3 ms·

An obvious idea is Apple/google could add a dontShare flag to the contacts. Or would that be too controversial? The os would just pretend those contacts don't

• Nextgrid 6y ago
  A better idea would be to use regulation to outlaw malware/spyware that steals your contacts list, or pressure Apple/Google to actually do their job during app review and kick such malware from their store.
  • dheera 6y ago
    Regulation is generally useless since it only applies within a jurisdiction. Unless you can convince 200+ countries to adopt it as their formal law, said spyware could always find a place to call home and still infiltrate the world. GDPR is a good example of a law that the US sheepishly somehow chooses to obey EU law (wtf, why didn't the US obey the EU laws around recycling and energy and no free plastic grocery bags for the past decade? and all of a sudden they care about obeying GDPR?), but do Central/South American, African, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries take a crap about GDPR? Generally not. They don't care about EU law. It doesn't apply in their jurisdiction, and they are not sheep. That isn't to say privacy doesn't matter, it's just that the law needs to be locally implemented, not obeying some arbitrary EU interpretation of the idea that wasn't even discussed with them. As such, I think technical approaches are generally superior to regulatory approaches in user protection. They apply across the entire world instantly.