Re: Apple changed their documentation at my request but it proves they don't care about privacy

Anton Shepelev wrote:
>> Your car broadcasts its license plate number to anyone in
>> sight of it, yet people are rightfully ticked off at Flock
>> cameras everywhere recording them.
> 
> Because machine data acquirement is more powerful.

The flock camera analogy only works if anyone in the world can access it.
 *Surveilling the Masses with Wi-Fi-Based Positioning Systems*
 <https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.14975>

While I understand the analogies being presented, and certainly I
understand the purpose is to claim "no big deal" as a result, I must beg to
differ because the analogies, while reasonable, fall flat on some regards.

What if, for example, the government allowed you to put a black cloth over
your license plate, and that is a clear indication that you don't want it
to be recorded by Flock cameras (& by extension, your movements recorded).

What if Google cameras respected that black cloth as did Mozilla cameras.
But what if Apple cameras refused to respect that common leave-me-alone
black cloth?

Think about that.
What if *only* Apple cameras lifted up that black cloth, on purpose.
So that they could get your unique vehicle VIN that tracks you everywhere.

Pretty bad, huh?
But wait... it gets worse.

What if the Google camera, if it happens to get your license plate, which
is tied to your unique VIN, but the Google camera sees *another* indicator
that you do not want them to put that license plate into their database.

Let's say that's a sticker, on the plate, that says, oh, let's say _nomap.

What does Apple do? 
Versus what Google and Mozilla do?

But wait, if that's not bad enough, there's still more. A lot more in fact.

What if anyone in the world could look up that license plate & related VIN
from anywhere in the world, and there are absolutely no controls on that?

What?

Do you see the difference?

Allow me to provide an example:
 a. Let's say my ex-wife is in Germany, back in the home country
 b. But, she wants to track my vehicle everywhere I go
 c. As described in the aforementioned research paper, she can.

It's no different than you choosing the license plate of your ex-wife (or
whomever) and tracking them anywhere in the world, with no controls on
that.

Do you see why understanding the problem set makes the flock camera issue
only superficially an analogy. 

The flock camera could only be an analogy if anyone in the world could
track your movements down to a meter resolution, with no controls on that.
-- 
What people need to know about privacy is complex, so they simplify it.