[soft_dev_person]

Android and iOS have almost equal market share in Norway. Worldwide Android is a lot bigger (~70%). This affects most people, just not in the US.

[bnt]

You can’t grant access on iOS “to view / edit / delete all/any data”, that’s physically not possible, even with the hidden SDKs that only select parties have access to.

[soft_dev_person]

Good for the 24% of users, then.

It doesn't change the fact that tracking your detailed location and who you are around in combination can be used to determine your affiliations or sexual orientation. If you, with your secure iPhone, are located around numerous people with Grindr installed, they may jump to conclusions.

They are capable of targeting gays or political opponents with this, which is the point of the story.

[robswc]

Are you talking about secret government back door stuff? Not into phones but that sounds interesting, lol

[bnt]

I’m not aware of any government back door access, but carriers that I worked with had access to all sorts of crazy hidden SDKs within iOS. For transparency, last time I worked on those was 5-6 years ago, so things may have changed.

[robswc]

Still really interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I heard of a software called Pegasus but couldn't tell if it was legitimately that powerful.

[josephcsible]

Doesn't Apple's MDM allow that?

[kergonath]

Something close to that, AFAIK. But then, it’s not “go download this app from the store”. More like “we steal your phone, jailbreak it, and now we can see everything”. Not sustainable at scale.

[josephcsible]

You don't need to jailbreak a phone to set up MDM on it.

[kergonath]

You do if you don’t want to need the cooperation of the people in question.

[josephcsible]

Qatar doesn't mind needing the cooperation of the people in question, since they can put you in jail or deport you if you don't cooperate.