alt Hacker NewsThe OS could draw an ugly censoring block over the sensitive information. That would protect the user's privacy when needed but also prevent apps mis-using the feature like this.
Replies
Gigachad • today at 4:46 AM
I don't think Apple cares about apps replacing the follow button with an icon. It's a weird use of the api, but it's not abusing the user or a security/privacy risk.
MBCook • today at 3:31 AM
Yeah. I wonder if Apple does something to change this.
This is a failure of imagination for Apple, but it’s hard to blame them.
Who would think someone would put a button inside a “secure” text field and change the masked appearance to a logo?
If I was proposing this feature, I would never imagine someone would come up with something like that.
It could. But the root problem is, there is no such thing as unqualified "sensitive information". The information is sensitive to someone, for some reason. The problem with screenshots manifests when the app and the user disagrees about whether the information is sensitive and who has the right to control it.
The immediate technical problem is that OSes allow apps to declare what is "sensitive", and then follow those declarations unquestionably, preventing any preservation of that information.
The underlying social / political problem is that platform vendors allow app vendors to unilaterally declare what is and isn't sensitive, and proxy their opinion without question, and with no consideration for users and their context.