iOS 14 Privacy: Users Can Give Apps Access to Limited Selection of Photos

Also, there should be a way by now to allow specific apps to have “white to” priclidges to photos while also not allowing “read” access to the entire damn photo library.

Came here to say this. Write only access for apps that can save photos, but have no business looking at your other photos.

I suppose you could put a “dummy” photo in your library, set the app permission to only read that blank photo, and it’ll still be allowed to write new photos.

Finally! Long overdue. Also, there should be a way by now to allow specific apps to have “write to” privileges to the stock Photos app while also not allowing “read” access to the entire damn photo library. For example, it annoys me that in order to let my eufy security cam app have the functionality to save recordings to Photos, I have to grant the app privileges to acces my whole Photos app library. The eufy app only needs “write to” privileges to my Photos! While watching all the improvements that Apple debuts the last few years to iOS, I can’t help but think that none of these new features should be new. They should have been correct right from the beginning, but they weren’t. Apple’s just patching stupidity they built into their products. There’s nothing innovative or revolutionary about that. And Tim Cook’s PR campaign that Apple cares more about your privacy really doesn’t hold up when the company, for many years, has granted 3rd party apps full (non-customizable) access to your entire Photos library. When I give Facebook messenger app access to my mic and camera, why can’t I set it to have access only when the app is open— and how is Apple assuring me that the app isn’t accessing the mic and camera while it’s running in the background? Because of things like this, I have stopped buying what Apple says about caring deeply about user privacy— it’s just a marketing angle that isn’t backed up with real actions that matter. I dumped all my shares of aapl Monday evening. The company is directionless and just trying to maintain where Steve Jobs left off.

So an app, without photos permission, can still do things like open a file picker to upload something like a profile photo

Sadly only few apps took advantage of the system picker, I blogged about this: "How iOS Developers Lie with Photo Permissions Dialog." ('https://cocoaswitch.com/2018/07/15/photo-picker/')

You mean this entire time, apps were able to view any photos in our library? My understanding of how the picker worked was that the photo library pop up was iOS and once you selected a photo, it uploaded that into the app. I even vaguely recall Steve on stage talking about it.

It's two discrete considerations: one is a picker that invokes the file / image browser, the other is app level access to the photos library (which you explicitly allow via the prompt / privacy for 3rd party apps).

So like Chrome on my iPad doesn't have specific photos access, yet I can still open photos to choose a pic to upload, but Twitter has read/write access, so technically it can add a photo, or read any photo from my entire library (which, come to think of it ... is creepy ... o_O ) So an app, without photos permission, can still do things like open a file picker to upload something like a profile photo, but it doesn't have any persistent access after that operation.

I agree with some of the above, disagree with some of the above. All in all, there's a bunch of hyperbole. Privacy is not an all or nothing process. It's an evolving circumstance. One just doesn't flip a switch and declare privacy is done.

So yeah, TC PR compaign, does hold up to scrutiny. Apple is doing more than other companies to ensure the correct handling of your information. Also you are confusing, imo, privacy and security.

Since TC became CEO, the company did not implode as some predicted. That you dumped your Apple shares, you gave up future gains on the stock. How long are people going to keep saying Apple will implode? From WWDC it should be apparent they are anything but directionless, but maybe there is much bias out there.

Spot on comment. I think Apple has been more proactive in the areas of privacy than other tech companies. At least they are designing and engineering tools into the OS and their applications to protect our privacy as best they can and still offer valued functionality that bear results. Most other technology firms don't even try.

I wish iOS allowed a pin code to view the photos app. Also I wish photos saved from the web went into a special folder and not the camera roll.