Data tracking by application

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Data tracking by application

Good afternoon,

I've been looking for a data tracking application for some time, but I find none that fulfills my most important need on such application: Provide me data tracking statistics BY APPLICATION.

I know it can be checked on settings, yet, I'd only shows accumulated (since last reset) figures and also does not organize the apps according to their usage.

I'll leave an example of an application ("My data manager") which actually provides such information for Android, but apparently not for iOS.

https://lh6.ggpht.com/O4WGuFxinAzqstby4dPc1TAa2OlcpcUYTnx2aEU3ygyzTp6bgZIrmypVFR js3N7I0w=h900

My question is, is there any tracking application that provides information by app? If not, why so since it's like one of the basic features of android data trackers?

Thanks for your time.

iPhone 5s, iOS 8.4

Posted on Jul 30, 2015 9:26 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 30, 2015 10:01 AM in response to rodrigolhgc

There is no such app, because having an app that could collect data on other apps would break the security model of iOS, which restricts an app to be able to access only its own data (a feature called "sandboxing"). Just use the built in tracking, and reset it periodically.

Apps are available for Android because Android is a security sieve. The current score is over 300 forms of malware for Android, zero for iOS. And the latest one allows anyone to take over almost any Android phone and install spyware on it simply by sending it a text message. http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/07/27/2022253/950-million-android-phones-can-be- hijacked-by-malicious-text-messages

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Answer 2

rodrigolhgc Author

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Jul 30, 2015 12:50 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Hello,

First of all thanks for your reply. It was surely clarifying and kinda' what I was expecting (this being an apple restriction).

However, there are two things I don't understand. How being able to access how many data was used, as a whole, does not compromise the security of the phone, but having this information detailed by app does?

Also, if Apple gathers this information by app and presents it to the user, why not make it able for app to access it as well and manage it / store it / present it in a more user-friendly way? I don't see how would that compromise any kind of security.

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Answer 3

Jul 30, 2015 12:51 PM in response to rodrigolhgc

.

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Answer 4

Jul 30, 2015 12:56 PM in response to rodrigolhgc

rodrigolhgc wrote:

Hello,

First of all thanks for your reply. It was surely clarifying and kinda' what I was expecting (this being an apple restriction).

However, there are two things I don't understand. How being able to access how many data was used, as a whole, does not compromise the security of the phone, but having this information detailed by app does?

Also, if Apple gathers this information by app and presents it to the user, why not make it able for app to access it as well and manage it / store it / present it in a more user-friendly way? I don't see how would that compromise any kind of security.

Well, we are not allowed to speculate on Apple policy, but an app that could access data usage by app could sell that data for marketing or for less savory purposes. There's also the problem of how you let an unprivileged app access some data about another app, but block it from accessing other data about the app.

Several years ago this restriction was not in place, and there were apps that could track data (Dataman was a popular one). There was also one from Stanford University that would collect this information for the purpose of studying user habits.

I don't find it at all inconvenient to use the built in capabilities.

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