Reading isn’t your strong suit is it? Internet Activation is not just related or solely used for Apple services. I’m done here as I’ve already explained it twice. Apple devices I use have no relevance but since you feel like it does I’ve owned almost all the iPhones from day one to today. The only iPhone I have not owned was the 3GS & Xs. I’ve owned most of the iPad models except for the original 9.7 pro and the mini post it’s 1st gen. I’ve also owned multitudes of MacBook, iMac, and Mac Pro models. Along with multitudes of other laptops and PCs that I’ve built. Happy now.
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iPhone iOS is terrible about privacy
- Thread starter josh27gamer9
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Android has that same security. You just don't need a Google ID for initial setup/usage.
Preppers don't like Apple products 
For these reasons they would never use an iPhone or other Apple products. There is no offline mode.
Fun aside.
I took my iPad pro wifi with me on vacation. I noticed that the storage was almost full and wanted to delete everything quickly. I reset the device. later came this "hello" screen and wifi menu. Unfortunately, the iPad couldn't be set up because the wifi module in the iPad couldn't connect to the hotel. I just wanted to record some videos.
it was so frustrating at that moment and wanted to throw the iPad against the wall.
Apple just add a "skip" button to the wifi menu selection, as with the other operating systems. Problem solved.
For these reasons they would never use an iPhone or other Apple products. There is no offline mode.
Fun aside.
I took my iPad pro wifi with me on vacation. I noticed that the storage was almost full and wanted to delete everything quickly. I reset the device. later came this "hello" screen and wifi menu. Unfortunately, the iPad couldn't be set up because the wifi module in the iPad couldn't connect to the hotel. I just wanted to record some videos.
it was so frustrating at that moment and wanted to throw the iPad against the wall.
Apple just add a "skip" button to the wifi menu selection, as with the other operating systems. Problem solved.
Seems like deleting various things on the devices would have been a faster way of going about it.Preppers don't like Apple products
For these reasons they would never use an iPhone or other Apple products. There is no offline mode.
Fun aside.
I took my iPad pro wifi with me on vacation. I noticed that the storage was almost full and wanted to delete everything quickly. I reset the device. later came this "hello" screen and wifi menu. Unfortunately, the iPad couldn't be set up because the wifi module in the iPad couldn't connect to the hotel. I just wanted to record some videos.
it was so frustrating at that moment and wanted to throw the iPad against the wall.
Apple just add a "skip" button to the wifi menu selection, as with the other operating systems. Problem solved.
I didn't say that. Of course you must have a valid contract with a telephony service provider. I was talking about the activation of the device itself, not the activation of the SIM card.
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I think there is quite a bit of misconception with respect to Apple and privacy. As we've seen from recent events Apple absolutely does gather a lot of analytics from its user base. The difference with Apple is that they don't specifically use this information to provide targeted, third-party advertising. But to assume they do not gather analytics is naive.
I just did a quick check on my network. I have no macOS devices, but I do have several iOS, Linux, and Windows devices. Over a 24 hour period there were over 120 Apple-related domains accessed. Contrast that with only 40 Microsoft-related domains.
Some of the Apple-related ones were rather suspect. To name just a few:
Apple domains on the other hand were almost entirely undocumented. I could find no authoritative source which explained what the domains do or how to disable their use. By authoritative I mean (preferably) Apple support documentation, or documentation from known security research agencies.
Again: Nearly every Microsoft domain was documented. Nearly every Apple domain was undocumented.
What is interesting is that some domains, such as iphonesubmissions.apple.com, are allegedly used for crash reporting. This domain is accessed quite frequently on my network even though all devices have set "diagnostic submissions" type settings to off.
The tech community tends to give Microsoft a hard time, but having done my research over the past several months I have selectively disabled a large portion of analytics on Windows devices and this is reflected in the recent review of domains being accessed. I also disable analytics on iOS devices but have no way to confirm whether such settings are effective in ensuring privacy.
Lastly, only four Linux-related domains were accessed. Two were discovery domains (the kind of query used to figure out where a service is being hosted); both of these were to locate operating system update servers. The next two were for operating system updates, with one being the proper domain for the OS in question and the other being a CDN (content distribution network).
I just did a quick check on my network. I have no macOS devices, but I do have several iOS, Linux, and Windows devices. Over a 24 hour period there were over 120 Apple-related domains accessed. Contrast that with only 40 Microsoft-related domains.
Some of the Apple-related ones were rather suspect. To name just a few:
- api-glb-ash.smoot.apple.com
- api.smoot.apple.com
- bookkeeper.itunes.apple.com
- iphonesubmissions.apple.com
- keyvalueservice.fe.apple-dns.net
Apple domains on the other hand were almost entirely undocumented. I could find no authoritative source which explained what the domains do or how to disable their use. By authoritative I mean (preferably) Apple support documentation, or documentation from known security research agencies.
Again: Nearly every Microsoft domain was documented. Nearly every Apple domain was undocumented.
What is interesting is that some domains, such as iphonesubmissions.apple.com, are allegedly used for crash reporting. This domain is accessed quite frequently on my network even though all devices have set "diagnostic submissions" type settings to off.
The tech community tends to give Microsoft a hard time, but having done my research over the past several months I have selectively disabled a large portion of analytics on Windows devices and this is reflected in the recent review of domains being accessed. I also disable analytics on iOS devices but have no way to confirm whether such settings are effective in ensuring privacy.
Lastly, only four Linux-related domains were accessed. Two were discovery domains (the kind of query used to figure out where a service is being hosted); both of these were to locate operating system update servers. The next two were for operating system updates, with one being the proper domain for the OS in question and the other being a CDN (content distribution network).
One last thing:
Having done this research today my personal conclusion is that if a person wants to be on the Internet but have the most amount of privacy they should use a trusted Linux distribution. Otherwise one should expect the vendor to be monitoring at least some aspect of their use.
To me it seems Microsoft provides the greatest amount of control over what is gathered. It's true they do not always provide options within the regular user interface (e.g. Settings or Control Panel) but using the documentation on their web site along with tools such as the Registry Editor and Group Policy Editor, one can significantly minimize the information gathered.
Apple provides a handful of settings... sometimes. With no certainty of what these do or what other information is gathered. I also find it interesting that in recent years Apple has removed the option to opt-out of certain analytics gathering (e.g. Podcasts and Books). I understand their claim of anonymizing such data, but having no option to disable data submission at all is odd for a company that brags so much about privacy.
I'm rather surprised at the amount of negative press Microsoft gets for Windows 10 "being spyware" when clearly a technical-minded person can turn this stuff off. Whereas Apple is phoning home hundreds of times a day and the press doesn't seem to notice. I admit that Microsoft's options do require a fair bit of work, but Apple provides almost no options at all; this seems odd.
Having done this research today my personal conclusion is that if a person wants to be on the Internet but have the most amount of privacy they should use a trusted Linux distribution. Otherwise one should expect the vendor to be monitoring at least some aspect of their use.
To me it seems Microsoft provides the greatest amount of control over what is gathered. It's true they do not always provide options within the regular user interface (e.g. Settings or Control Panel) but using the documentation on their web site along with tools such as the Registry Editor and Group Policy Editor, one can significantly minimize the information gathered.
Apple provides a handful of settings... sometimes. With no certainty of what these do or what other information is gathered. I also find it interesting that in recent years Apple has removed the option to opt-out of certain analytics gathering (e.g. Podcasts and Books). I understand their claim of anonymizing such data, but having no option to disable data submission at all is odd for a company that brags so much about privacy.
I'm rather surprised at the amount of negative press Microsoft gets for Windows 10 "being spyware" when clearly a technical-minded person can turn this stuff off. Whereas Apple is phoning home hundreds of times a day and the press doesn't seem to notice. I admit that Microsoft's options do require a fair bit of work, but Apple provides almost no options at all; this seems odd.
it was easier and faster to reset the device than to search for certain things in the photo app and find the size to delete. maybe the wirless chip had a loose contact or is almost broken. what can you do right now?
Maybe throw the device against the wall.
No. That would be something else. That is Jailbreaking in and of itself is not illegal. That case is June, Julyish of 2010. But, nothing else.
The overarching precedence is the Atari v Activision case from the late 1970’s early 80’s established that the hardware itself is yours - but also established that businesses are *required* to develop systems to lockout software if they don’t want the hardware used by anyone but themselves. That is the court give them the option to license use of the hardware this way.
In otherwords: Yes you own the hardware, but no you don’t have any rights as far as what they have to expose to you or developers. They can’t be anti-competitive with the lockout system, mind you - and Nintendo in the ‘80s / ’90s was bitçhslapped for this, but they get complete control what software runs on their hardware, period. They don’t have to make the hardware functional for you.
That said, there is still an ongoing case asking for a sort of middle ground on this. The plaintiff wants 3rd party App stores. Problem is, there is no middle ground. The hardware developer doesn’t have to compete against itself.
@Dave-Z
Is that the reason why Apple neglects one of their open source project pages so much?
opensource.apple.com
This open source site looks very old and is not even up to date. No macOS 10.15 or iOS 12/13.
Nevertheless, this outdated open source project page is linked to Apple's Open Source main page.
developer.apple.com
Is that the reason why Apple neglects one of their open source project pages so much?
Apple Open Source
opensource.apple.com
This open source site looks very old and is not even up to date. No macOS 10.15 or iOS 12/13.
Nevertheless, this outdated open source project page is linked to Apple's Open Source main page.
Apple Open Source
developer.apple.com
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No idea. Apple has definitely contributed to some great projects in the past: Cal/CardDAV, Chromium, even the UNIX core of macOS. I'm inclined to think they're moving away from some of that with the push of their proprietary services (e.g. the new Reminders app in iOS/iPadOS/macOS no doubt goes beyond what's in the CalDAV spec), and they also started removing a bunch of open source software from macOS Server.
And use differential privacy.
If you download the data Apple holds on you, it’s not too much and nothing in there will likely surprise you. I have done it on several different occasions to check.
I think there's different types of data. The differential stuff they collect is probably used for product improvements, etc. For example: We observe no one ever clicks the printer icon so we'll move it to a sub-menu.
The data we can can download is the stuff that's associated with our account and nothing should be a surprise because it's personally identifiable and would be anything you put there (photos, bookmarks, etc.).
I think it's great Apple is doing the differential stuff. But what I have found concerning since I looked into it a few days ago is the sheer volume of that data. Apple phones home more than Microsoft. Windows 10 can be turned off almost to the point of never phoning home (I mean.. I think their integrated malware detection and OS updates are good to have running). Apple provides almost no documentation about what all those domains it contacts do, and no mechanism to disable this data collection (as I and others have found, even opting out of diagnostic data collection still results in data being sent to these domains). This concerns me a bit.
Really you want to get that obtuse about it and pick apart my post just to pull a single sentence out of context to fit an argument you wish was there?
You need an Apple ID to get past the setup in order to use iOS. After the setup, yes anyone can pick up your device and “use” it. Dear lord these people.
You actually don’t need your Apple ID to activate or get past the activation. You are only required to use Apple ID if you did not Erase All Settings and Content because the device is tied to an Apple account. There is an option to “Set Up Later” if device is removed from Find My or erased the device. However, the device is basically an iPod if you don’t sign into an Apple ID.
Set up your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support
Learn how to set up your iPhone or iPad.
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To confirm what others are saying: You absolutely do not. You do need an Internet connection, yes, but the Apple ID part can be skipped. It's not obvious, I think you have to select the create Apple ID link (in really small print), then on the next screen select later. But it does work. I have used a few iPads without any Apple ID.. Just activated them and used Safari and email.
isn't this feature primarily designed to stop someone else from activating your iPhone (locked to the owners AppleID). Seems like a good feature to me and I haven't heard of or seen any genuine credible ways to get around it, since that would require a server-side hack and/or fundamentally changing the OS on the device so it is no longer iOS from Apple.
It’s best to not comment on what function certain random internal Apple servers do. Half of them are deceptively named on purpose, but they are not keyloggers.Here are other experiences I like to share.
Recently i discovered something else. It's about api.smoot.apple.com. It seems to be a remote keylogger service from Apple.
More details here:
What are api.smoot.apple.com and other hosts my iPhone is secretly talking to?
Looking through some log files today I found something strange : TCP_MISS/200 4931 CONNECT api.smoot.apple.com:443 - HIER_DIRECT/17.252.11.253 - TCP_MISS/200 4656 CONNECT api.smoot.apple.com:443 -apple.stackexchange.com
Every keypress on your iPhone or other iOS devcies is sent to api.smoot.apple.com, along with very accurate latitude and longitude and device information. Probably the same problem for iOS based devices (Apple Watch and Apple TV). It can't be disabled. Also not under the current iOS 13 version.
1. I tried it myself and reinstalled iOS on my iOS devices (clean install). afterwards I disabled all spotlight, siri, keyboard, background app refresh options under Settings. Also deleted all stock apps.
2. Then I activated mobile data so that you can see under iOS 13 Settings -> Cellular what kind of apps and services send data. although I deactivated all apps for cellular except Safari.
3. After a while the category "Uninstalled Apps 0,5 KB" always appears under iOS 13 Cellular list. After some time, the data consumption for this category also increases.
4. The problem is that I didn't uninstall any apps and reset the list several times. After a while, when you do something with Safari or Homescreen search, it will randomly reappear there. I tried everything, installed the current iOS 13 beta version and rebooted the device several times.
5. A user gave me the tip to use a local VPN on the iOS device to see what it is. I then loaded AdGuard Pro and Charles Proxy.
AdGuard Pro — adblock&privacy
AdGuard is an ultra-efficient ad blocker for Safari. It will not only remove annoying ads but also secure your privacy with advanced tracking protection. AdGuard for iOS is an open source app, it’s totally transparent and safe to use. KEY FEATURES: - Safari ad blocking. Removes all kinds of...apps.apple.com
Charles Proxy
Charles Proxy for iOS lets you capture and inspect network requests and responses on your iOS device. You can view metadata, headers and bodies in the app, so you can finally debug your app’s networking issues without a computer. Charles Proxy for iOS is an from the creators of Charles Proxy...apps.apple.com
6. I then activated the local VPN and after a few seconds later in the protocols the iOS device connects to api.smoot.apple.com.
I could reproduce it multiple times and again and again no matter on which iOS device or iOS version. Also with my friends it is the same. And they can test it themselves. It is 100% reproducible.
That's Find My iPhone/iPad/iWhatever and it's optional. You have to sign in with an Apple ID, then activate the Find My feature. Once activated erasing the device will prevent it from being activated again without the associated Apple ID's password.
However, this is distinct from just signing in to a device with an Apple ID.
And it is distinct from just activating a new device, which again does not need an Apple ID (unless the device was previously activated and signed in to the Find My service).
[automerge]1571846855[/automerge]
[Emphasis mine.]
I'm not disagreeing with you, but unless you've monitored the traffic this is a difficult claim to make (either for or against keylogging). Many of the domains I found are obscure by name and if I have free time I intend to proxy the traffic to eavesdrop and see what's going on.
Nevertheless, there are many posts across the Internet that suggest api.smoot.apple.com is related to spotlight searching. The domain is queried when a spotlight search takes place, even if the device is set to only search locally.
Update: I just did a test with my iPhone and, sure enough, as soon as I did a spotlight search for the word "Test" the following two domains were accessed:
- daypass.api-glb-ash.smoot.apple.com
- api.smoot.apple.com
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I can't believe this thread is still writhing...see all the posts above on this point.
Apple users in general don't understand privacy, if they did they would know that Apple 100% does not care about privacy outside of their PR statements.
I agree. It seems pretty obvious to me that a company that really was focused on privacy wouldn't get caught eavesdropping on Siri conversations. I get that they responded to that situation by stopping human listening and (eventually) adding more controls to opt-out of this on the device itself. BUT if they were truly focused on privacy the situation would have never occurred in the first place.
Why is my iPhone calling home for a local spotlight search?
Apple needs to rephrase its privacy statements to say that they don't sell the data to third parties but will collect whatever they want for their own use or to be used those they contract.
ah yeah, you're right actually, when you want to send an iPhone in for repair they ask you to switch off the find my iPhone stuff to remove the activation lock. I'm pretty sure you can use an iPhone without entering any appleID if it has no activation lock on it, i've done this before with a temporary device so I could just get to the home screen to make a phone call. It asks few times in strange ways but basically you just have to press "enter later in settings".