App “sellers” know whether you keep their iPhone app installed
I just received an email from a software developer — not Apple — that went as follows:-
You are receiving this email because you gave xxxxxx a go a while ago and we noticed you haven’t been back for a while. Since you left, xxxxxx has gotten much better, with the incorporation of…
They’re right. I did install xxxxxx and I also stopped using it and uninstalled it. Apple has to be sharing details. Creepy. And for what? This was/is a free app that I tried.
Sharing your personal data is a cost. Putting up with advertising is a cost. Just because you don’t give money in return for it, that doesn’t make it free…
RogerBW
November 10, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Interesting thing is, I don’t recall giving this developer any personal information. Need to check the iTunes store t&c’s I think.
ianfogg
November 12, 2008 at 12:07 am
Is it possible the app phones home, rather than Apple sharing the data?
My app store dislike is Apple’s tendancy to reject applications they don’t like the look of, despite not breaking any explicit T&C rule, as chronicled by Daring Fireball.
Not that I have one of the phones in the first place.
Michael Stevens
November 12, 2008 at 7:15 am
Possible the app phones home to the developer (I think, but Apple may only allow communication back to them).
But I don’t think it can explain the above: I’ve not provided an email address to the app’s developers so they must have received it via Apple somehow.
ianfogg
November 12, 2008 at 11:58 am