I don’t like the lack of transparency with how the Google Play Store doesn’t list the permissions if one pays for the app and instead only shows the permissions if one doesn’t pay.
I generally prefer it when devs release two apps – a free version and a paid version. This way it’s very clear on the Google Play Store what is being tracked in the paid app.
This won’t affect me personally, but I am curious if others would be more likely to use and pay for Sync if the permissions were more clear for the paid usage case.
I tested this yesterday. There were zero hits in TrackerControl with ads removed.
Cool. It’s great that you did this.
However, my concern is there are no guarantees it wouldn’t change and there would be no recourse for Google to give us a refund since from Google’s standpoint we gave permission for the app to track our data regardless of whether we paid or not.
That’s fair. It definitely comes down to your own trust, but for me I’ve been using Sync for Reddit for roughly a decade and I’ve never seen anything sketchy from ljdawson.
I also don’t rely on just their word, I block this stuff on my own network anyway.
As for a refund, the 1-time payment to remove ads isn’t expensive (to me anyway) and depending on how much time you spend on the app it may have already been worth it.
But again it’s all your preference anyway. Nothing wrong with using a different app.
I appreciate your response and I agree. And likewise nothing wrong with the dev making money and fans supporting that too. (I’ve seen complaints of some people who think all Lemmy apps should be free…and I feel that’s very entitled demanding someone else’s time and effort for free, but they too can just use free apps.)