Pierre BourdonJul 4, 2023

I've seen 2 or 3 posts in my TL re: App Store privacy info for Threads vs. Mastodon. https://mastodon.social/@jsq/110653072170221591 for example.

I feel like people greatly misunderstand the App Store privacy labels. They're not at all a ground truth you should read without careful interpretation.

- Entirely self reported
- No consistent auditing or data quality enforcement by Apple
- Very vague, both on the scope of categories and what's "collection"
- "May be collected" is a "worst case" statement.

(cont)

Show threadPierre BourdonJul 4, 2023

- Only data shared directly with the app developer or contracted parties needs to be reported.
- Some categories that aren't vague are way too broad.

Mastodon reporting an empty list here is in fact very obviously wrong. When you log in to mastodon.social from the Mastodon app, you are sharing contact info (email address), identifiers, as well as usage data.

So at the very least you should conclude Threads is doing a better job of informing its users re: privacy than Mastodon gGmbH is.

Show threadPierre BourdonJul 4, 2023

Overall the App Store privacy labels are a terrible implementation of a potentially good idea. There is no way for a user to figure out how accurately a developer filled that info, and there's no baseline of quality because nobody on the Apple side reviews or enforces this.

Large companies are in fact more prone to over-declaring here because that has ~ no cost except for pissing off privacy loonies (which you can never satisfy anyway) while covering your ass legally.

Show threadPierre BourdonJul 4, 2023

Disclaimer for this post: I worked for ~2 years as a privacy reviewer for infra services at Google. This is what I would minimally declare for the Mastodon app, from my reading of Apple's policy:

- Contact Info (email address, obviously)
- Location (coarse location, Mastodon stores IP addresses in logs)
- Contacts (your follows/followers)
- User Content (your toots)
- Search History
- Identifiers (handle)
- Usage Data (logs, anti-abuse)

Not far from Threads' list...

Show threadpaulmather007Jul 4, 2023
@delroth I feel like in the iOS/Macos context "Contacts" has a specific meaning - will it share info from my "Contacts" app. Mastodon certainly doesn't do that. (It doesn't even have access to my Contacts app.)
Show threadpaulmather007Jul 4, 2023
@delroth And, as a non-technical person, "Location" has the icon next to it that indicates GPS location via location services in iOS, so I would have read this to be GPS location. I'm curious what would happen if one doesn't give Threads access to Contacts etc. I know if I try it out I'm not okaying access to my health and fitness data, that's crazy! Unless it's also a jogging tracker app. :)
Show threadPierre Bourdon

@paulmather007 and yet again, no, that's not how the documentation defines it. https://developer.apple.com/app-store/app-privacy-details/ clearly says "Location" includes "Coarse location" which is defined as "describes the location of a user or device with lower resolution than a latitude and longitude with three or more decimal places".

Literally asking someone for their country of residence is collecting "Coarse location" by that definition. Yes, it's absolutely dumb, but don't complain to me about that :)

App Privacy Details - App Store - Apple Developer

Learn about providing your app’s privacy practice details in App Store Connect for display on your App Store product page.

Apple Developer
Jul 4, 2023 at 4:38pmWeb
Show threadpaulmather007Jul 4, 2023
@delroth It is! I mean, if you're using the app, it means you exist somewhere in the universe, and that would be a coarse location by that definition!
Show threadPierre BourdonJul 4, 2023
@paulmather007 even worse, you can likely narrow it down to Earth and its lower orbit.
Show threadpaulmather007Jul 4, 2023
@delroth I've interacted with some people on social media who I'm not sure have ever visited Earth. :)