automatically turning on new (creepy)feature with no single click to disable them - eviltoast

there’s just this vague recommendation to “turn it off in settings.” no link, no toggle, nothing.

had to hunt for the relevant setting in the app(even their settings menu is down under in the list when you tap on your avatar.


image transcription:

a screenshot of Google play store which has a popup that can only be disabled by pressing OK button at the bottom.
the popup contains the following text:

Google is optimising app installs with your help
Google Play makes apps faster to install, open and run based on what people are using most. The first time that you open an app after installing, Google notes which parts of the app you use. When enough people do this, your apps will install faster. App install optimisation is automatically turned on, but you can turn it off in settings. Learn more

  • lazyvar@programming.dev
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    11 months ago

    I feel you’re brushing over the privacy implications regarding how apps are used.

    Sure, you could say: “Oh, but it’s inefficient to compile the entire application, and what if there are features that barely anyone uses.”

    But you can also say: “Compiling the entire application ensures we don’t need to collect usage data and it ensures everyone gets the best experience, even the people that use features that are otherwise hardly used.”

    Now, of course, to go with the second option, you need to care about user privacy and not gain any benefits from usage data beyond the benefits for compiling it.

    • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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      11 months ago

      You’re right. That is a perfectly valid solution with different trade offs. Perhaps in a perfect world users could select which they prefer.