6 ms·

It depends on what we are defining as options. Right now, you can choose between getting Facebook from Apple's App Store, where Facebook has to comply with fai

It depends on what we are defining as options. Right now, you can choose between getting Facebook from Apple's App Store, where Facebook has to comply with fairly strict privacy rules to remain available. Or, you can use Facebook on a non-Apple platform where no such rules exist (browser, Google Play). This choice exists because the App Store is the only way for Facebook to practically deliver its product to iPhone users. If Apple is forced to allow third-party stores, then yes, users have more choices on where to get their apps. But it would allow Facebook to take their app off the iOS App Store and put it somewhere without Apple's stricter privacy rules, taking away the users option to choose a version that doesn't have things like cross-app behavior tracking. I view it very much as a "pick your poison" scenario, where Apple is merely the lesser of two evils. I would much rather live in a world where government regulation renders Facebook's shitty business practices obsolete, then Apple wouldn't be able to use basic rights like privacy as a product differentiator.

wvenable 3y ago
As soon as someone discovers the non-App store version of Facebook is somehow worse then there will be a thousand Facebook posts and articles telling you not to install it that way. I have an Android phone and I almost always install apps from the store but I have a very important handful of apps that I've sideloaded (or gotten from F-droid). Some of those apps do more to ensure my privacy than "official" ones.
- babypuncher 3y ago
  > As soon as someone discovers the non-App store version of Facebook is somehow worse then there will be a thousand Facebook posts and articles telling you not to install it that way. The problem is, Facebook could easily take the iOS App Store option away and make the alt-store option mandatory. And they have the power to do so and get away with it. People are too entrenched in their ecosystem, and there's no viable path off of it. User protests like this on social media rarely end in favor of the users. I'm one of the people that quit Facebook entirely, and it does actually hurt me IRL. Too many friends and family members coordinate events and share news exclusively through Facebook.
  - wvenable 3y ago
    They could do that now on Android but they don't because the Play store is biggest distribution channel. I feel like the argument falls a bit flat when sideloading exists on Android, Android has 70% of the global market share, and none of these supposed evils have happened.
    - babypuncher 3y ago
      They don't because the Play Store's privacy rules are nowhere near as strict as those on iOS.
      - wvenable 3y ago
        Why is that a store thing? https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/16/google-plans-android-privacy-change-similar-to-apples.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/16/google-plans-android-privacy... https://developer.android.com/design-for-safety/privacy-sandbox https://developer.android.com/design-for-safety/privacy-sand...

wvenable 3y ago

As soon as someone discovers the non-App store version of Facebook is somehow worse then there will be a thousand Facebook posts and articles telling you not to install it that way. I have an Android phone and I almost always install apps from the store but I have a very important handful of apps that I've sideloaded (or gotten from F-droid). Some of those apps do more to ensure my privacy than "official" ones.

babypuncher 3y ago
> As soon as someone discovers the non-App store version of Facebook is somehow worse then there will be a thousand Facebook posts and articles telling you not to install it that way. The problem is, Facebook could easily take the iOS App Store option away and make the alt-store option mandatory. And they have the power to do so and get away with it. People are too entrenched in their ecosystem, and there's no viable path off of it. User protests like this on social media rarely end in favor of the users. I'm one of the people that quit Facebook entirely, and it does actually hurt me IRL. Too many friends and family members coordinate events and share news exclusively through Facebook.
- wvenable 3y ago
  They could do that now on Android but they don't because the Play store is biggest distribution channel. I feel like the argument falls a bit flat when sideloading exists on Android, Android has 70% of the global market share, and none of these supposed evils have happened.
  - babypuncher 3y ago
    They don't because the Play Store's privacy rules are nowhere near as strict as those on iOS.
    - wvenable 3y ago
      Why is that a store thing? https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/16/google-plans-android-privacy-change-similar-to-apples.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/16/google-plans-android-privacy... https://developer.android.com/design-for-safety/privacy-sandbox https://developer.android.com/design-for-safety/privacy-sand...