Beep boop - this is a robot. A new show has been posted to TWiT…
What are your thoughts about today’s show? We’d love to hear from you!
@Leo et al mentioned this the other day https://tidbyt.com/ but I don’t know if that is what they are.
Funny, I asked what this was before getting to the end of the show where Mikah then explained what it was. Tidbyt.
Question on the Facebook thing: Since Facebook has been getting around Apple’s restrictions, why can’t Apple just remove the app from the App Store? That’s supposed to be the value of letting them curate things - they can react quickly to remove apps that are doing things they shouldn’t be doing. Why wait for the DOJ or the lawsuit to make it way through the courts?
2 Likes
Whoops! That didn’t take long.
I guess either Apple would rather not give 400 million-odd iOS Facebook users a reason to switch platforms, or they don’t view it as a breach of their store guidelines.
I had a look at my wife’s iPhone, all that happens is if you click on the URL for an ad in Facebook, it opens that site in the app rather than opening Safari (and tracks that you went there). You can’t enter any other URLs and they track you as you use the 'net - unless the advertiser site had a link to google.com or similar, which you could then do a search and hit links. Unlikely.
So Facebook could argue this is all within their app, and there’s probably something in their T&Cs you agreed to (that nobody reads).
But aren’t browsing functions supposed to be using WebKit? So, even if it’s within Facebook’s app - it would still be using WebKit for the browsing engine.
Isn’t the argument that Facebook is inserting tracking information into the browser? If they it was solely based in the app, then there would be nothing to ‘insert’ - it would be baked into the app itself. By invoking a web page, and ‘browsing’ - they would be using WebKit which limits tracking,. which is why Facebook would then need to insert extra stuff to make tracking possible again.
I’m not trying to be argumentative, but Apple has removed apps from the App Store for far less egregious violations. This strikes right at the heart of the supposed benefits of both iOS and the App Store: the protection of a user’s privacy and the reliability of the curation of the App Store.
Unless there’s something I’m missing where this is permissible within the App Store?
That’s very interesting. Apple seems to be taking the position that it can enforce the terms of service on behalf of other parties on its own initiative. Unless they pulled the app at Meta’s request.
Yes and yes. But is this still viewed as tracking within their app, as their app now includes a browser?