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Solution to 'what' exactly? Unless you require all users to also be software engineers before they are allowed to buy a device that's not really solving anythin

Solution to 'what' exactly? Unless you require all users to also be software engineers before they are allowed to buy a device that's not really solving anything, is it? Shifting the point of trust around changes nothing, and you can't shift it to the users because they are users, not developers.

freehunter 6y ago
The answer (even as politically unpopular as it may be) is regulation. Either the industry should come up with their own regulations (like the ESRB for video games) or the government should come up with regulations (like GDPR). That’s how every industry levels the playing field for consumers who can’t actually be as informed as they need to be (or don’t have a choice even if they’re informed). Unless everyone is a software engineer and can read the code of all the software they’re running and where their data is going, “open source” isn’t going to fix the problem. And expecting everyone who uses a phone or computer to know the details of its software implementation is highly unrealistic (even as a software engineer, do you know how your doctor’s medical billing and coding software works? Unless you work at Epic, probably not). So there needs to be some regulatory body who actually is informed and can certify that software companies are following the rules.
- valuearb 6y ago
  I trust Apple more than I trust a regulator. Apple has to respond to customer preferences, a regulator can force them to make the user experience worse for things the customer doesn’t value. Now do I trust Google more than a regulator? That’s a much closer question.
swiley 6y ago
1) if a class of users can’t be trusted to evaluate software in even the most basic ways then they shouldn’t be allowed to install native apps at all. At this point PWAs and smartphone apps have equivalent access (except on iOS.) 2) I was arguing for shifting the point of trust to volunteers from the community. In particular I was thinking of the Debian project but there are other examples.

freehunter 6y ago

The answer (even as politically unpopular as it may be) is regulation. Either the industry should come up with their own regulations (like the ESRB for video games) or the government should come up with regulations (like GDPR). That’s how every industry levels the playing field for consumers who can’t actually be as informed as they need to be (or don’t have a choice even if they’re informed). Unless everyone is a software engineer and can read the code of all the software they’re running and where their data is going, “open source” isn’t going to fix the problem. And expecting everyone who uses a phone or computer to know the details of its software implementation is highly unrealistic (even as a software engineer, do you know how your doctor’s medical billing and coding software works? Unless you work at Epic, probably not). So there needs to be some regulatory body who actually is informed and can certify that software companies are following the rules.

valuearb 6y ago
I trust Apple more than I trust a regulator. Apple has to respond to customer preferences, a regulator can force them to make the user experience worse for things the customer doesn’t value. Now do I trust Google more than a regulator? That’s a much closer question.

swiley 6y ago

1) if a class of users can’t be trusted to evaluate software in even the most basic ways then they shouldn’t be allowed to install native apps at all. At this point PWAs and smartphone apps have equivalent access (except on iOS.) 2) I was arguing for shifting the point of trust to volunteers from the community. In particular I was thinking of the Debian project but there are other examples.