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I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

alexanderell.is

141–150 of 366 posts

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#141
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They explicitly state in their developer agreement not to use notifications for ads.

This changed a couple of years ago, apps can send you ads so long as you opt in, but what qualifies as opting in can be as simple as a bit of language during signup; it’s pretty easy to bypass this. > 4.5.4 Push Notifications must not be required for the app to function, and should not be used to send sensitive personal or confidential information. Push Notifications should not be used for promotions or direct market…

I stand somewhat corrected, but you have to admit that rule has never really been enforced.

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#142
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those rules only work until you're required to have such app installed to do, for example, credit card payments.

Where i live, GDPR and related laws make it illegal to mix advertising permissions with functional permissions. So that's never going to happen.

I've spent plenty of time working on GDPR compliance in EU and I can directly tell you there's nothing in GDPR that would say anything like that.

GDPR talks about data collection and says nothing about having your own business spam you with advertisement (as long as they don't collect data outside their GDPR restrictions).

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also no way (that I've found) to turn off notifications if you have an Apple Card. It automatically sends you a notification the next day telling you how much you 'saved' via their cash back feature. This actually discourages me from using their card because I hate getting the notifications.

You can turn off those notifications, just probably not in the manner you would expect: https://www.imore.com/how-to-enable-or-disable-apple-card-no... Which reminds me, I need to get with Apple Card support to find a workaround for the bug where I get notifications for my spouse’s purchases (and vice versa) despite having toggled the switch enough times to have worn a dull spot on the screen. Thankfully we are a cou…

Ah very cool, thanks! But it looks like this turns off notifications for 'Transactions'. Does that disable the next-day notification to tell you that you saved 57¢ yesterday?

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#144
post #103

Heh. I was woken up by an Uber greenwashing marketing notification. All notifications off (and in any case if I am waiting for a Uber I have the app on waiting for the countdown and I don't need the notifications anyway). If there were a viable competitor to them where I live, I would have deleted the app altogether and given them a 1-star rating. Apple's policies ban the use of push notifications for marketing purpo…

> Apple's policies ban the use of push notifications for marketing purposes

Not anymore, this was rolled back a year or two ago unfortunately. About the same time Apple themselves started using push notifications for marketing.

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#145
post #122
post #23

My rule is: if I get a single notification that I find useless, I'll immediately disable that notification channel (I'm on Android; I'm not sure if iOS has a concept of channel-specific settings) for that app. Even if the channel can include useful notifications, as the article discusses. If the app doesn't bother to categorize its notifications into channels at all, I turn off its notifications entirely, and I won't…

> My rule is: if I get a single notification that I find useless, I'll immediately disable that notification channel (I'm on Android; I'm not sure if iOS has a concept of channel-specific settings) for that app. Even if the channel can include useful notifications, as the article discusses. Well, the developers have started fighting against that by not splitting notifications into channels anymore. Now you just get "…

One strike and you're out rule works perfectly fine for me.

If they think they can abuse my attention with stuff like this, I immediately uninstall and go on with my life.

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#146
post #23

My rule is: if I get a single notification that I find useless, I'll immediately disable that notification channel (I'm on Android; I'm not sure if iOS has a concept of channel-specific settings) for that app. Even if the channel can include useful notifications, as the article discusses. If the app doesn't bother to categorize its notifications into channels at all, I turn off its notifications entirely, and I won't…

This is what my strategy is more or less, but for emails. If a startup sends me a "Welcome to X", I treat it as "Don't forget to unsubscribe from X".

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#147
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This changed a couple of years ago, apps can send you ads so long as you opt in, but what qualifies as opting in can be as simple as a bit of language during signup; it’s pretty easy to bypass this. > 4.5.4 Push Notifications must not be required for the app to function, and should not be used to send sensitive personal or confidential information. Push Notifications should not be used for promotions or direct market…

I stand somewhat corrected, but you have to admit that rule has never really been enforced.

I think we’ll need actual regulation before we see any enforcement, unfortunately. Because Apple takes a cut of app profits, they’re incentivized to allow for scummy engagement practices.

We need something like the CAN-SPAM (which as for emails) to classify transactional vs marketing/engagement notifications and a way to levy fines on violations.

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#148
post #23

My rule is: if I get a single notification that I find useless, I'll immediately disable that notification channel (I'm on Android; I'm not sure if iOS has a concept of channel-specific settings) for that app. Even if the channel can include useful notifications, as the article discusses. If the app doesn't bother to categorize its notifications into channels at all, I turn off its notifications entirely, and I won't…

I've found that apps that properly set up channels on Android where your can easily block promotional notifications, don't abuse their notifications, and ones that don't put all their notifications through a couple different channels making it impossible to turn off only the ones you don't want. Amazon and Uber are examples of apps that abuse this.

I install Uber when I need to use it, then deinstall it after pickup. If I forget to deinstall it, Uber kindly send me a notification reminder (random text with with a percent symbol within it), to remind me to deinstall it.

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#149

I was saying this yesterday, LinkedIn, as an example, sends me the most inane notifications as do many apps trying to steal my time. I pay LinkedIn 100 dollars a month, those notifications should serve me, not the other way around. I really don't care about some low substance content written by someone who I'm neither connected with nor follow.

I haven't been on LinkedIn for 15 years and it hasn't affected my career at all. Most people don't realize that you actually don't need LinkedIn.

Counterpoint anecdata, I was unemployed for a year, and got my first job interview the first week I set up LinkedIn. Stayed there 6 years and has led to my subsequent career.

I dont believe you need LinkedIn premium at $60/month though

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