Insurer Tommy Mysk has demonstrated that iPhone push notifications are being used by popular apps to secretly send data about the user.
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In a new video showcasing the practice, Mysk points out how some iOS apps are exploiting a feature introduced in iOS 10 that was designed to allow apps to customize notifications on the fly. This feature, originally designed to allow apps to enrich notifications with additional content or decrypt encrypted messages, appears to have been tampered with by some developers for more nefarious activities.
According to Mysk's findings, several popular apps, including TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Bing, use the short background runtime provided for customizing notifications to send analytics information.
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This practice is particularly concerning, as it bypasses the standard restrictions imposed by iOS on background app activity. Apple has always maintained strict controls over background apps to protect user privacy and ensure optimal device performance. However, it appears that the notification feature is inadvertently transmitting data to background apps.
The data sent includes unique device signals that can be used to identify and track users across applications. Fingerprinting is a method of collecting specific information about a device, such as its hardware and software settings, in order to create a unique identifier for the user. This identifier can then be used to track the user's activities across applications, and used for a variety of activities, such as personalized advertising.
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Apple doesn't allow fingerprinting and will soon require developers to explicitly disclose why their apps need access to interfaces that are often used for fingerprinting. This move is consistent with Apple's efforts to strengthen user privacy, such as the introduction of App Tracking Reporting in iOS 14.5, which requires apps to ask for permission before tracking activity on other apps and websites from third-party companies.
Source: macrumors
