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The loss of privacy comes not from actions taken at the Amazon store, but from having the app installed on the phone 24/7, including when you’re not at the Amaz
by bentley 4y ago
The loss of privacy comes not from actions taken at the Amazon store, but from having the app installed on the phone 24/7, including when you’re not at the Amazon store.
A somewhat similar example would be using Facebook purely through its Tor onion address, while simultaneously blocking facebook.com on your home network. The point is not to keep Meta from having any information about you, but to limit Meta to information it can acquire from your direct interactions, as opposed to the piles of unrelated browsing history it normally acquires through IP address correlation and Like buttons.
- crazygringo 4y agoOK, I'll bite: what could possibly be the issue with keeping an app installed? If you quit it it's not running, and if you don't give it location permissions it's not tracking your location. Is there something I'm missing?
- bentley 4y agoThe situation has gotten better over time as the OS manufacturers have locked down permissions and made background operations more visible. But many privacy leaks have been only recently fixed or remain unfixed—for instance, it was only in 2021 that Android removed the ability for apps to collect the full list of installed apps. And there have been some real stinkers in the past, like when Facebook used its app to modify people’s contacts lists to make @facebook.com email addresses the primary. Companies that make money from aggregating data will always be on the cutting edge of these techniques compared to ordinary people. The app that’s not installed leaks no data at all, and I don’t blame anyone for avoiding apps that aren’t absolutely necessary.