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Yet one more opaque iOS 18 alert

 

When I asked Siri to play the playlist I mentioned in my post a few minutes ago, I also go this alert

[To listen to Apple Music, you'll need to accept the latest privacy agreement.]

I have searched high and low for what this alert and the alert in my previous email actually mean, and came up empty handed.

Re this alert: nowhere could I find where this “latest privacy agreement” is on the iPhone so that I can accept it.

Bob


Opaque alert on iOS 18

 

After installing iOS 18, I asked Siri "Play my Favorites Playlist" and in response I got this opaque alert.

This Device is Already Associated with An Apple Account. If you turn on automatic downloads with your Apple account that you cannot auto download or download past purchases with a different Apple account for 90 days. The choices were cancel or transfer.

Anyone know what this means?

Bob


Re: [iPad] Cellular vs. WiFi/VPN Security

 

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I have nothing any government intelligence agency would be interested in, but does the acronym FIS refer to FISGlobal, a non-governmental entity? If so, what investigative authority do they have?

I did not know the name of the UK agency GCHQ, but I assumed it existed.?

It is nice to hear Meta assures us it is not eavesdropping, even it we may not believe.But then again we need a catchy phrase like “Loose lips sink ships.”, for people blabbing all their private info on social media. ?

Brent

On my iPhone Xr

On Sep 13, 2024, at 10:24, Dave Skolnick KO4MI <dave@...> wrote:

?
Dick,
?
Good question. Facebook Messenger is encrypted end-to-end. That means encryption happens on your device and is decrypted on your correspondent's device. No one can read the contents of your message while in transit, including Meta (who own Facebook). Many messaging systems similarly encrypt end-to-end. If I remember correctly, Facebook began encrypting Messenger end-to-end after their acquisition of Whatsapp which set the standard for consumer grade encryption. Signal and Terminal are encrypted also.
?
The upshot is that a VPN adds no value to security over Messenger, just overhead which slows things down.
?
To be clear, if you become a specific target for NSA, GCHQ, FIS, or other government intelligence agencies you have an entirely different set of problems. I can help you with those, but I'll need to be paid. *grin*
?
dave


Re: [iPad] Cellular vs. WiFi/VPN Security

 

Hi Brent,
?
GSA is the US General Services Administration. The are the repository for a great many things including the employment history of present and past Federal employees. They have had a number of information breaches which exposed personal information of present and past civil servants.
?
SaaS is 'software as a service.' At the consumer level it includes many functions usually thought of as web-based or cloud services like iCloud, Amazon web services, MS Office 365, and Google applications like GMail and Google Docs. In short you are taking all your personal information and handing it to someone else, trusting that they will treat it with the care that you would yourself.
?
Your concerns are spot on.
?
dave
?


Re: [iPad] Cellular vs. WiFi/VPN Security

 

Dick,
?
Good question. Facebook Messenger is encrypted end-to-end. That means encryption happens on your device and is decrypted on your correspondent's device. No one can read the contents of your message while in transit, including Meta (who own Facebook). Many messaging systems similarly encrypt end-to-end. If I remember correctly, Facebook began encrypting Messenger end-to-end after their acquisition of Whatsapp which set the standard for consumer grade encryption. Signal and Terminal are encrypted also.
?
The upshot is that a VPN adds no value to security over Messenger, just overhead which slows things down.
?
To be clear, if you become a specific target for NSA, GCHQ, FIS, or other government intelligence agencies you have an entirely different set of problems. I can help you with those, but I'll need to be paid. *grin*
?
dave


Re: [iPad] Cellular vs. WiFi/VPN Security

 

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Dave, please explain two acronyms, GSA & SaaS.?

My opinion, with no professional experience, is that most stolen information of individuals is from hacks of businesses, as opposed to interceptions. Why target one at a time, when you can target tens of thousands at a time.?

I just deleted 426 spam emails from the junk folder for a 14 day period. The funny part, I hardly use the account. It is the one I use on resumes, and I have been retired for 8 years. I think it was garnered from the Indeed site.?

Bot crawlers have picked up my other e-ddresses, but they hardly get any spam that makes it passed the email server filters, into the Junk folder.?

If you’re worried about security, worry about the info on other peoples servers, like credit card purchases store on the sellers servers, or your data store on cloud storage accounts.?

Brent

On my iPhone Xr

On Sep 12, 2024, at 06:24, Dave Skolnick KO4MI <dave@...> wrote:

?
Hello Dick,
?
A VPN provides very good security from the point where you enter the secure tunnel (in your case on your phone) to where you come out (in your case at your VPN provider's terminus). From the terminus to whatever you are connecting to you are on the open Internet.
?
Cellular connections are inherently secure. That covers you from your phone to where AT&T in your case connects to the open Internet.
?
If you are connecting to secure i.e. HTTPS websites you are protected from your device to the website.
?
VPNs have great value for business applications such as remote work where mobile users connect to a VPN terminus inside the firewall of the business.
?
Outside of HTTPS, in your case you'd be exposed from your WiFi only iPad to your phone and from the VPN terminus to whatever you connect to.
?
In an official capacity I have worked professionally to penetrate communications. I'm careful who and what I connect to and how. I've been subject to identity theft more than once, ALWAYS due to data at rest e.g. the very first GSA penetration not data in flight. Based on my experience I avoid cloud services and SaaS but don't bother with VPN. YMMV. We all have to make our own choices.
?
dave
?


Re: [iPad] Cellular vs. WiFi/VPN Security

 

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Dave,?
? ? ?Truly many thanks for your long multifaceted reply. A few more questions later, but one slightly off the mark (of your good answers) came to me just now, last 5 minutes. I’m connected on my VPN as I choose on or of depending one the use. A close friend just texted me to have a very private conversation on my pre-existing (Facebook) Messenger account, used by us for years. What do you know about privacy, security using only OUR Messenger for our talk, especially with my VPN on? This is using my iPad 9 WiFi or to iPhone 11 generated Hotspot, OR the iPhone 11 alone cell or WiFi. Thanks very much. More later.?
Dick
-----------------------------
Richard E. Johnson, ScM, MD
recmsoj1@...
recmsoj@...
recmsoj@...

Sent from iPad (9th)
? ? ?iPadOS 17.6.1
iPhone 11
? ? ?iOS 17..6.1

On Sep 12, 2024, at 08:24, Dave Skolnick KO4MI via groups.io <dave@...> wrote:

?
Hello Dick,
?
A VPN provides very good security from the point where you enter the secure tunnel (in your case on your phone) to where you come out (in your case at your VPN provider's terminus). From the terminus to whatever you are connecting to you are on the open Internet.
?
Cellular connections are inherently secure. That covers you from your phone to where AT&T in your case connects to the open Internet.
?
If you are connecting to secure i.e. HTTPS websites you are protected from your device to the website.
?
VPNs have great value for business applications such as remote work where mobile users connect to a VPN terminus inside the firewall of the business.
?
Outside of HTTPS, in your case you'd be exposed from your WiFi only iPad to your phone and from the VPN terminus to whatever you connect to.
?
In an official capacity I have worked professionally to penetrate communications. I'm careful who and what I connect to and how. I've been subject to identity theft more than once, ALWAYS due to data at rest e.g. the very first GSA penetration not data in flight. Based on my experience I avoid cloud services and SaaS but don't bother with VPN. YMMV. We all have to make our own choices.
?
dave
?


Re: [iPad] Cellular vs. WiFi/VPN Security

 

Hello Dick,
?
A VPN provides very good security from the point where you enter the secure tunnel (in your case on your phone) to where you come out (in your case at your VPN provider's terminus). From the terminus to whatever you are connecting to you are on the open Internet.
?
Cellular connections are inherently secure. That covers you from your phone to where AT&T in your case connects to the open Internet.
?
If you are connecting to secure i.e. HTTPS websites you are protected from your device to the website.
?
VPNs have great value for business applications such as remote work where mobile users connect to a VPN terminus inside the firewall of the business.
?
Outside of HTTPS, in your case you'd be exposed from your WiFi only iPad to your phone and from the VPN terminus to whatever you connect to.
?
In an official capacity I have worked professionally to penetrate communications. I'm careful who and what I connect to and how. I've been subject to identity theft more than once, ALWAYS due to data at rest e.g. the very first GSA penetration not data in flight. Based on my experience I avoid cloud services and SaaS but don't bother with VPN. YMMV. We all have to make our own choices.
?
dave
?


Re: Navigation weirdness

 

Reading over my previous posts in this thread, I wasn’t thinking clearly when I wrote at least one of them. If I said I typed in my current location, that would have been incorrect. I typed in my destination.

Last Friday I decided that I did want to try the Italian restaurant on the same block as the bookstore where I went the previous week, and see how the navigation went while I was at it. This time I went straight from work to the restaurant without the intermediate stops of the previous week. Once again, I printed out Bing Maps directions, just in case. Using Waze, I got to the restaurant with no problem. After dinner I brought up Waze, typed in the destination (home), and got the Waze equivalent of “I don’t know where I am.” So I tried Apple Maps, and unlike the previous week, it worked. Bing Maps had wanted to send me southward on the street I was on, and Apple Maps sent me northward, but I figured (correctly) that I’d still get home OK. Apparently it was a case of “just one of those things.”

I had cheese ravioli with marinara sauce, enjoyed it, and would recommend that restaurant. I still want to try Magic Earth.


Re: [iPad] Cellular vs. WiFi/VPN Security

 

开云体育

? ? ?Thanks, Jim, for the reply. With my admitted virtually non-knowledge of computer or phone security, that’s the impression I pretty much had too. However, I just started using VPN and I asked because frankly I thought someone would reply something along the lines that cell data is so massive, complex or financially corporation-driven that trying to protect your cell data is too important to assume it’s better than WiFi. Any ideas about where your impression comes from or do you actually recall expert opinions or research on this??
Thanks very much,
Dick?
-----------------------------
Richard E. Johnson, ScM, MD
recmsoj1@...
recmsoj@...
recmsoj@...

Sent from iPad (9th)
? ? ?iPadOS 17.6.1
iPhone 11
? ? ?iOS 17..6.1

On Sep 11, 2024, at 19:15, Jim Saklad via groups.io <jimdoc@...> wrote:

?Richard Johnson wrote:
Pardon the simplistic query, but I recently started using a VPN to try to improve my online security on an iPhone 11’s cellular and WiFi signals and an iPad (9th) using WiFi or using my iPhone Hotspot. The VPN will apparently connect to my iPhone cellular network as well as WiFi. I’m a retired BC US physician and iMac+iPhone+iPad user for >30 years, but no security expert.?

My basic question is for cellular iPhone use, AT&T in this case, is using the VPN beneficial for better security or is it superfluous except for WiFi?

My impression is that our cellular connections are inherently secure, and that *secured* Wifi (e.g., a hotspot connection to your iPhone) gains noting from a VPN, unless you need to fake your location.

--?
Jim Saklad
jimdoc@...
Jim logo small.jpg


Cellular vs. WiFi/VPN Security

 

Pardon the simplistic query, but I recently started using a VPN to try to improve my online security on an iPhone 11’s cellular and WiFi signals and an iPad (9th) using WiFi or using my iPhone Hotspot. The VPN will apparently connect to my iPhone cellular network as well as WiFi. I’m a retired BC US physician and iMac+iPhone+iPad user for >30 years, but no security expert.
My basic question is for cellular iPhone use, AT&T in this case, is using the VPN beneficial for better security or is it superfluous except for WiFi?
Many thanks,
Dick
-----------------------------
Richard E. Johnson, ScM, MD
recmsoj1@...
recmsoj@...
recmsoj@...

Sent from iPad (9th)
iPadOS 17.6.1
iPhone 11
iOS 17..6.1
?W(1st), wOS 4.3.2


Re: Navigation weirdness

 

Hi Brent,
?
My poor experience with Apple Maps is out of date maps and poor routing. My data is only based on personal experience and limited to links from websites and email that automatically open Apple Maps instead of my preferred Google Maps. That might be a handful of times per year so hardly exhaustive.
?
Just the other day Apple Maps sent me down a road that had been closed to through traffic by barriers that looked many years old.
?
I don't know how Apple gets their map data.
?
I know Google (and therefore Waze) use pretty advanced imagery analysis tools for satellite and airborne optical systems to map roads. I also see Google mapping cars from time to time. I'm sure they suck in GIS information from all sorts of sources. Once in a while Google Maps will get a street or highway name wrong, mostly when a road has multiple designations and once in a while when signage says something like "XX to YY."
?
With regard to your separate response to Andrew about GPS, I am in fundamental agreement. Your point about signal blockage inside a car is worth elaborating on. Many newer cars have MagSafe or similar built in inductive charging pads often buried in the dash or console. The extra metal between the phone and the sky can have a significant impact on signal quality. Even if the phone thinks it knows where it is if fewer satellites are received accuracy is reduced. We have little dash mounts in our cars to get the phone up higher which helps tremendously.
?
GPS requires four satellites for a position. More satellites mean more accuracy. I believe iPhones back to at least the 6 have twelve channel receivers which give great resolution for latitude and longitude and darn good for altitude. There are GPS apps, some free, that will tell you how many satellite signals are being received and what the computed position accuracy is.
?
As a matter of interest for those so inclined, the fairly complex math (mostly spherical trigonometry) to determine position that happens inside the GPS chip in your phone is the same math used to construct the tables used for celestial navigation i.e. sextants and chronometers. You can tell a real ancient mariner by the scars from bruising inside his or her left elbow. There is an outstanding movie at a lay level named Longitude I highly recommend.
?
I can see my sextant from here. I still use it from time to time to keep my skills up and because it is fun. You would have to pry my GPS from my cold dead hands to make me give it up.
?
sail fast and eat well, dave


Re: Navigation weirdness

 

Found it. Thanks !

Dutch

On Sep 4, 2024, at 9:53?PM, potentmap via groups.io <Alvin.Auerbach@...> wrote:

I checked before I wrote my post, and again now.

Magic Earth Navigation & Maps is still in the Apple App store in the USA.

Alvin

On Sep 4, 2024, at 6:48?PM, Dutch Junge <dutch@...> wrote:

Don’t see Magic Earth in the App store ?

Dutch

On Sep 4, 2024, at 3:52?PM, potentmap via groups.io <Alvin.Auerbach@...> wrote:

The Magic Earth app has maps for the entire earth. Download the maps for the states and nations that you are interested in, then you will only need the GPS satellites, and not need the internet while traveling. The app is totally free, and has frequent map updates.

Alvin

On Sep 4, 2024, at 1:52?PM, Jim Saklad via groups.io <jimdoc@...> wrote:

Otto Nikolaus wrote:

?Yes, you said the destination wasn’t accepted, but the result is the same: it needs both (obviously).

It looks like there must’ve been a problem will cell reception at that time where you were.
Before the map apps existed I had a Garmin GPS mapping device.

One of my first App purchases was the TomTom mapping app. Apps like this contain GIGABYTES of mapping data and are (almost) entirely independent of Wifi or Cellular connectivity.

They CAN utilize connectivity for add-on functionality like traffic or speed traps, and of course they require GPS reception, but they can get you from Point A to Point B with NO connection to the internet.


















Re: Navigation weirdness

 

Also in the UK.

This is new to me. I’m installing it now to give it a try. It looks *very* promising.
<>

Otto

On 5 Sep 2024, at 02:53, potentmap via groups.io <Alvin.Auerbach@...> wrote:

I checked before I wrote my post, and again now.

Magic Earth Navigation & Maps is still in the Apple App store in the USA.


Re: Navigation weirdness

 

I checked before I wrote my post, and again now.

Magic Earth Navigation & Maps is still in the Apple App store in the USA.

Alvin

On Sep 4, 2024, at 6:48?PM, Dutch Junge <dutch@...> wrote:

Don’t see Magic Earth in the App store ?

Dutch

On Sep 4, 2024, at 3:52?PM, potentmap via groups.io <Alvin.Auerbach@...> wrote:

The Magic Earth app has maps for the entire earth. Download the maps for the states and nations that you are interested in, then you will only need the GPS satellites, and not need the internet while traveling. The app is totally free, and has frequent map updates.

Alvin

On Sep 4, 2024, at 1:52?PM, Jim Saklad via groups.io <jimdoc@...> wrote:

Otto Nikolaus wrote:

?Yes, you said the destination wasn’t accepted, but the result is the same: it needs both (obviously).

It looks like there must’ve been a problem will cell reception at that time where you were.
Before the map apps existed I had a Garmin GPS mapping device.

One of my first App purchases was the TomTom mapping app. Apps like this contain GIGABYTES of mapping data and are (almost) entirely independent of Wifi or Cellular connectivity.

They CAN utilize connectivity for add-on functionality like traffic or speed traps, and of course they require GPS reception, but they can get you from Point A to Point B with NO connection to the internet.














Re: Navigation weirdness

 

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Dave,?

Other than your experience in the ice ages of 15 years ago, what exactly causes you to call Apple Maps unreliable? Any current issues? I haven’t seen any particular issues.

About 2001, I built s computer desk/mount for my G4 Pismo, for my vehicle, and used them along with a Garmin GPS antenna on the dash or roof. I think the software was Garmin. It was too many years ago. So once I had the basics down, it worked fine. I used it for a 45-day road trip of 10k miles. Later my standalone Garmin unit, even though I had the lates maps, I found them to often be 2 years out of date. Nice when they permanently close the freeway exit to your hotel and it takes 7 miles to get back to the hotel and reservation. I think that was Iowa.

Brent



On Sep 4, 2024, at 7:28 AM, Dave Skolnick KO4MI <dave@...> wrote:

Apple Maps is not reliable. Google owns both Google Maps and Waze. Both now reflect things like traffic, accidents, and speed traps from the same dataset. The choice between the two comes down to the user interface you prefer. I personally prefer Google Maps because the web interface on desktop is easier for me and transfer a route to my phone is very simple. I've done route planning entirely on my phone in Google Maps and Waze and it doesn't matter much. Whichever makes you happier - the result is the same.
?
With all respect to Andrew, this sounds like a combination of operator error and reliance on a poor tool (Apple Maps).
?
I regularly set up routes with multiple stops, often in off the grid places, without issues. I travel for work a lot so many places in many cars through CarPay and directly on the phone.
?
Every time I try and outsmart the phone it bites me (the decision, not the phone). The last time I got seriously awkward guidance was over fifteen years ago when I was routed down a literal cow path (had to open cattle gates at both ends) in rural Eastern Shore Maryland. The data collection and routing algorithms are better now.
?
dave


Re: Navigation weirdness

 

There are multiple reasons that the your starting point wasn’t recognized. Most relate to receiving a signal from the GPS satellites. Many things can block the signal, like a parking garage, an overpass, being in a deep canyon or valley, possibly the roof of your vehicle, or extreme weather. The military can for national security reasons can block areas. And of course, not turning the feature on, which I doubt is the case for the OP.

As an aside, I used to fly into MSP, Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, then have to immediately drive to Austin on the southern border. The problem is all the parking, including for the car rentals are in the parking structure. The loop in the airport is always busy, and the freeway on ramp is as you leave the airport, so you have to know which turnoff you need as you leave the airport. Not enough time for the GSP to find the satellites.

I have also driven from SoCal to Portland, Oregon along the coast. In areas along the coast you are too low to acquire enough satellites to determine you location, being too close to a cliff or too deep into a canyon. In this case even though I might have a location, I had no cellular data to put a map behind the pin. Was curious, so I was using both my iPhone and Garmin, with preloaded maps. Thankfully, I had unlimited data at the time, because two days of driving with the iPhone’s GPS on racked up the data.

Brent

On Sep 3, 2024, at 7:53 PM, Andrew Buc <abuc@...> wrote:

I’m thinking that I wasn’t clear earlier—the apps failed to recognize my starting point. I was writing a few days after the fact.

On 3 Sep 2024, at 6:39, Otto Nikolaus via groups.io wrote:

Andrew said that he used Waze & Apple Maps, and both failed to recognise the destinations, presumably from each previous one.




Re: Navigation weirdness

 

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On 4 Sep 2024, at 12:52, potentmap via groups.io wrote:

The Magic Earth app has maps for the entire earth. Download the maps for the states and nations that you are interested in, then you will only need the GPS satellites, and not need the internet while traveling. The app is totally free, and has frequent map updates.

I’ll have to look into that. It’s occurred to me that there was an Italian restaurant (not where I ate the other night), which has good reviews on Yelp, on the same block as the bookstore. I might be able to justify another trip to that neighborhood to see if I still have navigation problems and have a good Italian dinner.


Re: Navigation weirdness

 

Don’t see Magic Earth in the App store ?

Dutch

On Sep 4, 2024, at 3:52?PM, potentmap via groups.io <Alvin.Auerbach@...> wrote:

The Magic Earth app has maps for the entire earth. Download the maps for the states and nations that you are interested in, then you will only need the GPS satellites, and not need the internet while traveling. The app is totally free, and has frequent map updates.

Alvin

On Sep 4, 2024, at 1:52?PM, Jim Saklad via groups.io <jimdoc@...> wrote:

Otto Nikolaus wrote:

?Yes, you said the destination wasn’t accepted, but the result is the same: it needs both (obviously).

It looks like there must’ve been a problem will cell reception at that time where you were.
Before the map apps existed I had a Garmin GPS mapping device.

One of my first App purchases was the TomTom mapping app. Apps like this contain GIGABYTES of mapping data and are (almost) entirely independent of Wifi or Cellular connectivity.

They CAN utilize connectivity for add-on functionality like traffic or speed traps, and of course they require GPS reception, but they can get you from Point A to Point B with NO connection to the internet.










Re: Navigation weirdness

 

The Magic Earth app has maps for the entire earth. Download the maps for the states and nations that you are interested in, then you will only need the GPS satellites, and not need the internet while traveling. The app is totally free, and has frequent map updates.

Alvin

On Sep 4, 2024, at 1:52?PM, Jim Saklad via groups.io <jimdoc@...> wrote:

Otto Nikolaus wrote:

?Yes, you said the destination wasn’t accepted, but the result is the same: it needs both (obviously).

It looks like there must’ve been a problem will cell reception at that time where you were.
Before the map apps existed I had a Garmin GPS mapping device.

One of my first App purchases was the TomTom mapping app. Apps like this contain GIGABYTES of mapping data and are (almost) entirely independent of Wifi or Cellular connectivity.

They CAN utilize connectivity for add-on functionality like traffic or speed traps, and of course they require GPS reception, but they can get you from Point A to Point B with NO connection to the internet.