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Anything you get from Google play store is wrapped with Google's trackers. This ensures that Google knows what you are using at a minimum. Then the promiscuous

Anything you get from Google play store is wrapped with Google's trackers. This ensures that Google knows what you are using at a minimum. Then the promiscuous Google Play Services provides even greater visibility as it processes all your notifications. You can check the trackers here. https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/ https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/ Apple's store and OS is more opaque. Others may be better able to explain their mechanisms. A small minority of us don't have Google Play Services on our phones and get all apps from F-droid. So he is not referring to us. As a developer and system administrator I would have added to this piece how costly it is to actually delete data. It is usually far cheaper to store everything even well after it has legitimate use because developing archiving routines and strategies that don't break other things is work that few IT organizations bother with among all their other priorities.

IanCal 5y ago
> It is usually far cheaper to store everything even well after it has legitimate use This is true and one of the key reasons for GDPR. The cost for keeping data beyond the legitimate use needs to be increased.
- oblib 5y ago
  There is a bit of a conundrum with this issue. Just last week I went over user accounts for one of my apps and deleted those that had expired for longer than 6 months on the live server. So, their data is off the live server but still on weekly backups that are rotated out and deleted after 4 weeks. But I also have snapshots of that server that go back years and it would be some work to delete a user's data on those. And other users might need to recover data, so I can't just delete the snapshots.
  - WrtCdEvrydy 5y ago
    Wait till you get a deletion request for a specific user... we've had to mount snapshots as DBs just to have an automated query purge their record from the snapshot, delete the snapshot and retake the snapshot.
    - dotancohen 5y ago
      As a software developer, I feel your pain. But as a citizen, I'm very thankful for the GDPR and similar privacy laws. Thank you for putting in the effort and deleting properly.
      - WrtCdEvrydy 5y ago
        It's not a pain. Regulations are there to be followed and I don't think GDPR is wrong. I honestly would rather set up these systems so that it can be done easily and being compliant with the law and user expectations.
grishka 5y ago
> Anything you get from Google play store is wrapped with Google's trackers. App bundles are terrible, but if the developer uses apk, the signature makes sure no one, including Google, can tamper with its contents.
- pritambaral 5y ago
  "Google Play will start requiring new apps to be published with the Android App Bundle starting August 2021. This will replace the APK as the standard publishing format." https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2021/06/the-future-of-android-app-bundles-is.html https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2021/06/the-future...

IanCal 5y ago

> It is usually far cheaper to store everything even well after it has legitimate use This is true and one of the key reasons for GDPR. The cost for keeping data beyond the legitimate use needs to be increased.

oblib 5y ago
There is a bit of a conundrum with this issue. Just last week I went over user accounts for one of my apps and deleted those that had expired for longer than 6 months on the live server. So, their data is off the live server but still on weekly backups that are rotated out and deleted after 4 weeks. But I also have snapshots of that server that go back years and it would be some work to delete a user's data on those. And other users might need to recover data, so I can't just delete the snapshots.
- WrtCdEvrydy 5y ago
  Wait till you get a deletion request for a specific user... we've had to mount snapshots as DBs just to have an automated query purge their record from the snapshot, delete the snapshot and retake the snapshot.
  - dotancohen 5y ago
    As a software developer, I feel your pain. But as a citizen, I'm very thankful for the GDPR and similar privacy laws. Thank you for putting in the effort and deleting properly.
    - WrtCdEvrydy 5y ago
      It's not a pain. Regulations are there to be followed and I don't think GDPR is wrong. I honestly would rather set up these systems so that it can be done easily and being compliant with the law and user expectations.

grishka 5y ago

> Anything you get from Google play store is wrapped with Google's trackers. App bundles are terrible, but if the developer uses apk, the signature makes sure no one, including Google, can tamper with its contents.

pritambaral 5y ago
"Google Play will start requiring new apps to be published with the Android App Bundle starting August 2021. This will replace the APK as the standard publishing format." https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2021/06/the-future-of-android-app-bundles-is.html https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2021/06/the-future...