It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario. If Apple disabled these lookups by default, and users got phished by visiting malicious sites, that would be bad for those users’ privacy. I...
It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario. If Apple disabled these lookups by default, and users got phished by visiting malicious sites, that would be bad for those users’ privacy. I just checked and I was presented with a large pop-up presenting explanations for all the Safari settings for iOS when I scrolled to the safety/privacy preferences. I’m not sure what more Apple could do here to be informative. If you’re uncomfortable with this feature you turn it off. If you don’t know enough to change your browser settings, you’re likely more of a target for phishing anyway, I would imagine. What do other browsers do, if anything, to mitigate phishing sites?
I think the issue is more with who they're storing the data with rather than the feature itself. The article makes it pretty clear that security experts have decided the privacy/protection...
I think the issue is more with who they're storing the data with rather than the feature itself. The article makes it pretty clear that security experts have decided the privacy/protection tradeoff of the feature is worth it, but you also have to trust whoever is storing the data, and in this case there is some nervousness around Tencent being that place.
Absolutely. But since Google can’t operate in China, should Apple play ball with Tencent, or not offer this feature in China? (Or maybe China is forcing Apple’s hand here?)
Absolutely. But since Google can’t operate in China, should Apple play ball with Tencent, or not offer this feature in China? (Or maybe China is forcing Apple’s hand here?)
I’m not sure the public consensus on Tencent, but I’ve taken steps to actively steer away from services or sites which are associated with this company. Data mining is big business, and that’s...
I’m not sure the public consensus on Tencent, but I’ve taken steps to actively steer away from services or sites which are associated with this company. Data mining is big business, and that’s great. But my concern is once their dataset is “complete”, so to speak, what is their next move and with what intent?
It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario. If Apple disabled these lookups by default, and users got phished by visiting malicious sites, that would be bad for those users’ privacy. I just checked and I was presented with a large pop-up presenting explanations for all the Safari settings for iOS when I scrolled to the safety/privacy preferences. I’m not sure what more Apple could do here to be informative. If you’re uncomfortable with this feature you turn it off. If you don’t know enough to change your browser settings, you’re likely more of a target for phishing anyway, I would imagine. What do other browsers do, if anything, to mitigate phishing sites?
I think the issue is more with who they're storing the data with rather than the feature itself. The article makes it pretty clear that security experts have decided the privacy/protection tradeoff of the feature is worth it, but you also have to trust whoever is storing the data, and in this case there is some nervousness around Tencent being that place.
Absolutely. But since Google can’t operate in China, should Apple play ball with Tencent, or not offer this feature in China? (Or maybe China is forcing Apple’s hand here?)
I’m not sure the public consensus on Tencent, but I’ve taken steps to actively steer away from services or sites which are associated with this company. Data mining is big business, and that’s great. But my concern is once their dataset is “complete”, so to speak, what is their next move and with what intent?
Yeah, only happens if you set your region to CN. Here's the actual code performing the check.