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Uninstall the NightOwl app

robins.one

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Re: Uninstall the NightOwl app

#181

Post by radicality »

barefeg wrote: post #98

Kind of off topic. But is there any app/service/extension for parsing these TOS with an LLM to catch all these shady things? If not, would one be useful? (I’m also a bit surprised this is in the TOS in the first place, but theres already a thread about that.)

Could be useful. Though people might as well do it themselves? I just pasted the whole thing to chatgpt and told it to summarise it into bullet points.

Related, this just brought back the memory of the Southpark episode ‘Human centipad’ where people accept the iTunes T&C without reading them :)

Re: Uninstall the NightOwl app

#182

Post by ecf »

devit wrote: post #174
ecf wrote: post #105

Developers who sell out their app to entities like this deserve to be ostracized from the profession.

Apparently the perpetrator who sold out their users to the highest bidder is named Benjamin Kramser and they even freely admit the deed on their homepage! ( https://www.kramser.xyz/ )

> I love to build digital products

Should update that to “I love to throw the people who love my digital products under the bus”

Re: Uninstall the NightOwl app

#183

Post by lynguist »

icyfox wrote: post #20

I know this happens with some frequency, I wonder how frequently the companies update the TOS with language like this. The very idea of a self-updating TOS that will govern all usage into perpetuity feels like it should have been legally stuck down years ago. This company's current language on indistinct modification rights: > We reserve our right to alter the terms in this Agreement and/or the pricing information an…

Could maps.me also be in a similar state? It used to be a good OpenStreetsMaps frontend and it was bought (possibly twice) by some investor firm to generate profit.

I don’t know what is the state of this app now. Does anyone know? What is the profit scheme (I suspect it might be similar to this one described here) and to which app would you switch instead?

Re: Uninstall the NightOwl app

#185

Post by jcul »

lynguist wrote: post #183
icyfox wrote: post #20

I know this happens with some frequency, I wonder how frequently the companies update the TOS with language like this. The very idea of a self-updating TOS that will govern all usage into perpetuity feels like it should have been legally stuck down years ago. This company's current language on indistinct modification rights: > We reserve our right to alter the terms in this Agreement and/or the pricing information an…

Could maps.me also be in a similar state? It used to be a good OpenStreetsMaps frontend and it was bought (possibly twice) by some investor firm to generate profit. I don’t know what is the state of this app now. Does anyone know? What is the profit scheme (I suspect it might be similar to this one described here) and to which app would you switch instead?

OrganicMaps is a FOSS fork of maps.me I believe.

I've been using it and it is great.

https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps

Re: Uninstall the NightOwl app

#186

Post by jeroenhd »

WirelessGigabit wrote: post #23

> It also tries to open a UPnP port forward on your router, but fails on mine because the key names are jumbled: This should fail on any router as you should have UPnP disabled.

Disabling UPnP makes your system more secure, but unless you also disable all NAT ALGs in your router, you're still exposed to its dangers.

I don't think most routers have a setting for that, so if infected devices are part of your security model, it would be wise to assume NAT is entirely non-functional because of [NAT slipstream attacks](https://samy.pl/slipstream/). An infected device can modify the router's NAT table to effectively act like UPnP, except they don't provide a user interface for you to audit.

If you're NAT free (i.e. only use IPv6) disabling UPnP can be a decent security measure if you're willing to manually do all of your firewall exclusions, but honestly host firewalls are the only reliable protection method for most people these days.

Re: Uninstall the NightOwl app

#187

Post by andrepd »

jcul wrote: post #185
lynguist wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could maps.me also be in a similar state? It used to be a good OpenStreetsMaps frontend and it was bought (possibly twice) by some investor firm to generate profit. I don’t know what is the state of this app now. Does anyone know? What is the profit scheme (I suspect it might be similar to this one described here) and to which app would you switch instead?

OrganicMaps is a FOSS fork of maps.me I believe. I've been using it and it is great. https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps

+1 for Organic Maps, it's an amazing app (I still keep OsmAnd installed for some more advanced uses)

Re: Uninstall the NightOwl app

#188

Post by jeroenhd »

rootusrootus wrote: post #135
TheRealPomax wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me tell you about family members that have a mac because "they don't want the hassle of a windows laptop". They also don't want the hassle of not having uPnP, that setting is going to be turned on whether you know better or not.

> Let me tell you about family members that have a mac because "they don't want the hassle of a windows laptop". They are not wrong. E.g. It amazes me how much pain and suffering Microsoft expects users to endure just to use a printer. It is not lost on my stepmother that her Windows machine has endless problems setting up and printing to her Brother laser printer, but her iPhone just sees it without having to be tol…

Printer companies sabotage printers. If you go through the standard Windows route (Devices > Add > Printer) you'll get most printers working quickly and reliably. In fact, if you plug in a USB cable, the printer will most likely Just Work (TM) after a few seconds of driver fetching.

They want you to use their shitty apps and shitty software, though. HP is the worst at this (they cover up the USB port, and will only allow you a limited amount of prints before you need the activate the printer through an app).

Windows has plenty of printer problems (like its print spooler that needs a serious security overhaul which would break loads of printers) but the worst of it only seems to show up if you follow the manual and install the crapware, including apps, that printer manufacturers want to shovel onto your devices.

Re: Uninstall the NightOwl app

#189

Post by extesy »

mschuster91 wrote: post #8

I hate silent takeovers so much. Chrome developer extensions are another very popular thing for bad actors to buy out and replace with malware, and it sucks.

As a maintainer of a semi-popular chrome extension[1], I receive so many buy-out offers that I started publicly collecting them[2] for everyone to see.

[1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hover-zoom%20/pccc...

[2] https://github.com/extesy/hoverzoom/discussions/670

Re: Uninstall the NightOwl app

#190

Post by ptx »

laurent123456 wrote: post #47
mschuster91 wrote: post #8

I hate silent takeovers so much. Chrome developer extensions are another very popular thing for bad actors to buy out and replace with malware, and it sucks.

That's the problem with free apps. Very few people want to donate, no decent company is interested in buying the app and making it profitable, so all that's left are the worst kind of companies who buy these extensions and apps to exploit the users. All these free apps have value but unfortunately it doesn't translate to any income for the developer so they find other ways.

It's a problem with "free as in beer" apps but not with "free as in freedom" apps.

When the packages are built from source code by a trusted distributor like Debian or F-Droid [1], this kind of change is likely going to be noticed by the packager and not let through to users.

[1] https://f-droid.org/

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