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I regularly compare ordering from business-specific apps vs. Uber Eats. I can save up to 25% on some orders with the business-specific apps. Why do you think th

I regularly compare ordering from business-specific apps vs. Uber Eats. I can save up to 25% on some orders with the business-specific apps. Why do you think they're a bad deal?

jacquesm 3y ago
Because you will be paying in some other way, for instance because your data is sold out the backdoor. Ryan J Shaw always orders from these two addresses, that means he's probably living there, he orders a lot of fancy food so we can enrich his profile and sell it to the highest bidder. Any app that you install should be reviewed as to what permissions it requires and you should be very careful with anything that wants to have your location, especially if it is on a regular basis. And location is something that can be inferred from many things, that QR code that you just scanned doesn't look like it is location data but it may have location attached to it which gets recovered when you scan it. So completely invisible to you you just allowed your lat/long pair+timestamp to be sent to a bunch of servers outside of your control, and with a bit of luck with your device ID or other identifying info added to it. As well as which cell phone provider you are using, what make and model phone you've got etc.
- zamnos 3y ago
  But all that information goes to the large platform vendors (eg DoorDash, Uber Eats) if you use their app instead. What makes the business-specific app worse in this regard? At least with the business-specific app, there's one less middle man involved.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    Maybe. Or maybe they just see that as their additional source of revenue. For instance there are third party libraries that you get paid to include in your app which leak all kinds of data about you. Easy money for the app vendor.
    - rprospero 3y ago
      Again, I would assume that UberEats and DoorDash have been paid to install all of those third party libraries, so it still feels like a lateral move to install my local pizza app instead. The only argument I see at the moment against the belief that the major apps have installed these trackers is that they feel they can negotiate for more money when they sell my personal information, but I don't see a scenario where I'm ordering on a phone and my personal information isn't being tracked and sold.

I regularly compare ordering from business-specific apps vs. Uber Eats. I can save up to 25% on some orders with the business-specific apps. Why do you think they're a bad deal?

jacquesm 3y ago

Because you will be paying in some other way, for instance because your data is sold out the backdoor. Ryan J Shaw always orders from these two addresses, that means he's probably living there, he orders a lot of fancy food so we can enrich his profile and sell it to the highest bidder. Any app that you install should be reviewed as to what permissions it requires and you should be very careful with anything that wants to have your location, especially if it is on a regular basis. And location is something that can be inferred from many things, that QR code that you just scanned doesn't look like it is location data but it may have location attached to it which gets recovered when you scan it. So completely invisible to you you just allowed your lat/long pair+timestamp to be sent to a bunch of servers outside of your control, and with a bit of luck with your device ID or other identifying info added to it. As well as which cell phone provider you are using, what make and model phone you've got etc.

zamnos 3y ago
But all that information goes to the large platform vendors (eg DoorDash, Uber Eats) if you use their app instead. What makes the business-specific app worse in this regard? At least with the business-specific app, there's one less middle man involved.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  Maybe. Or maybe they just see that as their additional source of revenue. For instance there are third party libraries that you get paid to include in your app which leak all kinds of data about you. Easy money for the app vendor.
  - rprospero 3y ago
    Again, I would assume that UberEats and DoorDash have been paid to install all of those third party libraries, so it still feels like a lateral move to install my local pizza app instead. The only argument I see at the moment against the belief that the major apps have installed these trackers is that they feel they can negotiate for more money when they sell my personal information, but I don't see a scenario where I'm ordering on a phone and my personal information isn't being tracked and sold.