Knowing you should set your apps’ privacy permissions might not be enough to protect you. A cybersecurity expert explains how complicated privacy settings can trip you up.
  • moxEnglish
    35•26 days ago

    It’s too bad the author didn’t spend any time on the information that smartphone apps are allowed to collect by default, with no in-app settings to restrict them at all.

    I’m with him in sentiment, of course: Dark patterns are rotten wherever they’re used, including data protection settings. But a discussion of privacy focused on window curtains seems almost pointless when the doors are jammed wide open.

    “The problem isn’t data protection; the problem is data collection.”

    Oh well. I guess every little bit of attention on the issue might help it get fixed some day.

    • moxEnglish
      11•26 days ago

      Yes, even the author says so:

      These apps intentionally come with complicated default privacy settings that paradoxically make the user’s information more public than private.