iPhone SE (2020) Do You Allow EXTENSIONS to View ALL of Your Sensitive Data, i.e. passwords, phone numbers and even browsing history... or Nah?

[HappyDude20]

I'm including a dew screenshots of some apps and extensions I love to use. Mainly Wipr which works amazingly well all around and also PiPfier, which I both have on my iOS and MacOS devices.

Not a fan of the warning it gives me about being able to view everything...including passwords that's scary.

I think I even bought an extension for Safari on Mac called Oldr for Reddit giving me an older Reddit webpage layout but that too has access to sensitive that.

Is the real solution to just not use extensions?

 

[Apple_Robert]

It all comes down to a matter of preference and how much security you are willing to forego or put at risk for the sake of convenience. I would never use an extension that would have access to highly sensitive information. Others might disagree and that is fine. If someone else is happy using such, that is their business.

 

[HalfFullmoon]

Never.

 

[HappyDude20]

It all comes down to a matter of preference and how much security you are willing to forego or put at risk for the sake of convenience. I would never use an extension that would have access to highly sensitive information. Others might disagree and that is fine. If someone else is happy using such, that is their business.

Whoa yeah so then never really. Glad I only spent a few bucks in total for these but sucks I won’t be using the extensions at all anymore. I did love not having ANY ads on YouTube on both safari on my Mac and my iPhone, among other things such as easier Picture in Picture and therefore used that feature alllllllll of the time. Not the end of the world but oh well. Although being accustomed to not seeing YouTube ads of any kind was nice.

It’s a shame something like Oldr for Reddit extension says it’s gotta haste access to all that sensitive data, among the other apps/extensions.

So I guess unless something changes I’m effectively not using Extensions at all anymore UNLESS they work without seeking my sensitive data. I guess I’m on the google rabbit hole quest in search of apps that comply in that regard.

It seems to me this would be a bigger deal as I’m sure most people, as in the everyday apple users that don’t attend this site or it’s forum, fiddle around with extensions more and more with each yearly update not really knowing what it is they’re agreeing to…

 

[Apple_Robert]

Whoa yeah so then never really. Glad I only spent a few bucks in total for these but sucks I won’t be using the extensions at all anymore. I did love not having ANY ads on YouTube on both safari on my Mac and my iPhone, among other things such as easier Picture in Picture and therefore used that feature alllllllll of the time. Not the end of the world but oh well. Although being accustomed to not seeing YouTube ads of any kind was nice.

It’s a shame something like Oldr for Reddit extension says it’s gotta haste access to all that sensitive data, among the other apps/extensions.

So I guess unless something changes I’m effectively not using Extensions at all anymore UNLESS they work without seeking my sensitive data. I guess I’m on the google rabbit hole quest in search of apps that comply in that regard.

It seems to me this would be a bigger deal as I’m sure most people, as in the everyday apple users that don’t attend this site or it’s forum, fiddle around with extensions more and more with each yearly update not really knowing what it is they’re agreeing to…

I doubt the average non-forum user thinks about security issues and policies. They just focus on turning their Mac on and off and having it do what they want.

 

[now i see it]

I did love not having ANY ads on YouTube

Use the Brave browser for viewing YouTube content. Trash your YouTube app.
Brave allows you to view everything on YouTube without ads - and it’s free.

 

[HappyDude20]

Use the Brave browser for viewing YouTube content. Trash your YouTube app.
Brave allows you to view everything on YouTube without ads - and it’s free.

Thank you. Will do. I stopped using the app in favor of ad less YouTube.com on safari but am more than willing to use a different browser to not see those pesky skip ads in five seconds button

 

[eyoungren]

I doubt the average non-forum user thinks about security issues and policies. They just focus on turning their Mac on and off and having it do what they want.

Right, that's one reason why they may buy Apple - so they do not have to think about any of that. And if Apple should stumble or otherwise have some privacy issues, Apple is the convenient target for their rage.

 

[CE3]

I use Wipr as an ad block extension in Safari and have only seen this notification:

 

[iStorm]

So I guess unless something changes I’m effectively not using Extensions at all anymore UNLESS they work without seeking my sensitive data. I guess I’m on the google rabbit hole quest in search of apps that comply in that regard.

I don't know that you'll find one that complies. Since these types of extensions manipulate the web page, they need to be able to read the content on the page, which includes anything that you might type in (passwords, credit cards, addresses, SSN, what you're typing in here, etc.).

So long as you have the extension turned off when you need to enter in sensitive info, you should be fine.

This is not saying it has access to your passwords and credit card info you have saved on the device. It's only when and what you're typing into a form on a page. They are just reminding us that what we type in could include this type of sensitive info, and to use it accordingly.

If it's from a well known and trusted developer, they are probably not doing anything nefarious...but that's up to you to decide.

 

[MindYourMind]

Whoa yeah so then never really. Glad I only spent a few bucks in total for these but sucks I won’t be using the extensions at all anymore. I did love not having ANY ads on YouTube on both safari on my Mac and my iPhone, among other things such as easier Picture in Picture and therefore used that feature alllllllll of the time. Not the end of the world but oh well. Although being accustomed to not seeing YouTube ads of any kind was nice.

It’s a shame something like Oldr for Reddit extension says it’s gotta haste access to all that sensitive data, among the other apps/extensions.

So I guess unless something changes I’m effectively not using Extensions at all anymore UNLESS they work without seeking my sensitive data. I guess I’m on the google rabbit hole quest in search of apps that comply in that regard.

It seems to me this would be a bigger deal as I’m sure most people, as in the everyday apple users that don’t attend this site or it’s forum, fiddle around with extensions more and more with each yearly update not really knowing what it is they’re agreeing to…

Have you tried out Firefox Focus for iOS? Can be used as an alternative browser next to Safari or as a Safari-extension. I prefer to use it as an extension to make it additional to iCloud Private Relay and Safari’s ITP. You may want to go into the extension’s settings to toggle off certain authorizations except Safari-integration before you try it out.

 

[WP31]

You can go all the way down the rabbit hole and you'll just end up where Apple_Robert stated. It's a tradeoff between privacy/security and ease of use/convenience. At the end of the day, all extensions are risky. You are giving up info and data by enabling them. The question is how much do you value the convenience they provide. Everything between 'best in class security' and 'complete convenience' is a trade off for you to decide. Like to skip video ads? Install that extension that gets to see all your YouTube info so it can decide what to skip. Like to remove website ads? Install that extension that gets to see all your website data so it can know what to block. etc etc.

Any way you look at it, you are giving your data to a fourth party. Party 1 = you, Party 2 = Apple (assuming Mac user), Party 3 = website or app you are using. And let's not forget the...unknowable...amount of additional parties the website or app all is sharing your data with.

 

[Populus]

No. I don’t allow them to watch all my browsing.

For ads, I use adblockers that use the Apple API, which preserves my privacy. I only allow the new extensions to access the youtube.com domain, in order to block YT ads, but for all the other websites, I only use the Apple content blocker API.

For instance:

I use Wipr as an ad block extension in Safari and have only seen this notification:

View attachment 1991231

Here, I only allow Wipr on the three toggles, which use Apple API and cannot see my browsing. As for Wipr Extra, I only enable it to access the Youtube.com domain.