News - Apple blocking UDID apps following Congress scrutiny

[HEXUS]

UDID feature depreciated ahead of time, surprising developers.

Read more.

[Hicks12]

And that is another reason why Apple will never ever get my money(directly anyway...), something so simple yet they dont bother to implement it and basically put their finger up to developers.

Stupid thing!

[Biscuit]

It is kinda stupid, although i think its good that we are now breing asked if we would like to share our UDID. Its frustrating for developers however it feels like a step in the right direction for privacy.

[mikerr]

Grr apple and their "reason of the week" to reject apps.

[crossy]

Currently, asking users for permission to use their UDID appears to be receiving approval, however this hampers user experience and will no doubt turn away some punters.

I can't see what the big deal is here - the UDID identifies a particular device not a user. So unless someone wants to use it for some kind of purchase metrics (i.e. "device 0x491fed987d bought Angry Birds and Doc2Go and installed the Twitter app") I can't see this adding to "privacy" that much. Actually the only company who could really do that kind of information gathering is Apple themselves.

That said, I like the idea that if an app is going to use this then you get informed about it.

Presumably there's something similar for Android phones? (Not that I'm particularly concerned)

[mikerr]

In other news your MAC address has been publically identifying computers for the past 30 years....

[scaryjim]

Presumably there's something similar for Android phones?

I'd assume so - pretty much every app you install on Android has a list of permissions you need to approve. Can't see why recording the unique identification of your device wouldn't require a permission in the first place tbh. After all, there are plenty of apps that require a user log in - if they can then tie your log in to a device identifier that's a fairly significant piece of personal information. Stick an obscure "information sharing" clause in the app EULA and you've got a company that can link device IDs to specific individuals then sell that association to any other app developer. Something of a privacy nightmare, I'd've though...

In other news your MAC address has been publically identifying computers for the past 30 years....

MACs can be relatively easily spoofed though, and tend not to be so closely tied in to your personal information as a unique identifier on a smartphone (plus with the vast majority of internet users now stuck behind routers and firewalls it identifies your router, rather than your computer </pedant> ).

[alsenior]

In other news your MAC address has been publically identifying computers for the past 30 years....

mac addresses don't make it past the first router