this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
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I have recently started a new position and am required to use an app that has three Facebook trackers, one of them being a Facebook location tracker according to Exodus App Privacy in order to get your food when it would literally work perfectly fine ordering to a real cashier or shit even a website rather than having to download an app.

I have also read many stories of people that live in apartments that require them to use a mobile app for god damn LAUNDRY. All you need, is a card reader, and it will work perfectly fine like it has been for the longest time.

Privacy concerns aside, it is just annoying that you need this app and that app and this app and that app and it just clutters space on your phone. Security concerns too as now they have all of this additional info on you online, such as your phone number your email your real name, instead of just your credit card info like a card reader would have. And I am willing to guarantee that their security model is absolute horseshit because they have such a small team of engineers working on the app and the servers.

Literal enshitification

Magne

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I wonder if "oh I'm using some Nokia dumb phone" would have gotten them to stop

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I figured "my phone's weird and I don't have the Play Store and can't really install the app" would do it, but it really really didn't.

Two different people pressured me to install the app. Both pressured me hard to show them (not at the same time, one after the other) that I didn't have the Play Store. (And, yeah, I should have walked out before it got that far, but I'm not proud to admit I didn't.)

The second one pressured me hard to go to such-and-such URL and download the BOA app in a way that didn't require the Play Store. (Honestly, I was an extremely late adopter of smart phones. I didn't and still don't really fully know my way around them. And didn't know you could just download an APK via a browser and install it. To be fair, I guess I still don't know that for sure, because it didn't work when this guy got me to do it.)

After that didn't work I was like "it's not like BOA doesn't have a web app, right?" and hevery disapprovingly told me "but you know the web app isn't secure." I can't say I've been literally shocked speechless many times in my life, but this was is one of them. (This was after I told him I'm a software engineer by trade. In fact, I'm a web developer and I'm the web application security guy on my team. Ha!)

I think "it won't work on my phone" made these folks go into tech support mode. That surprised me. I figured they'd be fairly tech inept and not really want to get into a whole technical discussion. Which is why I'm thinking "I'd rather have a buffalo take a diarrhea dump in my ear than install your app" might bypass the "tech support" conversation to the distainful lecturing one.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What about "hello I'm your customer and I'm not installing your app." End of argument.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"No", is a complete sentence.

[–] meat_popsicle 4 points 1 year ago

Ask any woman, they’ll tell you that only applies to men.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Or, "I have plenty of other banks I could open an account from that don't require an app."

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

How about a "I don't trust your app"

And then when they persist, go to the store and ask them for each permission why the app needs it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is what I told my employer’s IT system. They have an app for non-standard 2fa that I had no interest in configuring so now I just get phone calls.

[–] bzz 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It grinds my gears when companies make you use your personal phone for work stuff like 2fa. If you want 2fa on my device then pay for the phone.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

In my case there is a small stipend towards personal phones if they’re used in part for work purposes. I think it works out to about ~200 USD per year. Not enough to buy a phone in full, but it’s also not a work phone per se.