This week on the AppleInsider Podcast, Victor and William talk about digital data security and how protecting your privacy is getting harder, and what's going on with Apple Retail, now that Angela Ahrendts is leaving.
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This is the week where news keeps breaking. Victor and William recorded about Angela Ahrendts's surprise stepping down, only to have to record again about the different security vulnerabilities found this week.
It's not all sorted out. Victor goes on a bit about responsible disclosure, and the competing financial interests at work when it comes to security vulnerabilities. William would like to believe there can be no more security problems and no more big news stories about security, not now the AppleInsider podcast has delved into the topic. We're afraid we haven't seen the last of this.
AppleInsider editor Victor Marks and William Gallagher discuss:
- Angela Ahrendts is leaving Apple Retail after 5 years.
- Deirdre O'Brien is taking over. Interestingly, she's going to have dual roles, running what sounds like human resources at the same time.
- Qualcomm continues to be in the news, as they're disallowed from including a patent in their damages calculation.
- There's a macOS vulnerability in Keychain, which allows your system and login keychains to be accessed without your admin password. This is not good. And the researcher hasn't disclosed how the bug is exploited, because Apple's bug bounty program is limited to iOS, and doesn't include macOS. Other researches have pointed out in the past that Apple's program is both limited in scope, and limited in the amounts it pays out compared to other companies similar to Apple.
- Many popular apps use an SDK that records session data to spy on users. ("What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone" may not have aged well.) There's a legitimate reason why they're doing it, but they're doing it so badly as to be a vulnerability. (After we recorded, Apple announced they're going to require disclosure to users, or developers will be expelled from the App Store.)
- Safari removes Do Not Track as an option in Safari 12.1 beta. The problem with Do Not Track is that it was always voluntary, and not enough people complied with it.
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Show note links:
- Angela Ahrendts talks future after Apple as Deirdre O'Brien receives stock bonus
- Apple wins motion to narrow damages Qualcomm can claim at upcoming trial
- Researcher demos new macOS Keychain exploit, holds data from Apple in protest
- Popular iOS apps use Glassbox SDK to record user screens without permission [u]
- Developers must disclose screen recording analytics tools or face expulsion from App Store, Apple says
- Why Apple is disabling Safari's Do Not Track feature
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