4 ms·

One thing I just noticed with Instagram's website is that I can't select comment text any longer... that may or may not be a new change but I never noticed it e

One thing I just noticed with Instagram's website is that I can't select comment text any longer... that may or may not be a new change but I never noticed it earlier and it's driving me crazy now as I frequently copy comments to put into different translators.

kinkrtyavimoodh 8y ago
Yeah, it's super annoying. On mobile you are out of luck but on web I just manually set the -webkit-user-select and user-select CSS properties to false. Sometimes I shudder to think of a future where websites would render some server-generated image version of their website (think Flash) so that users couldn't possibly dare to change the experience of their website from the corporate-approved one.
juiced 8y ago
I noticed already for a longer time how Facebook Inc. is restricting more and more what you can do with data on their websites, sharing stuff like video's and pictures outside of their domain is nearly impossible, and now you can't even select comments anymore. I suggest Facebook takes notice of the story how PayPal only started to become successful when they made it is easy for their clients to get money out of PayPal. In the early days it wasn't easy to get your money out of PayPal, PayPal thought it would be good for their financial numbers to try to keep user's money on the PayPal's bank account. But users stopped using it, because you couldn't get your money out easily. Only when PayPal decided to make it easy to get your money out, users started to come back. And guess what, users didn't take out their money en masse, it was enough to know you could get it out easily anytime you wanted to. I feel the same is with how Facebook Inc treats users data. Using Facebook's websites is like being in a prison, you can't get data out of it, it's annoying and I noticed I just stop using it more and more.
Flow 8y ago
Their site is also intentionally crippled so you need the app to do some things. For example, to upload pictures, the primary function of the site... And with the app comes the tracking and stealing of personal information, often using more or less dark patterns to trick the user. From what I understand, an app that has no rights to pictures, contacts and location and so on, can still get info about the WIFI and put together a pretty good picture of your movements.
- k_sh 8y ago
  > site is also intentionally crippled so you need the app to do some things I don't have a citation for this, but it's pretty clear that they do this to make automation harder.
- kevinventullo 8y ago
  On Android, Location needs to be enabled for an app to access ambient wifi (scan of all nearby APs). On iOS, there is no API for ambient wifi, though their location API does use it behind the scenes. On both iOS and Android, an app can access connected wifi even with location disabled.
  - Flow 8y ago
    I was under the impression that on iOS an app without access to the location API still could get the name of the WIFI and perhaps the SSID too?
- andyfleming 8y ago
  I actually feel like the mobile app has some limitations as well to try to keep users in the app. They limit usage of URLs and such.
techer 8y ago
my note 8 does auto OCR on screenshots, vaguely effective.

kinkrtyavimoodh 8y ago

Yeah, it's super annoying. On mobile you are out of luck but on web I just manually set the -webkit-user-select and user-select CSS properties to false. Sometimes I shudder to think of a future where websites would render some server-generated image version of their website (think Flash) so that users couldn't possibly dare to change the experience of their website from the corporate-approved one.

juiced 8y ago

I noticed already for a longer time how Facebook Inc. is restricting more and more what you can do with data on their websites, sharing stuff like video's and pictures outside of their domain is nearly impossible, and now you can't even select comments anymore. I suggest Facebook takes notice of the story how PayPal only started to become successful when they made it is easy for their clients to get money out of PayPal. In the early days it wasn't easy to get your money out of PayPal, PayPal thought it would be good for their financial numbers to try to keep user's money on the PayPal's bank account. But users stopped using it, because you couldn't get your money out easily. Only when PayPal decided to make it easy to get your money out, users started to come back. And guess what, users didn't take out their money en masse, it was enough to know you could get it out easily anytime you wanted to. I feel the same is with how Facebook Inc treats users data. Using Facebook's websites is like being in a prison, you can't get data out of it, it's annoying and I noticed I just stop using it more and more.

Flow 8y ago

Their site is also intentionally crippled so you need the app to do some things. For example, to upload pictures, the primary function of the site... And with the app comes the tracking and stealing of personal information, often using more or less dark patterns to trick the user. From what I understand, an app that has no rights to pictures, contacts and location and so on, can still get info about the WIFI and put together a pretty good picture of your movements.

k_sh 8y ago
> site is also intentionally crippled so you need the app to do some things I don't have a citation for this, but it's pretty clear that they do this to make automation harder.
kevinventullo 8y ago
On Android, Location needs to be enabled for an app to access ambient wifi (scan of all nearby APs). On iOS, there is no API for ambient wifi, though their location API does use it behind the scenes. On both iOS and Android, an app can access connected wifi even with location disabled.
- Flow 8y ago
  I was under the impression that on iOS an app without access to the location API still could get the name of the WIFI and perhaps the SSID too?
andyfleming 8y ago
I actually feel like the mobile app has some limitations as well to try to keep users in the app. They limit usage of URLs and such.

techer 8y ago

my note 8 does auto OCR on screenshots, vaguely effective.