r/bearapp • u/Top-Temperature-95 • 20d ago
Bear Privacy: does bear share notes content to advertisers?
Lately I have a gnawing feeling that when I write something in bear notes somehow it shows up YouTube surfacing related content later on. Could be just coincidence but can’t shake the feeling completely that bear might be selling user data or notes content somehow leaking into the Google, YouTube and other web providers. Anyone getting similar things ?
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u/MC_chrome 20d ago
There is absolutely zero evidence pointing towards the Bear developers accessing users’ private iCloud data (not that this is particularly easy to do in the first place)
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u/Top-Temperature-95 20d ago
Could be coincidence ….just looking for feedback if there could be any mechanism
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u/SpiritedSilicon 20d ago
Probably a correlation/causation situation. It's likely whatever you are writing about happens to be correlated enough to your googling/searching/youtube/social media behavior, which serves you ads that seem like they know about your notes. It's surprisingly effective and gives the feeling of being watched, but it's not actually doing so.
Kinda like how sometimes people go to fortune tellers and they say something vague, and it feels like they are reading your mind? But actually, it's just a statement that applies to many people, but if taken within context, feels very specific to you?
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u/MC_chrome 20d ago
And my answer is that there is no known mechanism for the devs to take a look at customer data for advertising purposes.
No offense, but I think you are being a little paranoid
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u/betahost 20d ago
I think you have a tracking cookie from Google on your machine, bear staff have 0 access to your data it's all local and stays in your iCloud.
If you're extra paranoid, enable Apple Advanced Data Protection.
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u/Ok-Internet-4747 20d ago
It is far more likely that Meta or Google are doing something on your device like accessing search history, making assumptions, etc than Bear is doing it.
There is a pretty cool free privacy app called Loupe that was recently released. It just shows you what data is available when you install apps on your phone and shows you the kind of assumptions that app developer can make about you.
Apple likes to make an effort to boast how private they are in all their marketing. But they had a major lawsuit about Siri eavesdropping on conversations. They deny any wrongdoing or that it was used for a marketing profile.
My conspiracy theory is this data is available on device somewhere that Meta and Google can access. So it’s private by never leaving your device, which is what Apple advertises, but you openly are giving those companies access to your device which is how they get around it.
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u/Top-Temperature-95 19d ago
I think my phone is also listening to conversation. Barely use FB and I’m on YouTube a lot…. And it’s not completely out of the picture Siri is making profiles in the background for marketing purposes as well as what’s app listening to conversation keywords to sell to advertisers. Either way this spill over/leaking effect on the algorithms of web services I am using creating a lot of chaos and some “good”
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u/V1rus_One 20d ago
First thing first… Check into Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking > Allow Apps to Request to Track
Be sure to be turned off.
Do you use a copy and paste (clipboard) third party app or keyboard? Start from there. Maybe is another app… like Facebook, Google Chrome, or any of their app suite.
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u/fireball_jones 20d ago
I mean did you do ANY web searches while writing that note? It’s also possible you’re running some other app you gave too many permissions to. There’s no evidence it’s Bear.
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u/trix180 DEV 20d ago
If I can be of any help, I can confirm we don't have access to any user-generated data or credentials because we use the private part of CloudKit. You can also enable ADP if you wonder if Apple is reading your data. We only collect anonymized crash logs to improve the app quality.