By not trimming the fat, app stores are complacent in dodgy data dealing.
Technically-minded folk know that Weather apps shouldn’t be selling our device info or even asking for it in the first place… but isn’t it time that the distributors took some responsibility too?
Say it with me: there are too many apps. At a time when there’s more concern than ever about our privacy, our phones spying on us, and Weather apps selling our location data, I find it mind-boggling that there are still so many apps out there focused entirely on menial, singular tasks. Tasks that a web browser or quick search could (and should) handle instead.
For example, iPad OS still doesn’t have its own Calculator app, so most people feel the need to download third-party calculator apps like “The Calculator” and “Calculator Pro” from the App Store— both of which have adverts as standard and in-app purchases for a ‘full’ version. And it doesn’t need repeating that these ‘simple’ apps typically also ask for way more permissions than they need — an issue that’s particularly bad on Android. “Auto Chess”, for example, a simple chess game, asks users for permission to make and manage… phone calls. It’s not explained why this is the case. Even more criminal, the “Middle Finger…
