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They not only track very invasively what you are doing but they create real problems for websites because certain features wont work anymore. Be it due to them
by eis 4y ago
They not only track very invasively what you are doing but they create real problems for websites because certain features wont work anymore. Be it due to them disabling them or third party services having to block their usage because of the huge privacy and data safety issue.
Simple example: try to use "Login with Google" from within one of those in-app browsers and you will notice Google had to actively detect them and block the attempt because otherwise the app could spy on the login credentials without anyone noticing.
Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, TikTok.... the list goes on and on.
I am very confident that these companies are breaking GDPR laws left and right on an absolutely massive scale. They are spyware at this point.
- klabb3 4y agoI'm with you. If you're navigating to a website, you should open the web browser. The app shouldn't monitor or inject crap when I'm going to an unaffiliated site. The worst offenders are the ones that force you to enter credentials for a 3p account with an in-app browser. That said, it's a huge UX failure that navigating between the web and an app is so broken. That doesn't mean that it's motivated to break the fundamental models of the web. Long term it does much more harm than good. How do you teach non-technical users good practices if developers circumvent these barriers anyway? "Trust us, we won't steal your Google account" is not exactly reassuring, but ok say that you trust a reputable app to do that. What happens when the user normalizes this behavior and a less reputable app does the same thing? Obviously many users will have no idea of the risk.