[m463]

A more straightforward way of doing this is not to copy the app and make it more private...

It would be to allow you to see what the apps are doing, and prevent them from doing what you don't approve of. Including apple apps.

It could be as simple as: prevent this app from using the network.

[camhenlin]

The problem I see with that is that many (most?) users are not going to go deny network access to each app.

Furthermore, what if the app tells me that it needs network access to get calendar info or something along those lines - and then actually uses the network for that -, then subsequently uses the network access to siphon off my personal info? Certainly if you had the ability to "see" what an app is doing, you might be able to catch that, but that's well beyond the grasp of most users. Better to be able to inherently trust the app because it was built by a trusted 3rd party. Certainly I agree that it would be nice to be able to disable network access to any app I felt like though.

[scarface74]

Only for 3rd party keyboards, network access is denied by default. First you have to go through settings to enable them instead of a simple dialog box (which I agree with) and then you have to go back in settings to give the keyboard network access and you get a very clear warning.

But, most people on HN don’t seem to understand Apple’s priorities. This is how it should be.

1. Apple

2. Users

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.

.

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3. Developers.

[LeoNatan25]

This sounds like a good strategy for me as first and foremost a user.

[toper-centage]

This is something super important that is missing in android and no one ever mentions. Keyboard apps are all phone home everything we type. Fortunately my phone let's me block individual app access to the network, but as far as I know you can't do that in android.

[scarface74]

Also, even when you give the keyboard network access, when you enter a password, iOS switches to the native keyboard. Apps can also force iOS to only use the native keyboard.

iOS really doesn’t trust third party keyboards.

[scarface74]

A more straightforward way of doing this is not to copy the app and make it more private...

How do you deny an app network access and allow it to share your data across your own devices? With your partner?

Would you also like to give third party apps access to your biometric data? Your password storage?

[sigstoat]

> How do you deny an app network access and allow it to share your data across your own devices? With your partner?

commenting only the technical aspect, without suggesting anything is or is not a good idea, apple's operating systems could offer a service whereby apps could hand over data to the OS which it would save to icloud on their behalf, and hand back to only that app or other instances of it (as determined by the user). that, plus normal networking denied to the app would do the job nicely.

[layoutIfNeeded]

Good news: this already exists since iOS 5: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/nsubiqu...

[scarface74]

That’s actually not a bad idea....