Top Mental Health and Prayer Apps Fail at Privacy, Security (2022) • Hacker News Board

Re: Top Mental Health and Prayer Apps Fail at Privacy, Security (2022)

#11

Post by hospitalJail » Wed, Jun 21, 2023, 1:45 PM UTC

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #7

hospitalJail wrote: post #5

>Mozilla’s Minimum Security Standards, like requiring strong passwords What if I don't want a strong password? What if I have 0 care for my account because I never wanted an account to being with but was strong armed into giving away my email, phone number, and now need a unique password because I'm worried someone is going to see that I 'prayed' 100 times. I loved that reddit didn't need an email, and I could use a…

One very, very basic measurement / thought experiment for holiness in Christian circles to think about is the following: Imagine Christianity is illegal. Imagine the government decides to prosecute you, but hires the weakest, most incompetent, repeatedly-almost-disbarred prosecutor there is. You meanwhile get access to David Boies. Would the government have enough evidence for even the worst prosecutor to prove you a…

Your thought problem isnt productive because it creates a fake scenario that creates validity to an otherwise invalid problem.

Okay, if Christianity is illegal you'd want your Christian apps to be secure.

If Christianity isnt illegal, you don't care.

You'd want privacy if you were using the silk road, but you are probably okay with your alarm clock app collecting the number of times you hit snooze. You'd also be okay if the US/Chinese government knew that you hit snooze.

Re: Top Mental Health and Prayer Apps Fail at Privacy, Security (2022)

#12

Post by SanderNL » Wed, Jun 21, 2023, 1:47 PM UTC

BoxFour wrote: post #10

hospitalJail wrote: post #5

>Mozilla’s Minimum Security Standards, like requiring strong passwords What if I don't want a strong password? What if I have 0 care for my account because I never wanted an account to being with but was strong armed into giving away my email, phone number, and now need a unique password because I'm worried someone is going to see that I 'prayed' 100 times. I loved that reddit didn't need an email, and I could use a…

There are substantial incentives for practically everyone to adopt strong passwords, including yourself, even if it's just a temporary account. The platform actually desires you to possess a robust password, given that hijacked accounts contribute to spam so heavily. Many people often use the same "basic passwords" on multiple websites. If one of your temporary accounts gets hijacked all your other "temporary" (in qu…

I think creating a strong password and offering it once is better or am I overlooking something?

Re: Top Mental Health and Prayer Apps Fail at Privacy, Security (2022)

#13

Post by villagevanguard » Wed, Jun 21, 2023, 1:49 PM UTC

hospitalJail wrote: post #11

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One very, very basic measurement / thought experiment for holiness in Christian circles to think about is the following: Imagine Christianity is illegal. Imagine the government decides to prosecute you, but hires the weakest, most incompetent, repeatedly-almost-disbarred prosecutor there is. You meanwhile get access to David Boies. Would the government have enough evidence for even the worst prosecutor to prove you a…

Your thought problem isnt productive because it creates a fake scenario that creates validity to an otherwise invalid problem. Okay, if Christianity is illegal you'd want your Christian apps to be secure. If Christianity isnt illegal, you don't care. You'd want privacy if you were using the silk road, but you are probably okay with your alarm clock app collecting the number of times you hit snooze. You'd also be okay…

The person you're replying to is using the hypothetical to illustrate why religious people don't care if prayer app data is made public. He is not trying to tease out the hypothetical any further than that.

Re: Top Mental Health and Prayer Apps Fail at Privacy, Security (2022)

#14

Post by barrysteve » Wed, Jun 21, 2023, 1:51 PM UTC

hospitalJail wrote: post #5

>Mozilla’s Minimum Security Standards, like requiring strong passwords What if I don't want a strong password? What if I have 0 care for my account because I never wanted an account to being with but was strong armed into giving away my email, phone number, and now need a unique password because I'm worried someone is going to see that I 'prayed' 100 times. I loved that reddit didn't need an email, and I could use a…

Passwords are not about hiding data.

Passwords are legally the only thing that can't be forced out of you, to make you login into a computer system against your interests.

Passwords are the core foundation of keeping your internet life separate from your personal/private life. Biometric and hardware authentication make both your real life name/address/life history and your computer ID the same thing.

I didn't sign up for American globalism, and I don't want my iPhone's authentication systems to force me into being accountable to Twitter/Apple/Google credit score. If the Australian government forced this stuff on me and kept it within Australia, that's different.

IBM is moving to a "passwordless trend" on their server authentication, in favour of biometrics and iPhone auth. I bet my bottom dollar that will get spread everywhere in the universe, regardless of our protestations.

It's not agreeable. inb4 people say "it's always been that way/they could always do that". The last shred of internet-identity liberty is going to be dead in a new york minute.

Your religious identity, and your prayer life is going to get owned if you let go of passwords and ambigious identities.

Re: Top Mental Health and Prayer Apps Fail at Privacy, Security (2022)

#15

Post by NoZebra120vClip » Wed, Jun 21, 2023, 1:51 PM UTC

I was pleased to see that Hallow earned their seal of approval, or should I say it evaded their badge of shame? Hallow's a good app, professionally developed, and it's marketed tirelessly. I had my friend asking me if it was a good app to install. I don't know; I use other ones but not Hallow.

I was also pleased to see that "BetterHelp" earned the badge of shame. BetterHelp is just on this side of an outright scam. They contract with legitimate counselors and therapists and then cram their appointment books full of Zoom sessions. They claim that you can just send a quick text message to your "therapist" and get helped. But people aren't getting helped, they're just getting taken for a ride. This aggregation of gig-working counselors in an app is a really bad way to conduct this kind of business. It may work for a ride-hailing service, but not for mental health care. If you're thinking of using "BetterHelp" or one of its analogs, please instead consider doing your homework, finding a legitimate clinic or therapist who's licensed in your state, and do an intake directly with their practice. Many of them are now amenable to televideo appointments, and they will work with or without your insurance or on a sliding scale. There are really good therapists out there who don't need to be found on a janky app.

Re: Top Mental Health and Prayer Apps Fail at Privacy, Security (2022)

#16

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 21, 2023, 1:52 PM UTC

BoxFour wrote: post #10

hospitalJail wrote: post #5

>Mozilla’s Minimum Security Standards, like requiring strong passwords What if I don't want a strong password? What if I have 0 care for my account because I never wanted an account to being with but was strong armed into giving away my email, phone number, and now need a unique password because I'm worried someone is going to see that I 'prayed' 100 times. I loved that reddit didn't need an email, and I could use a…

There are substantial incentives for practically everyone to adopt strong passwords, including yourself, even if it's just a temporary account. The platform actually desires you to possess a robust password, given that hijacked accounts contribute to spam so heavily. Many people often use the same "basic passwords" on multiple websites. If one of your temporary accounts gets hijacked all your other "temporary" (in qu…

[deleted]

Re: Top Mental Health and Prayer Apps Fail at Privacy, Security (2022)

#17

Post by BoxFour » Wed, Jun 21, 2023, 1:53 PM UTC

SanderNL wrote: post #12

BoxFour wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are substantial incentives for practically everyone to adopt strong passwords, including yourself, even if it's just a temporary account. The platform actually desires you to possess a robust password, given that hijacked accounts contribute to spam so heavily. Many people often use the same "basic passwords" on multiple websites. If one of your temporary accounts gets hijacked all your other "temporary" (in qu…

I think creating a strong password and offering it once is better or am I overlooking something?

If you suggest making one powerful password and using it everywhere, then as soon as one website reveals your password all your accounts have been exposed. The usual practice is to remember one strong phrase and never use it for anything except your password keeper.

Re: Top Mental Health and Prayer Apps Fail at Privacy, Security (2022)

#18

Post by robertlagrant » Wed, Jun 21, 2023, 1:54 PM UTC

SanderNL wrote: post #12

BoxFour wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are substantial incentives for practically everyone to adopt strong passwords, including yourself, even if it's just a temporary account. The platform actually desires you to possess a robust password, given that hijacked accounts contribute to spam so heavily. Many people often use the same "basic passwords" on multiple websites. If one of your temporary accounts gets hijacked all your other "temporary" (in qu…

I think creating a strong password and offering it once is better or am I overlooking something?

Offering it once? Offering what?

Re: Top Mental Health and Prayer Apps Fail at Privacy, Security (2022)

#19

Post by EatingWithForks » Wed, Jun 21, 2023, 1:56 PM UTC

NoZebra120vClip wrote: post #15

I was pleased to see that Hallow earned their seal of approval, or should I say it evaded their badge of shame? Hallow's a good app, professionally developed, and it's marketed tirelessly. I had my friend asking me if it was a good app to install. I don't know; I use other ones but not Hallow. I was also pleased to see that "BetterHelp" earned the badge of shame. BetterHelp is just on this side of an outright scam. T…

Of note one of the things not mentioned in "BetterHelp" is that the ability to not text your therapist at all hours of the day is actually very important for mental health. The therapist is a tool, not a crutch, and shouldn't be treated like a coping mechanism. A therapist is supposed to help teach and guide someone to develop healthier behavior patterns, and time away from the therapist to implement those patterns by onesself is very important.

Re: Top Mental Health and Prayer Apps Fail at Privacy, Security (2022)

#20

Post by shlubbert » Wed, Jun 21, 2023, 1:57 PM UTC

hospitalJail wrote: post #5

>Mozilla’s Minimum Security Standards, like requiring strong passwords What if I don't want a strong password? What if I have 0 care for my account because I never wanted an account to being with but was strong armed into giving away my email, phone number, and now need a unique password because I'm worried someone is going to see that I 'prayed' 100 times. I loved that reddit didn't need an email, and I could use a…

You know, it's not a requirement to be contrarian about everything. Encouraging people to use stronger passwords (and password managers to handle them) is pretty much universally a good thing.