would supposedly be able to read that data.
Secure messaging apps have moved away from including message info specifically for this reason. For instance, Signal only sends a notification that you received a message. The push notification doesn’t say who the message was from, or what the message said.
But when Snapchat tells you that a specific friend is typing/has sent a message, the government could conceivably see that and connect you to that person. Maybe not a huge deal if it’s just a friend with nothing to hide. But we all know that “you have nothing to hide so you have nothing to fear” is a horrible excuse. Because it could land you on a list if that friend is a dealer, or becomes radicalized in the future, or has family who has ties to illegal activity, or any number of other things that the government may want to start watching them for.
Signal on iOS shows previews by default. It even reads messages over AirPods as they come in.
iOS must be doing something special here, right? They can’t be sending message contents through the same route as push notification metadata, or it would be breaking end-to-end encryption… right?
Correct, messages aren't E2E encrypted if the push has the data.
If there's any reason to preserve privacy the push only has an identifier of the message to be downloaded on the device. When it comes in, the device downloads it and then if you've allowed it, will show it on a notification
Oh, got it. I turn all those off to avoid being bothered. Post mates is only on so I don’t miss it if “the driver is trying to contact” me.
Does this apply to when I get a text or voice message on my iPhone? There is a message preview before clicking on it.
Good thing I block/disable all of that crap and if a program does it I will just uninstall...I don't need some shit device to tell me what to do and when to do it.
I mean, notifications are an integral part of many apps. You think people just randomly decide to open their phone app, texts, or emails, just to see if they have any unread messages or if they’re actively receiving a call? No, they wait for a notification to prompt them. Nobody is just randomly browsing through all their various apps to check for new messages.
Saying you don’t use notifications is like saying you only turn your phone on when you’re actively making a call, then you turn it right back off again. While it may be true for you, it’s intentionally missing the point and definitely isn’t the typical use case.
Hell, if you’re reading this comment now, it’s likely because you got a notification that I responded.
People are out here letting Lemmy comments interrupt their day?!
apart from signal (molly), all my app notifications, like the previous commenter, are off. If i open the app, i can see that you replied to me in the inbox. if i don't open one of these apps, then i'm not interested, at that moment, in what's happening on lemmy (or any other platform)
some people are alright with all that nagging buzz, some find it irritating. i grew up before mobile phones, present time was pure and distractions were scarce
that said, i find it troubling to learn that notifications too were being used to collect even more information. but, am i surprised?
Does turning the notifications off mean that it isn't sending these messages or is the app or OS just not displaying them?
I think it means that notifications aren't sent, but it's a good question.
Thinking this through a bit more. It's the server (eg. Signal) that sends the push notifications to Apple/Google. So turning off notifications on your phone presumably means that that Apple/Google doesn't send them to your device. However they are presumably still be going from the server to Apple/Google (because how would Signal know that you've turned notifications off on your phone)?
Based on my understanding, Signal (their servers) won't know and neither will Apple. The local app installed on your phone knows, as that's the client handling what to do with the send/receive requests. I've very little experience with mobile development, though, so I could be very off mark here.
another question would be: After uninstalling google services, if you install degoogled signal and choose to connect directly to signal servers, do signal still send information to google for push?
interesting question, like others too have wrote.
My guess is that because most apps ask explicitly for permission (after the 1st install) unless they're permitted by the user they don't register for the push (just a guess :/
app makers pay for notifications, iirc (wrong?), they wouldn't want to pay for notifications that are turned off on devices
I check my apps daily for updates..I don't rely on my device to tell me what to do, ever.