this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2024
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AssholeDesign
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This is a community for designs specifically crafted to make the experience worse for the user. This can be due to greed, apathy, laziness or just downright scumbaggery.
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You could as much harvest more data from a browser honestly. Most apps are sandboxed, a browser shares its cookies.
Phone apps have access to significantly more data than a browser does, especially when people haphazardly agree to any and all permissions.
If you believe that's really true I'm probably not the one to change your mind.
Browsers usually don't even ask for any permissions, where iOS and Android apps do, and explicitly state what data they'll steal.
It's much easier to fingerprint your behavior when using the web than it is when using apps.
Unless you're only talking about "the wrong kind of apps" but then I could continue about "the wrong kind of websites".
But hey, you do you. Happy tracking.
Edit: I feel sad that sites like The Verge et al. trick people who want to learn in those kind of directions. They're writers, not tech people. They earn from ads! Don't listen to them.
Yes, I'm comparing the threat level based on the maximum potential akin to the likes of "those apps". Permissions are straightforward and will protect users just like ad blockers, decentralized static frameworks (JavaScript/CSS/fonts), and clearing cookies. But on average users are not well informed and aren't considering permissions, add-ons, or even which browser or app they use so I compare based on the potential threat level.