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0 pointsisodev5d ago0 comments

Yes indeed, the limit is 50 which is of course enough to fully profile "regular people" who only have a handful of apps. Also don't forget, Meta/Google/TikTok/WhateverPalantir are updated weekly which means they can tweak their LSApplicationQueriesSchemes list and cover even more apps if they want to.

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7 comments · 1 top-level

ksec5d ago· 6 in thread

Are there legitimate reasons why an App should know I have installed?

isodevOP4d ago

Interoperability mainly - if you want to deep link into a specific app or show a list of apps to open.

These days we have more modern and privacy protecting APIs for making content available to the system or other apps… but that doesn’t stop the profilers.

developerDan5d ago

Back before Apple allowed users to set the default browser I had a feature in my app that presented a list of installed browsers when a user opens an external link, giving them the option to choose where it opened.

rationalist5d ago

Android gives me that option at the OS level.

hnav5d ago

E.g if gmail knows that you have maps or chrome it can deep link you into a particular view instead of opening safari.

rationalist5d ago

At the OS level, Android gives me the option to open links in the corresponding app.

Surely there should be a way to enable deep links with a fallback to Safari without needing Gmail to know what apps I’ve got installed

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