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This is what you call an awful dichotomy. Security Vs Autonomy... weaponized. I agree with you. I also agree with the other side though. Allowing these monopol

This is what you call an awful dichotomy. Security Vs Autonomy... weaponized. I agree with you. I also agree with the other side though. Allowing these monopolies to squat all the bottlenecks in protocols of media and communication channels is also intolerable. It is perfectly reasonable for you as an individual to prefer privacy. It's perfectly reasonable for a regulator to strike at a problem. Look... the can't provide the technical solutions. Mandate a protocol or whatnot. They might, maybe be able that eventually makes adoption of reasonably secure, open protocols happen. WhatsApp can't be the end state. It appears to be the economic Maxima though.

emn13 4y ago
It would indeed be bad if the requirement were to scream YOLO and allow all apps to always access potentially privacy eroding features like NFC. But surely the proposal isn't that - is it? If it's merely that the OS be required to be _allow_ NFC features just as it does for first-party apps, what's the risk exactly here? I think these kind of special permission requests work at least sort of reasonably on web-browsers, and less brilliantly but acceptably on android. Yes, users will need to think before clicking OK, but the way those dialogs often work (and surely can work) means that they're no longer conveniently able to throw up take-it-or-leave-it modal dialogs. It's at least a little better than the nonsense that is an EULA. But the real critical issue here is that we should not let ourselves be held hostage by apple. Yes, apple hasn't made it _at all_ easy to secure third party access to potentially privileged functionality. But... that's their _choice._ They choose to make a really high first-party moat, because that's convenient for them. But the alternative isn't throwing users to the wolves, it's actually thinking about how to limit access securely even while delegating access. If we have to wait until big tech decides to do that out of the goodness of their heart... we'll die waiting.

emn13 4y ago

It would indeed be bad if the requirement were to scream YOLO and allow all apps to always access potentially privacy eroding features like NFC. But surely the proposal isn't that - is it? If it's merely that the OS be required to be _allow_ NFC features just as it does for first-party apps, what's the risk exactly here? I think these kind of special permission requests work at least sort of reasonably on web-browsers, and less brilliantly but acceptably on android. Yes, users will need to think before clicking OK, but the way those dialogs often work (and surely can work) means that they're no longer conveniently able to throw up take-it-or-leave-it modal dialogs. It's at least a little better than the nonsense that is an EULA. But the real critical issue here is that we should not let ourselves be held hostage by apple. Yes, apple hasn't made it _at all_ easy to secure third party access to potentially privileged functionality. But... that's their _choice._ They choose to make a really high first-party moat, because that's convenient for them. But the alternative isn't throwing users to the wolves, it's actually thinking about how to limit access securely even while delegating access. If we have to wait until big tech decides to do that out of the goodness of their heart... we'll die waiting.