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Browsing your website does not mean I want your spam (2016)

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Re: Browsing your website does not mean I want your spam (2016)

#51
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android. Until Marshmallow it had no permission system at all - every app gets access to everything it wants. That's every contact's full details, your full details, all your SMS messages, your location at all times, your email address (you could see a list of what they access, at least, but couldn't stop them). It finally became more iOS-like in Marshmallow, but first your phone has to actually get the update, then…

Android pre-M had a permission system, it's just that the permissions had to be granted by the user when the app was installed (or updated, if there was a change). Many or most users didn't read the warnings or didn't care. I'd wager most users don't read the new permission dialogs, either, but what're ya gonna do.

I did include that in my comment. The "system" was the list of things the app got access to if you installed it. And that's it. You couldn't grant or not grant permissions, it was just a warning of what was going to happen either way if you installed it. And essential apps like Facebook would ask for absurd permissions like phone.

The only choice you had was "install the app anyway" or "don't install".

Re: Browsing your website does not mean I want your spam (2016)

#52

I would almost prefer this to all the web sites that harass me to sign up for their newsletter with a modal popover on every page I visit. Almost.

I wish uBlock knew how to block those. Sadly, I'm not sure you could write software that could blocking those without blocking useful things like a login prompt that pops up if you leave your session idle.

I suppose it could be done via whitelist or blacklist.

Re: Browsing your website does not mean I want your spam (2016)

#53

I completely agree that this is an abhorrent practice, but I don't believe that legislation is the answer. Just because someone annoys you, does not mean you need to involve legal precedent.

What is the answer then?

Privacy. Email considerably lacks it. So does web-browsing in general. I don't have an answer on how to get it, but it needs pointing out that this is the real underlying issue.
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