This is a very entertaining and educational article, giving insights into the methods used by thiefs to try and get access to your phone data.

I don’t like Apple but it’s great that their security is so good when it comes to this.

    • mholiv@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Compared to any android phone the privacy is substantially better. Apple is in the business of selling overpriced phones. Google is in the data collection business.

      • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        The issue here is that while baseline apple is more secure than baseline android, a user with knowledge or a guide can improve the android security by a lot, whereas the apple baseline is also the ceiling. There’s stuff you can do with iPhones but if you don’t trust apple, you are kind of fucked.

        Android people that mention security won’t be using a stock phone from the store, they will have disabled stuff, enables alternative stuff, or even installed a completely new android based OS, and this can’t be done with iPhone or iOS.

        • mholiv@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          True. But for 99% of people baseline is what they use. Windows can be made very secure by experts but the fact is 99% of people just use windows as is.

          • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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            6 months ago

            100% agree, just take into account that most people you encounter on lemmy, specially on posts about security, are in that 1% that tweak stuff and if you throw blanked statements they will think you are talking to them specifically.

            • mholiv@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              Fair. And I see it lol. My inbox is full of people who want to argue with me.

        • BorgDrone
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          6 months ago

          The issue here is that while baseline apple is more secure than baseline android, a user with knowledge or a guide can improve the android security by a lot, whereas the apple baseline is also the ceiling.

          Not true. iPhone can be locked down much more than it is out of the box, and it’s as simple as changing one setting. Lockdown mode, it significantly tightens down security of iOS at the cost of some convenience. It is not recommended for the average user, only if you expect to be targeted by highly sophisticated attackers.

          There’s stuff you can do with iPhones but if you don’t trust apple, you are kind of fucked.

          That is always the case. If you don’t trust the company that made the hardware, there is nothing you can do. Unless you’ve got your own chip fab, there is always a level of trust involved.

          • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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            6 months ago

            It’s not really about the hardware, is it? The option you mentioned won’t enable an alternative app store, it won’t enable access to android app emulators (which would be a huge boom in the open source app offering). The level of trust iPhone users give to appeal is wildly higher that what android users that tweak their phones give the manufacturers. It is what it is, but don’t delude yourself in thinking that it’s about what they do in the kernel level, it’s about the fact that they store tons of sensitive data in their american servers and that they have an obligation to share that data with the country, and as someone from Europe that doesn’t sit well with me.

            • BorgDrone
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              6 months ago

              It’s not really about the hardware, is it?

              It’s about everything, that’s the point

              The option you mentioned won’t enable an alternative app store, it won’t enable access to android app emulators

              I don’t see how that would help in any way to secure the device if you don’t trust Apple.

              The level of trust iPhone users give to appeal is wildly higher that what android users that tweak their phones give the manufacturers.

              You either trust a company or you don’t. There is no grey area. If you don’t control the whole thing, you don’t control anything at all. A custom ROM on your Android device is not going to do anything to prevent a firmware or hardware level backdoor. Your custom ROM doesn’t improve security, on the contrary. If you unlock the bootloader you break the chain of trust and all bets are off.

      • Autonomous User@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Anti-libre software, iOS, bans us from proving its claims. Stop paying Apple to pre-infect our devices and spy on us too.

        My devices need libre software, not a business.

        • mholiv@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          You are preaching to the choir.

          When it comes to privacy: GrapheneOS > iOS > android with Google.

          Android itself is good. It’s just android with Google that’s the problem. (Aka 99.999% of all android phones sold outside of China)

          • Autonomous User@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            iOS > android with Google

            They ban us from proving this. Both malware, anti-libre software, ban us from proving it’s claims.

      • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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        6 months ago

        If you aren’t using the iOS lockdown mode, it’s not really that much more private. Most stuff is still not encrypted in iCloud without that on, and apps can still track much of what you do, and Apple has their own ad networks.

        Edit: has any of the downvoters actually read Apple’s (public!) security architecture documents?

    • hedgehog@ttrpg.network
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      6 months ago

      If you’re talking about a stock Android OS on anything other than a Pixel, iOS wins in both regards. Stock on a Pixel, I don’t know that Apple is more secure, but if you’re installing apps via Google Play that use Google Play Services, iOS is certainly more private. Vs GrapheneOS on a Pixel, iOS is less private by far.

      • Autonomous User@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Apple is more secure… iOS is certainly more private.

        False, anti-libre software bans us from proving it’s claims.

        • hedgehog@ttrpg.network
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          6 months ago

          You think that Google Play Services is FOSS? Or that the version of Android on Samsung phones (as well as of most other Android phone manufacturers), including all baked in software, is FOSS?

            • hedgehog@ttrpg.network
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              6 months ago

              And when you’re comparing two closed source options, there are techniques available to evaluate them. Based off the results of people who have published their results from using these techniques, Apple is not as private as they claim. This is most egregious when it comes to first party apps, which is concerning. However, when it comes to using any non-Apple app, they’re much better than Google is when using any non-Google app.

              There’s enough overlap in skillset that pretty much anyone performing those evaluations will likely find it trivial to configure Android to be privacy-respecting - i.e., by using GrapheneOS on a Pixel or some other custom ROM - but most users are not going to do that.

              And if someone is not going to do that, Android is worse for their privacy.

              It doesn’t make sense to say “iPhones are worse at respecting user privacy than Android phones” when by default and in practice for most people, the opposite is true. What we should be saying is “iPhones are better at respecting privacy by default, but if privacy is important to you, the best option is to put in a bit of extra work and install GrapheneOS on a Pixel.”