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Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

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Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#101

Post by cik »

eternalban wrote: post #86
cik wrote: post #82

I've built more than one VPN network over the years - and I don't use the ones I built. My philosophy has always been that I can't trust the network after I no longer own it - and if the code isn't open. The hard reality is that you have no way of knowing what's being logged if you don't have full access to the servers. I've always pushed for leaving VPN servers on operating systems running in read-only, on read-only…

Why not start your own virtuous VPN company.

It's not a business I'm interested in running.

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#102

Post by vgaldikas »

AznHisoka wrote: post #67
etaioinshrdlu wrote: post #53

Haha, I quietly called them out few years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17823292 Their CEO is one shady dude. Evasive. Knew his company was sitting on a shady foundation and just kept it going. Large companies buy Sensor Tower's data.

SimilarWeb is another company with millions of funding that is sitting on a shady foundation as well.

Can you elaborate?

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#104

Post by AznHisoka »

vgaldikas wrote: post #102
AznHisoka wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SimilarWeb is another company with millions of funding that is sitting on a shady foundation as well.

Can you elaborate?

They own a bunch of chrome extensions that track all the websites you visit and queries you enter into google

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#105

Post by tlogan »

Does this break "California Consumer Privacy Act" of 2020?

As far as I now, companies are now legally obligated to give California residents the opportunity to see how their personal information is being tracked, how it's being sold, and how to opt out.

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#106

Post by tlogan »

risyachka wrote: post #29

Sensor tower is a mobile intelligence tool. Correct me if I am missing something, but what is a big deal here? And when you use free apps, obviously they sell your data (or with a high chance), they are not charities. But in return, you get hassle-free ad-blocking or VPN. It looks like a fair deal to me. Or you can find a good one that will be expensive, or do it yourself (paying the same or more, just with your time…

I 100% agree with you - but people tend to ignore "privacy" if something is free.

I was just talking with a colleague of mine who is in this "privacy is important" camp. But he is using mail tracker from hunter.io (since it is free).

It was really hard to explain him that that company which allows you to "Find the email address of any professional" is giving mail tracker for free in order to collect more data (to their defense they clearly say in their privacy policy and you can opt-out of the "sale" of personal information).

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#107

Post by stronglikedan »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #59
etaioinshrdlu wrote: post #53

Haha, I quietly called them out few years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17823292 Their CEO is one shady dude. Evasive. Knew his company was sitting on a shady foundation and just kept it going. Large companies buy Sensor Tower's data.

Come to think of it, isn't the name pretty revealing? You don't build a sensor tower to block and hide information , you build one to collect data.

May as well have called it Eye of Sauron.

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#108

Post by TylerE »

SAI_Peregrinus wrote: post #103
TylerE wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was forced into FF as a non-removable extension.

After Mozilla bought Pocket.

No, two years after.

The integration happened in 2015. The acquisition was not until 2017.

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#109

Post by etaioinshrdlu »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #59
etaioinshrdlu wrote: post #53

Haha, I quietly called them out few years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17823292 Their CEO is one shady dude. Evasive. Knew his company was sitting on a shady foundation and just kept it going. Large companies buy Sensor Tower's data.

Come to think of it, isn't the name pretty revealing? You don't build a sensor tower to block and hide information , you build one to collect data.

Ahh but the users of the VPNs apps have no idea that Sensor Tower is behind the app and collecting and selling their data.

It might be in the terms of service and briefly shown to them, but in the literal, practical sense, the users actually do not know! It is without their knowledge.

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#110

Post by vatueil »

testuser66 wrote: post #56
ComodoHacker wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Quantum was good for six months, now we're back to the same situation where almost everyone outside the tech bubble is using Chrome. Did Quantum became worse or you're basically saying Mozilla is bad at marketing (and having huge vertically integrated ecosystem)?

It's hard to move browsers permanently if you're not prepared. I moved to FF Quantom for a bit, but had to regularly open Chrome to get passwords etc. And the Chrome assholes removed the password export (or at least I could not for the life of me get it to work at the time) I ended up going back for a bit and added a password manager, and now I can move between browsers easily - but as I said, it's not always straigh…

> And the Chrome assholes removed the password export (or at least I could not for the life of me get it to work at the time)

Chrome Settings > Passwords > "Export passwords..." (under the three-dots menu).

Not sure when you last checked but the option has been available since at least Chrome 66, which was released almost two years ago: https://www.ghacks.net/2018/04/18/google-chrome-66-password-...

I distinctly recall the option to manually import passwords being harder to find (solution is to either import them from another browser or enable a flag to import passwords from a CSV file).

Ironically Firefox currently still lacks the native ability to manually export passwords, relying on add-ons or third-party tools: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/technology/personaltech/f...

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