Roger Fingas
Apple's "Sign in with Apple" feature, coming to iOS 13 apps this fall, is about acknowledging the convenience of social media sign-on options from Google, Facebook, and Twitter without the "heavy privacy price," the company's software technology VP said in an interview.
"It's not rocket science to say, 'Hey wouldn't that be great to have that without the tracking part of it,'" Guy "Bud" Tribble told CNET. "Our whole point of view is giving more control to the user over things like their data."
The feature originated when Apple's own workers began questioning third-party options.
"Some of us have probably used social media single-sign on ourselves," Tribble admitted.
Many apps and websites now offer social media sign-on options, reflecting the fact that there are so many online services that it can be impossible to remember logins for all of them. In fact the technology often lets people sign into services they've never used before.
"Sign in with Apple" lets people do the same, but with better control over what if any data is shared. In fact the service generates spoof forwarding addresses for email, allowing people to shut off communications on the fly. Perhaps controversially the feature will be mandatory for all iOS apps that offer some form of social media sign-on.
Tribble tangentially noted that while Apple reviews some 100,000 App Store submissions per week, about 40% of those are rejected, frequently for privacy concerns. The priority is said to be tossing apps that try to fool people or ask for unnecessary permissions.
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12 Comments
I love the idea of this and hope it works out well. I dislike seeing those sign-in buttons when they’re the only option available. I don’t have a Facebook/Google/Twitter account so those are literally not an option for me (is there a “sign-in with Twitter”? I can’t recall seeing it). Perhaps I’m not missing out on anything but it will be nice to test with Apple’s implementation.
Edit: I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere but I’d like to see the simple-to-obtain-and-cancel randomized email addresses to be available when I’m doing online checkout.
Twitter is an option, but much rarer than Google or Facebook.
I'm not sure why anyone ever used the social media sign-on in the first place.
Besides the privacy issues, there are also MAJOR security issues, including training users to be phished.
It's just a completely horrible idea I've been writing against for years (I think my first article on it was in 2012).
I never used the "social media" sign-on option, just used e-mail.
password manager, throwaway email address and fake persona, done. As for “social” media, its just a cest pit and echo chamber for holier than thou narcassists, it adds nothing of value to your live, burns precious time and in the worst case will be used against you to get you fired or not hired by some asshat who miss interprets something you posted 6 years ago. No, you are better of not participating in that shit fest of an idea. social media is for idiots and narcassists that make bank of the idiots.