My app isn’t untrustworthy at all either. It’s an experimental app which attempts to let users create an iOS app on iOS. My suspicion is that people choose to obfuscate because it’s what’s selected by default.
If I need an email to verify I'm not a bot, that's fine. But if a trusted 3rd party can verify I'm not a bot, then the only reason you would want my email is to do something unethical with it: namely, use my data in a way that I never intended gave you permission to use it.
Being default probably helps, because most people don't know they're doing with software and just accept the defaults assuming they're best practices. If the default were to share the email, you might see more people sharing email, but I would argue it's because people don't know they can and should obfuscate it.
This was addressed in the article. If the service provider does not have your email address, they are severely hampered with regards to customer support.
No, they're not. They're just relying on email as a user verification methods as it's the easiest approach. Other methods are possible.
Did you read the article? It seemed very clear to me that they had significant issues with customer support past just verification.
And what would you suggest as an alternative way to identify the user, anyway? Any alternative method of authentication seems doomed to fail - using a real name runs into issues with duplication, requiring users to set a username would likely require significant changes to the platform to support it and lots of people would forget it when they couldn't get their preferred username, and having a customer support code inside the app wouldn't help when the user loses access to their account.
It seems like there are alternatives, but none that the average user who signs in with Apple and needs to contact support will be able to get past on a consistent basis.
If I can't contact my customers, how do I support them (e.g. report a security problem)? If my customers can't communicate which account is theirs, how do we help solve problems? Email addresses and/or phone numbers make this a lot easier.
So sure, it’s default, but unless I’m unique some people will see the default and go “why isn’t every 3rd party login like that?”.
I expect 99% are obfuscating because that’s the sensible choice to make. Giving an app my real email should only be done if there’s an explicit need for this, such as being able to log in from non-Apple devices.
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/sign_in_with_apple...
This is obviously the most useful for websites, but Apple’s developer site links to this with the descriptor “for web and apps on other platforms” so clearly they’re ok with Android apps using it too.
However, I've never built anything directly used "by the public", nor am I very familiar with how Apple Sign in works.
So I'm wondering, as the developer of a trustworthy app, what's the drawback in the user giving an obfuscated address?
Is it not possible for you to contact the user using this address? Does the user have to manually allow getting mail to this address or somehow jump through some hoops to read it?
Thanks for the clarification, I didn't think of this scenario.
This looks like a pretty big problem, as I can imagine a situation where the user doesn't have access at all to the app and may not have kept the initial email with any identifying info.
Isn't there an easy way for the user to know which obfuscated address was used for which app?
This email address is used for a lot of communication with Apple, e.g. receipts from App Store.
I bought my iMac on the Apple store, and the receipt was also sent to my personal account.
That's up to the user to decide. For me trustworthy = something like Basecamp, Amazon, etc, not some random small app.
> trustworthy = [...] Amazon
Good point, because your example includes one of the few companies I don't trust at all.
Trust not to misuse.
Trust not to leak in a breach.
Realistically, my email address is something I trust Amazon with both of, because email isnt how they spam me, they are smart enough they can identify me without my email address, and I expect their security to be more hardened and battle tested.
There is a big contradiction in there...
Everything experimental is by definition untrustworthy.
