[Leica] OT: Are mobile apps evil?

[kcarney1 at cox.net (Ken Carney)]

I don't know much about the tracking, but I can predict an interesting 
airline check-in if the new bocal case has, for example, "Glock" on it.

Ken

On 12/16/2014 11:36 PM, Peter Klein wrote:
> [sorry for the repetition, left the subject off when I sent this the first
> time]
>
> A question for people who may be more plugged in to the mobile app world
> than me...
>
> Is there some sort of attrition policy or concerted effort by the big
> software and data companies to "break" things on mobile devices' standard
> browsers so people will be forced to use apps?  And if so, is it just
> certain companies, or is everybody doing it?
>
> I got my iPad primarily so I could dictate emails and short bits of
> writing. And because the gestures of a touch device are different from a
> standard keyboard and mouse combination. All this meant better distributing
> the load on my hands, which sometimes get overworked by too much
> keyboarding, mousing and bassoon playing.  So far, it's worked well.
>
> BUT... ever since iOS 8.1.1, using dictation (aka "Siri") in Facebook
> replies generate a long, mixed-up word salad using the words I said, but
> chopped up, re-ordered and repeated. I can *originate* a post with
> dictation just fine, but not reply. The buttons to edit or delete FB posts
> after the fact no longer work, and several other things are partially
> broken as well. This all happens with Chrome as well as Safari. And
> everything works just fine with the FB app.
>
> The optimist in me says that this is just a by-product of the inevitable
> bugs in a huge project like the iOS upgrade. The cynic in me says that this
> is all about steering us towards apps, where our behavior can be ever more
> deliberately tabulated, analyzed and sold to advertisers, and our eyeballs
> ever-more-cleverly and frequently diverted to what "they" want us to see.
> Recently FB said that as of November, they were going to send data about
> users' browsing habits to their "affiliates and partners,"  even when the
> users were not on FB.  And indeed, the most recent versions of the FB app
> run in the background, even after you've closed the app.  I confirmed this
> with a system checker app I have. And FB now knows" when I have new
> notifications even when the app is supposedly closed.
>
> That's why I deleted the app a while back.  But today, I got fed up with
> the problem (not fixed in iOS 8.1.2), and I loaded the FB app again. So I
> guess they've got me just where they want me.
>
> Add to this a recent experience I had. I needed a case for my bassoon
> bocals (the bent silver tube that goes between the reed and the
> instrument). Bocal cases from a music store cost $60 and up.  But a
> just-as-good alternative is $15 pistol case. I did a Google search for said
> pistol case. I backed out of the first site when it asked me for my date of
> birth and to donate money to preserve my Second Amendment rights. I
> eventually bought the case on Amazon.  Now whenever I go on Amazon, they
> try to sell me a gun. Not only that, eBay did the same thing a few times.
> How did they know?  "They" are not supposed to look at each other's
> cookies, but I guess they do. Or somehow in IP address I went to looking
> for the pistol case got interpreted as "this guy is a gun owner."  Or some
> other under-the-hood thing.  Regardless of how, it's creepy.
>
> It seems to me that within a app, the safeguards are less, and "they" can
> engage in more creepy behavior which is harder to detect or prevent.  I
> don't wish to don a tinfoil hat, but I'm starting to get a more and more
> suspicious of apps. It seems like in return for a smoother "experience," we
> get to give up more and more of our information. They have sneakier and
> sneakier ways of getting it, and it will be used in all sorts of ways.
>
> So what should I do?  Fight?  Give up the Internet?  Take my Soma and be
> happy?
>
> --Peter
>
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