cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16216017

My grocery store wants to know my BMI

If they were interested in my location they could request location data. What are the odds they are doing this to directly market products to people based on health data?

Inb4 “They already do that based on what you regularly purchase”

Of course, yes they do. This appears to be one more layer on top of it. And surely they wouldn’t share that information with the pharmacy, right?

  • BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.worldEnglish
    191·
    6 months ago

    This is iOS, if it was asking for location it would say location. This is specifically asking for health data like BMI, average heart rate if they wear an Apple Watch, steps etc.

    • MotoAsh@lemmy.worldEnglish
      311·
      6 months ago

      iOS … ok that makes sense for the made for stupid people but… Does the application control the subtext of the permissions request? If location is NOT included in that category, then Apple has made a grave mistake of allowing app makers to openly lie to users…

      BTW, a mismatch in permissions could be because the app was made with a common build tool that doesn’t understand (or maybe the app developer themselves failed to understand) that it could request location by itself.

      … Or they really are trying to harvest more info than they want to admit… but then I ask … Why is it on Apple’s closed app store if it’s lying to users? (because Apple also doesn’t care. they just want to appear to care)

      • BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        6 months ago

        The top comment in the thread this one is cross posted from has a plausible reason for it if it is an app and genuine

      • BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.worldEnglish
        14·
        6 months ago

        The prompts from iOS are usually generic, it looks like this just may be a custom prompt from a website, might even be an ad or fake link, luckily iOS locks down their phones in the browser so you can’t really have anything bad happen other than lots of tabs opening but you can just kill the app.

        • AndrewZabar@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          5 months ago

          No you’re confusing with Android. The iOS ones are rather specific and health data is health data. It’s certainly not trying to access location or contacts or Bluetooth etc. it’s quite specific.

          • AndrewZabar@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            5 months ago

            Yeah I’m fairly certain it’s the app. If it were Safari it would either say Safari is trying to… or it would say the website so there would be a domain named. I think it’s fairly conclusive this is the store’s app.