i wouldn't be worried about my flashlight app tracking me, i'd be worried about the large players who probably GET the use of this API, google facebook etc etc.
As I said, it's a valid concern. However the author forget the mention that you need to apply and get approved to use this API. I find it dishonest and alarmist.
> However the author forget the mention that you need to apply and get approved to use this API.
And? How is this any better? e.g. if I'm a dissident/etc. in China I would be much concerned about government affiliated large corporations being able to track my location than some random private developer (not that this specific API really matters that much if you're using those apps anyway).
> I find it dishonest and alarmist.
I find it a magnitude or two less dishonest than Apple (a company supposedly focused on user private) not informing their users that this is happening and directly requesting their consent.
Your government can track you all the time you have your phone with you, they have authority over the infrastructure. They can also make device manufacturer to track you for them, later you will be a single digit increase in their transparency stats.
If you don't want the government track you, you will have to do much better than using mainstream consumer devices. Apple is not your spycraft supplier.
You would also have to not use a phone in general, since your carrier always knows where you are, by the nature of how cellular networks work. Your phone has a unique hardware identifier that is linked to your identity, and every tower knows which phones pinged it recently. Two towers are two points in a triangle, and you're the third.
Carriers constantly perform triangulation and keep records of phones' coordinates, which of course can be subpoenaed, and may be available more freely to government agencies, depending on how much abusive surveillance your local government does. Carriers have also sold this information to data brokers in the past.
I would absolutely be concerned about a flashlight app doing all the nefarious things. A flashlight app? Today? Still? Really? It's one of those apps that's absolutely useless since the OS provides this feature natively now. It is absolutely the type of app I would assume has no reason other than harvesting data.
You're conflating "utility to user" with "utility to developer". A flashlight app has no utility to the user, it doesn't really matter to me that it's useful to its developer (for collecting my personal data).
Except that there are data collection SDK companies where you can get paid as a developer in exchange for installing an SDK that will send customer data to the company. It's one way to monetize an app a little bit more.
