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

Chris wrote:
> Jon Ribbens <[email protected]> wrote:
>> On 2026-09-07, Chris <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Jon Ribbens <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> To me it's fairly intuitive that if someone has taken the unusual step
>>>> of explicitly marking their network as "hidden", then its location
>>>> should not be included in these databases - especially given the fact
>>>> that the "_nomap" SSID method doesn't work for "hidden" networks.
>>>
>>> I guess the challenge here is how can they know not to add the MAC
>>> address if the SSID with the "_nomap" request invisible.
>>
>> That's the core of the issue - I would guess that Android devices are
>> only uploading BSSIDs to the Google database when they see that Access
>> Point broadcast an SSID, and that SSID doesn't end with "_nomap".
>>
>> iPhones on the other hand, I would guess are uploading BSSIDs to the
>> Apple database as soon as they see that Access Point broadcasting
>> anything, regardless of whether they have seen an SSID from it.
>>
>> If it works the way I am suggesting, then it means that Google's
>> database would automatically exclude "hidden" networks, and Apple's
>> wouldn't - and not only that, Apple would have no way of immediately
>> excluding them. They would need to issue updated iPhone software,
>> and then wait until almost all iPhones in the world that were still
>> in use were using the new software.
>>
>>>>> Related: What did Arlen (aka Maria) achieve? That Apple agreed to
>>>>> remove all hidden and _nomap entries, or that they removed only his
>>>>> entry?
>>>>
>>>> My impression is that as a result of Maria's communications with them,
>>>> Apple updated their documentation to note that "hidden" networks are
>>>> still listed in their database, and removed Maria's own BSSID(s) from
>>>> the database.
>>>
>>> That's purely a correlation. It could be a coincidence.  And is there
>>> any evidence that the documentation did change? We only have his say so.
>>
>> We can't prove what prompted Apple to change their documentation, but
>> we certainly can prove that it did indeed change, using archive.org.
>> In December 2025 the page did not mention hidden networks, and today
>> it does.
>>
>> https://web.archive.org/web/20251221213139/https://support.apple.com/en-ie/102515
>> https://support.apple.com/en-ie/102515
> 
> I agree. And I did the same. The fact that Arlen couldn't very easily
> evidence his assertion, despite my challenge above, speaks volumes.
> 
Why do you call him/her Arlen if his/her preferred name is Maria? Are 
you from the 70s?