Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [OM] OT: Are mobile apps evil?

Subject: Re: [OM] OT: Are mobile apps evil?
From: ChrisB <ftog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 08:09:31 +0000
Peter

I had not heard that FB could operate in the background, even after it is quit. 
 If you didn’t already know it, there is a setting under General called 
Background App Refresh which I have selected off for FB.

The problems with browsers will be problems with browsers and FB, I suspect.  
But FB is certainly causing grumpiness with its messager for iOS: you have to 
instal and use FB messager to send messages, not through FB on iOS any longer.  
I don’t know if that sort of thing has any bearing on your problems with FB.

Chris

> On 17 Dec 14, at 05:34, Peter Klein <pklein@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> 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
> -- 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
> Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
> Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
> 

-- 
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz