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

Lane W <[email protected]> wrote:
> 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?

Because he - and it is a he - used to very regularly change his nym. For a
long period the nyms were always a variation on Arlen, so it stuck. This
year he had an epiphany and realised that nymshifting was unnecessary for
more than a year. Weird, I know, but that's where we are with him. It is
unknown why he chose to change gender this year where all previous names
were male.