3 ms·

I never download apps anymore because they abused their privilege. No, I don't want to download an app that's just a less-featureful front-end to your webpage.

I never download apps anymore because they abused their privilege. No, I don't want to download an app that's just a less-featureful front-end to your webpage. Especially if you are going to need access to my contacts, location, and have notifications pop-up just because you can. Obviously there are exceptions that do need this access, but they are the vast minority IME.

heisenbit 10y ago
It is not the first time I hear this from the Android side but never so far from iOS users. I think here the difference between the Android and iOS platforms wrt. permissions is significant. They are differently cut and policed from the store side. Manageability of security from a UX perspective is more complex and worse on Android. On device storage of secrets or valuable private data is a key part of most "real" apps. Apps that do not need this may benefit from quickly improving web technologies. Apps that need this may prosper more on a security conscious platform.
nostrademons 10y ago
It's kinda ironic that this is how every platform since Windows has died. A major factor that pushed users away from Windows and towards webapps was the constant onslaught of viruses and worms. It got so bad that when I was in college (early 2000s), SQL Slammer would be perpetually floating around the college network (I noticed at least 4-5 computers infected in my dorm of 22 residents), and a significant portion of peoples' fileshares were infected with Nimda. The assumption was that if you had ever logged into a computer in administrator mode (and oftentimes, even if you hadn't), it was compromised. And then desktop e-mail clients died under the onslaught of spam. GMail's spam filters basically saved e-mail (temporarily at least; people hate it again), and they could only be done on the server, with data from lots of people. Then a major factor in the shift from web to mobile was the huge weight of advertising, clickbait, phishing, and other abuse. Webpages got so heavy and bloated that the clean, fast interface of a mobile app was a huge breath of fresh air. Now we've got mobile, dying under the weight of apps that request every privilege under the sun so they can do things they shouldn't be able to. And Google, dying under the weight of SEO & content farms. It's like the tech industry periodically gets reborn because as soon as something gets popular, people swoop in to abuse it, until it's easier to kill the patient and start over with a new platform than to clean up the mess. Full employment for entrepreneurs, I guess.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  I guess the wild west of the web played out in the worst way possible. Because just like with the wild west, the bandits can outrun the lawman by slipping across borders.
- antocv 10y ago
  It is a social problem, there is a saying, "Humans are like pigeons, alone and in small groups they are elegant and nice, together in large group they are obnoxious and leave huge piles of corroding shit".
khedoros1 10y ago
I jump on the app when it first comes out, before they add all the extra permission requirements. I've got half a dozen ancient apps on my phone that I stopped updating when I felt like they were overreaching the permissions I think they should have. When the app stops working, it gets uninstalled. At that point, I'll just wait to get back to a PC.

heisenbit 10y ago

It is not the first time I hear this from the Android side but never so far from iOS users. I think here the difference between the Android and iOS platforms wrt. permissions is significant. They are differently cut and policed from the store side. Manageability of security from a UX perspective is more complex and worse on Android. On device storage of secrets or valuable private data is a key part of most "real" apps. Apps that do not need this may benefit from quickly improving web technologies. Apps that need this may prosper more on a security conscious platform.

nostrademons 10y ago

It's kinda ironic that this is how every platform since Windows has died. A major factor that pushed users away from Windows and towards webapps was the constant onslaught of viruses and worms. It got so bad that when I was in college (early 2000s), SQL Slammer would be perpetually floating around the college network (I noticed at least 4-5 computers infected in my dorm of 22 residents), and a significant portion of peoples' fileshares were infected with Nimda. The assumption was that if you had ever logged into a computer in administrator mode (and oftentimes, even if you hadn't), it was compromised. And then desktop e-mail clients died under the onslaught of spam. GMail's spam filters basically saved e-mail (temporarily at least; people hate it again), and they could only be done on the server, with data from lots of people. Then a major factor in the shift from web to mobile was the huge weight of advertising, clickbait, phishing, and other abuse. Webpages got so heavy and bloated that the clean, fast interface of a mobile app was a huge breath of fresh air. Now we've got mobile, dying under the weight of apps that request every privilege under the sun so they can do things they shouldn't be able to. And Google, dying under the weight of SEO & content farms. It's like the tech industry periodically gets reborn because as soon as something gets popular, people swoop in to abuse it, until it's easier to kill the patient and start over with a new platform than to clean up the mess. Full employment for entrepreneurs, I guess.

digi_owl 10y ago
I guess the wild west of the web played out in the worst way possible. Because just like with the wild west, the bandits can outrun the lawman by slipping across borders.
antocv 10y ago
It is a social problem, there is a saying, "Humans are like pigeons, alone and in small groups they are elegant and nice, together in large group they are obnoxious and leave huge piles of corroding shit".

khedoros1 10y ago

I jump on the app when it first comes out, before they add all the extra permission requirements. I've got half a dozen ancient apps on my phone that I stopped updating when I felt like they were overreaching the permissions I think they should have. When the app stops working, it gets uninstalled. At that point, I'll just wait to get back to a PC.