Sunday, 15 June 2025

Show me where “your privacy choices” are kept, and how compliance can be audited, and I might believe corporate promises. On our Apple TV 4k box, an app for a subscription service (e.g. Netflix, Prime, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Haystack, whatever) usually opens with a message that gives one the choice to “Ask app not to track,” or to allow it. When I opened the Fox News app on Saturday, however, it said this:

So I deleted the app. I’ll miss seeing Fox News’ coverage of events, and comparing it with what other cable news services are saying. But I tend to avoid all of them because they’re almost entirely about showcasing show anchors and guest talking heads. Meanshile, CNN has been making it easy for me to avoid seeing their heads by reducing their service to this:

I got rid of that app too.

Only MSNBC seems to be working. While I might presume that they’re obeying my past request not to track me, there is no way to tell. Additionally, since I only ask apps not to track me, there is no reason for me to have faith in any of these services’ intentions regarding personal privacy.

What I wrote here and here four years ago still applies. Asking isn’t telling. And there remains no way to know for sure that my privacy requests or settings are respected. The situation is no different with Apple’s latest ad—a 1:30 film titled Flock that’s currently on YouTube (and in shorter forms in TV ads, such as in the current NBA finals). In it, a woman blows up flying surveillance cameras that want to follow her everywhere just by opening Safari. Here’s a screengrab:

Even if Safari is fully respectful of personal privacy, countless other apps are not. The same goes for apps on streaming devices such as the Apple TV 4K. And for your TV. (Here is Consumer Reports on that.)