GrapheneOS (@[email protected])
grapheneos.social
iOS has significantly worse support for VPNs than Android and requires using Apple services. Android exists without Google services and people can install apps from elsewhere. The mandatory or effectively mandatory services on Google Mobile Services devices and iOS have comparable privacy.

https://bsky.app/profile/iceblock.app/post/3lmzykc7rb42d

Apple stores which devices/users install which apps. They have the device IDs. US government could obtain a list of people who installed the app if a court authorized it. Not clear what they mean by having to store device IDs. Those IDs aren’t accessible to Android apps.

ANDROID_ID is a per-app-per-profile random ID. Not clear why they would need it. Android has privacy-preserving hardware-based attestation if they’re talking about making it harder to spoof a location. Can’t prevent either iOS or Android users making false reports via attestation APIs regardless.

https://bsky.app/profile/iceblock.app/post/3lswryqarlk2l

Making posts with inaccurate technical claims about Android doesn’t inspire confidence. It’s a closed source app with a closed source service fully under their control. Why is that the approach if their goal is helping people rather than monetizing interest in it?

https://bsky.app/profile/iceblock.app/post/3lpewifycls27

Apple records which apps people install and requires an account to use their app store. Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) has comparable privacy to Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM). However, iOS apps must use APNs for push while Android apps do not have to use FCM.

Android apps can implement their own push service or allow the user to choose a service via the UnifiedPush framework. Play Store has a policy of requiring FCM for most use cases for battery reasons but there are exceptions. Unlike iOS, Android allows installing apps from other app stores / sources.

ICEBlock app is very clearly misleading people about privacy and their safety. Apple has a list of which accounts/devices have installed the app. They will provide it to the US government if they receive a court order. FCM is also not less private than APNS and FCM doesn’t work the way they claim.

iPhones have good overall privacy and security but Apple does collect telemetry, forces people to have accounts and knows which apps each user/device has installed. They do not have magical privacy and security properties. An app like this claiming iOS gives them 100% anonymity is very strange.

iOS has significantly worse support for VPNs than Android and requires using Apple services. Android exists without Google services and people can install apps from elsewhere. The mandatory or effectively mandatory services on Google Mobile Services devices and iOS have comparable privacy.