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
I opened a bank account at Bank of America. Apparently it was just a matter of course to make people install the BOA app before opening an account. I practically had to fist fight them to get them to drop it. It was like they got commissions for every app install or something. Scary, honestly.
At least I learned from the experience that “I actually don’t have the Play Store on my phone” isn’t a good way to get them to drop it. I guess next time I get hard sold on an app, I’ll go the “I’ll decline the app, thanks” route. We’ll see whether that works or not.
I wonder if “oh I’m using some Nokia dumb phone” would have gotten them to stop
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.
What about “hello I’m your customer and I’m not installing your app.” End of argument.
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.
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.
Not surprised; BOA is the fucking Taco Bell of banking. The only one worse that I can think of is Wells Fargo.