Hi
Once you’ve seen the results from the Loupe app, you’ll want to sell your iPhone as soon as possible.
GrapheneOS seems to be the only solution. Good luck, and have fun setting up GOS.
Once you've seen the results from the Loupe app, you'll want to sell your iPhone as soon as possible
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Ran Loupe a couple of weeks ago and was indeed surprised by how much my phone leaks (though I should know).
But why do you think that GrapheneOS is any better?
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Clickbait title, but thank you for introducing me to Loupe. It’s incredible how much information that apps have access to.
The only thing I miss on iOS is a software firewall.
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Wipr and Filtr fills that gap
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Not a big surprise about the result Loupe offers me. They know more about us than we believe …
And I will not sell my iPhone.
To me, the way how Loupe is promoted here looks like spam, like unserious MacOS cleaning apps. Just look at the title of this post.
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Thanks for posting Loupe. I didn’t know about it. I found the results interesting.
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I installed Loupe. Reading through the list of things my phone is providing, a couple of the things are surprising. I have no idea why the system would be tracking the number of times I’ve copied something to the clipboard, for example.
But that “I have no idea” is the key to the whole thing. MOST of the things it’s revealing are things that developers of an app could reasonably want to know. And unless Apple has decided to implement clipboard tallying for no reason at all, there’s probably a reason that somebody needs to know the clipboard count.
And I’m not clueless. I know full well that, in theory, an app developer could use the fact that I have my text size enlarged, the fact that I have enhanced Siri voices downloaded, and the fact that I have certain apps installed to “fingerprint” me.
But by the same token, a legitimate app developer might want to know that their UI is being used with large text, and adjust accordingly. Enhanced Siri voices might be used by their app for speaking text. And knowing whether I have other apps installed could allow a developer to prompt me with additional in-app options to send data to those other apps.
There’s a balance here.
I experimented with Linux distros at one point during my move from Windows to (eventually) macOS. I found a distro that I really liked, and I was looking for an MP3 player. I asked for advice in the official forums, and was just about crucified for wanting to use a “proprietary format.” I was loudly and repeatedly informed that I didn’t need an MP3 player. I should (apparently) convert my entire library to OGG.
And that’s what this feels like.
In real life, I wear a hat. It’s a nice hat. And while it’s not unique, it’s close enough that, along with my beard and general build, it arguably uniquely identifies me in the city where I live. And I wear this hat - this hat that allows people to “visually fingerprint” me - because, hear me out here, I like the hat.
That’s how I feel about this whole issue. I like iOS. It’s not perfect, and in an ideal world maybe there’s a different balance of security that might be more optimal. And if I had to use Android, I’d be fine. But proposing that I throw away iOS entirely due to non-personally-identifiable information being exposed to developers of apps that I’ve chosen to install is a colossal non-sequitur. Especially when there’s no equivalent Loupe app analysis for Graphene.
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Strong agree, and very well put
Unfortunately, similar information can be obtained on GrapheneOS. Not quite as much as on the iPhone, but still a lot, unfortunately. I’ve only recently become familiar with the app linked here.
I often hear that the open-source community “pushes newcomers away.” I can’t confirm that at all; I use a lot of different open-source software. I’m a newcomer to many projects, and I’m always welcome in the forums. Please share links to the discussions. Thanks
Which would seem to raise the question about why one would sell one’s iPhone to replace it with a Google Pixel so they can run Graphene. 
I’m glad your experience has been positive.
I don’t have links. In general, I don’t keep track of discussions whose only value is documenting people being jerks to me.
I don’t exactly think I’m out on a thin branch here. The reason the “pushes newcomers away” sentiment is out there is because it happens to people. A Google for “open source toxic” yields a ton of results.
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No, I think it’s a legitimate app from legitimate Security professionals. It’s a bit of an eye-opener for me. It’s actually astonishing how much data is freely available to any app.
I just looked at it a couple of days ago when listening to the Techlore YouTube channel. He was saying try to minimize the amount of apps you have on your iPhone.
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It does feel very clickbait-y, doesn’t it?
The language in the app itself is unnecessarily alarmist. “See what your iPhone gives away” - no, much of this is necessary for various apps to even function (system info, accessibility, display specs, device motion). And other items - well, quite frankly I don’t care if an app knows when I last rebooted, how much memory and storage I have, or what my battery state is because they have little to no bearing on my privacy/security.
I must be missing something here. There’s a lot that it can’t show me, because I haven’t given it permission to see those things. I’m treating it the same way I treat every other app - I didn’t give away the store, I looked at each “do you want to allow (app) to see your (content)”, thought about it, and agreed or refused as I felt appropriate.
So let’s say I go ahead and enable that access. Am I to be shocked and horrified that an app has the ability to see my data after I’ve given it permission to see my data?
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Not a big surprise about the result Loupe offers me.
Agreed. Some of it, as @webwalrus has pointed out, seems odd but oh well.
If you don’t want to be digitally fingerprinted, don’t use the internet.
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It’s just digital fingerprinting. There’s more than enough info without giving permission to pretty reliably digitally fingerprint somebody, cross-reference it to databases, and use it to market products/services to them.
It’s largely impossible to avoid, but that doesn’t make it any less creepy.
Another topic about this app: Is it safe to install and use this app? I know, it is “Open Source”, but to me it is not a 100% proof that it is safe (yes, there is no 100% safety, no matter if Open Source or not).
It is an app you install, see always the same “results” and … done. It has no other function. Why keeping it on the device? The results are the “same” on every device (apps can read this and that and this …) why not posting these results ‘in-detail’ - Instead such a strange “spam”-like post?
And this aspects makes me feel that the app is more a bad “joke”. I recommend to not install it.
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Which post are you referring to?
Along the same vein…
“The Since You Arrived website pulls the curtain back on tracking, so you can see exactly what’s being reported and what it reveals about you—if you have interest in your online privacy.”
Popular Science, Your web browser knows a lot about you. Here’s what you can do about it.
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The first post, and here this passage (also the title of this post):
Telling me what what I want to do/will do (feeling my iPhone!). And telling me what the only solution is/seems to be. Nor further info or details, nothing.
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Ah, I probably misunderstood then; I thought you were complaining about the (advertising of) Loupe, but you’re complaining about the posts from the topic starter instead?