41–50 of 74 posts
"But all my friends are using $App, and ..." "But $App is free, and it's so cool, and ..." "Who cares? That's how the world works now." Etc.
The phenomenon you describe is hardly new, it's just easier.
How much data is Gizmodo harvesting from you when you read this article? uBlock Origin shows 16 domains connected; most of them loading JavaScript. The real number is probably far higher when no ad-blocker is used.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seconding that I'd love this. At the same time, has App Store's guidelines/rules changed to allow spammy ads notifications? It used to be 100% disallowed and I worked for a company that got an app denied because of it until changed, nowadays it seems to just be completely common. I fucking hate it.
Yeah, Apple should properly write/enforce App Store rules on this. Make marketing notification a separate permission if necessary and be strict about it. After all, topics like this are why we succumb to their curation and App Store monopoly instead of using more open devices.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does iOS not have anything akin to the concept of Android's notification channels? Using Doordash as the example, at the OS level I can independently disable "General" notifications, which cuts out all the advertising spam, Delivery Status, and Payment Status. Long-pressing on an offending notification displays a button that takes you directly to the channel which that notification went through, potentially so you ca…
Android had a good idea that the scumbag MBAs and marketers ruined. Whenever I get a spammy notification from an app I'd prefer to not uninstall, it's always logged under a general category that is mixed in with notifications that I want. Amazon for example has channels for Alexa, account authentication, and then a notifications category.
A “good idea” that doesn’t stand up to adversarial actors isn’t a “good idea”. And I assure you that your developer buddies were just as complicit as the evil business-people and marketers in ruining it.
"But all my friends are using $App, and ..." "But $App is free, and it's so cool, and ..." "Who cares? That's how the world works now." Etc.
I know this is not how the comment is originally intended, but I am slowly starting to throw in the towel with regards to trying to convincing others. Best I can do is my immediate family. I don't even dream about my social circles anymore. I just want a relatively safe digital space for my family.
I don’t think that people should be lining up to show sympathy in this scenario.
Not saying some companies aren’t up to no-good. But, collecting timezone (or ip to infer timezone), as long as it’s done with user consent in the privacy policy and or notifications setup process is actually helpful for end users. Most of us want (for example) our exercise reminder or our news update to arrive at breakfast even when we travel across Timezone boundaries. I don’t want to have to sign in to an app or go…
No one¹ reads those. I wouldn’t consider that informed consent.
¹ Not literally. I read them but personally know no one else who does.
These are apps that already are installed, the user chose to get notifications ... yes so when the notification runs the app runs and some telemetry is collected.
Cat is out of the bag already.
I'm concerned about this whole topic too but man that article is hard to read and really just kinda states the obvious. Why it is focused on notifications is sort of beyond me. There's nothing presented to say that users don't know that the notification from the app is ... the app.
It also seems like you have to interact with the notification for any of this to happen. That's not surprising as that usually leads to the app that you already have / know is there and so on, and now you interacted and opened the app. If you're opening facebook notifications, you have facebook installed, you likely logged in ... so yes there's tracking going on.
Article seems to imply this is some extra level sneaky way for apps to collect data but it doesn't seem to be that way anyway.
How much data is Gizmodo harvesting from you when you read this article? uBlock Origin shows 16 domains connected; most of them loading JavaScript. The real number is probably far higher when no ad-blocker is used.
If anything, having a publication release an article like this shows that they’re not held back by conflicts of interest.