this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2024
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Anything that makes you apply your hand to your face.
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Eh, I've been using Sync since Reddit, and I'm used to its interface. The developer added ads when he adapted if for Lemmy, and honestly, it's fine. It's a single man dev team, and I've been using his product for free for years. If he's decided he wants to make a couple of bucks for his labor, fine.
It also has a dark mode, but I've set it to only turn on with my nightly Do Not Disturb. It also has a couple of other features I like, like a Drafts folder and built-in Ascii emoticons. I don't know how it stacks up against other apps, but I'm used to it and I'm unlikely to switch. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Sorry, that was a lot more peremptory than I meant it to be! Don't get me wrong, it's a slick app. If it was just a question if throwing the guy a few bucks I'd do it in a heartbeat, I too believe in paying for good software. But the trackers are my real problem. This app doesn't need to know my location, who I am, what I read, who I message, which links I go to, etc etc. I'm not sure if all that in Sync is required for the ads, or if they use it for more too, but they could use it for more, and anyway like others have said we're some of us here at least in part to get away from that kind of surveillance.
You might go back to Sync, but it's definitely worth your while checking out other apps that don't track you if you care about that at all. If not, of course, then none of the above applies haha 😅
Well, I've deleted my Ad ID on Android. My understanding is that should make it pretty difficult for advertisers to collect much data on me from any app.
"marketers hate this simple trick"
as a developer i can assure you they have plenty other means to collect your data. the ad id is only for displaying targeted ads, but the spying goes on
Then purchase the app? Surely there is a paid version without ads? I cannot understand how someone takes ads for granted, it's just an eye sore
Because they're not obtrusive, so I don't give a shit. I use uBlock Origin on Firefox because most websites are practically unreadable without it these days, but I hardly notice them on Sync. There's one ad in my feed for about every 10 posts and one small banner ad on each comment section, and half the time they don't even load. I only have moral objections to ads if they're invading your privacy or pretending to be content, but these aren't fake posts and I'm fairly certain that can't get any significant data on me since I disable Ad ID on my devices.
I could pay $17 bucks a year to get rid of them. (I often tell myself I'm going to do that to support the dev, but then I forget to follow through.) But sometimes it's less effort to just ignore ads than get rid of them. Like, I could close my eyes and plug my ears every time an ad comes on TV, but it's easier to just not pay attention.
You can pay a one off fee to get rid of the apps too.