151–160 of 267 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The word "requirements" is doing a lot of work there. I've never met a QR code where scanning it was required of me.
So you'd leave the restaurant if it has a QR menu?
How pristine is that when the last supported Android version is 10?
> This phone is sometimes necessary. Like when a known bug in /e/OS prevented my banking app from working for several months.
This surprises me. Until very recently I was using a phone I bought in 2017, which similarly supports no Android beyond version 10.
Since early this year, my bank app started insisting that I upgrade my Android to 11 or higher, and hence stopped working.
More recently, Gmail also started insisting I upgrade Android. As a result I had to get a new phone, which in many ways is worse than my old phone (still 7.2" but worse aspect ratio, no more full fingerprint sensor and much worse battery life).
So the idea of keeping an old phone around in order to bank seems rather odd to me.
> "I don’t have a smartphone," is what I tell people and professionals nowadays I did this today too. I happened to walk past a branch of my bank, and remembered my debit card is playing up due to wear-and-tear, so I popped in to order a replacement. I made the request and the first response was "do you have our banking app, you can do it on there?". "No". It wasn't even busy. (I also happen to have my mortgage with…
I switched banks over something similar.
I'd had an account with Wells Fargo (and before that with First Interstate before Wells Fargo bought them), dating all the way back to when I was a kid. I'd used that account for everything, for 20+ years, and kept all my assets in there.
I regularly went into the branch to do certain transactions, like making deposits or withdrawals, for any number of reasons. (This was long before you could do any kind of remote check deposit.)
And the teller decided to provide an overt reminder suggesting to do this via the ATM rather than talking to a teller.
That day, I requested a cashier's check for my entire balance, and went to another bank to put it in my account there.
> They are willing to accept all the conditions of your apps, including sending you personal data, registering an account, etc. I've had this exact problem this morning, I wanted to download the ASD-STE100 https://www.asd-ste100.org/STE_downloads.html#article02-2l and they use a request form to get the download. Unfortunately the last question: > Do you consent to us collecting your data? This form has the only purpo…
So you filled out a form with your personal data and were about to press the submit button to send it to them, but you don't consent to them knowing that data about you? It seems the checkbox had its intended effect of serving as a double-check gate about whether you really want them to know that information.
Any anyway, my biggest gripe was the phrasing, don't say it as if I have a choice.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> - Not having any banking apps on my phone. Every time my son needs a few bucks in his account, my wife has to do it if we're out. This is the most tyrannical things about smart phones -- banking apps. I get it, the bank wants to ensure the platform is not a liability. But it forces most of us to use one of the only two "trusted" mobile providers on earth: Google or Apple, both of which are American (and I'm an Amer…
Many work on GrapheneOS
GrapheneOS does not strip proprietary tracking code embedded directly inside third-party apps like Venmo. If you log into Venmo, the app collects your financial activity, device analytics, and interactions
Venmo requires a verified account tied to your real identity, phone number, and bank account, meaning the service already knows who you are regardless of your operating system.
Venmo can see your IP address and any location data you permit the app to access, or data derived from your connection
I do have a smartphone, but I don't seem to feel the pain the author feels about being inundated by QR codes and apps. Maybe I have all the apps I need already? Maybe I just don't mind having an app on my phone because I know that I can set it to basically never bother me. Most of my apps have notifications silenced. My home screen is empty, save the handful of apps I do want. And for the little bit of effort I put f…
I don't think he's complaining about having a lot of apps, or the ability to have a lot of apps. He's complaining about being required to use apps for hundreds of small interactions every day that don't, or shouldn't, require an app. And he's correct. Companies are doing this not because they think it's better, but because they believe that if they can worm their way onto your device, and insert their cloud service (…
> "I don’t have a smartphone," is what I tell people and professionals nowadays. This allows me to cut the crap about companies insisting that I install their app or restaurants wishing that I scan a QR code to access their menu on a small screen.
I personally tend to be a bit more direct about this kind of thing. If someone trying to sell me something insists that I need an app, I often say “I am not willing to install or use your app.”
> "I don’t have a smartphone," is what I tell people and professionals nowadays I did this today too. I happened to walk past a branch of my bank, and remembered my debit card is playing up due to wear-and-tear, so I popped in to order a replacement. I made the request and the first response was "do you have our banking app, you can do it on there?". "No". It wasn't even busy. (I also happen to have my mortgage with…
Did you consider if they were trying maybe just to save you the trip/inconvenience in the future by informing you of something most people would be able to use?
But immediately responding before I've barely finished explaining why I'm here today is a real "fuck you, use the app and stop wasting my time" kind of message
I've still never had a smartphone (technically my flip phone, a Kyocera Dura, is an android device, but it can't install apps so I'll consider it suitably "dumb") Occasionally I need to tote along a tablet because several places (some MLB venues, for one thing) will either require a smartphone, or impose a severe surcharge for the convenience of not using it. Anyway, I really regret that we didn't impose dumbphone pr…
The problem is the tracking and invasion of privacy, and that all traces back to ads.
Ads are at the root of all the problems with the modern internet and mobile tech.