Tsobaphomet t1_jb55m97 wrote
I never really understood the fear of data collection. You can google a random name and you will be able to see that person's current address, past addresses, their phone number, their children's names, their children's phone numbers, their parent's names/numbers/addresses, grandparents, neighbors, etc, who they have voted for, what they do for a living, the store they work at, their social media accounts, every picture they have taken over the past 15 years, the school they graduated from, their friends from highschool, a random picture of them smiling on google images, and so much more.
I'm not even making that up. Half of it is just one google search away, the rest would take digging, but seriously, we do not have the privacy people are so desperate to defend. So what if an app like facebook uses the information they gather to serve you targeted ads.
If you say the words "Kraft Macaroni" outloud, your phone will hear it and start showing you ads for Kraft Macaroni. Since I've just typed "Kraft Macaroni" three times, I will most likely start getting ads for it within the next 2 days.
Long story short, banning a fun app doesn't fix anything, it just makes people a little more miserable than they should be.
pickles55 t1_jbbppjd wrote
They're talking about banning it from state owned devices. Your app doesn't just know what you ate for lunch, it knows everywhere you go and it collects information about the networks it's connected to. Depending on the permissions (social media apps ask for basically everything possible) they can store your camera roll, text messages, emails, even some passwords if you're not careful. For most people the worst they could fear from that would be identity theft, maybe blackmail. If that's on a state owned ipad they could get all kinds of sensitive information. Most of the people who get recruited to do espionage are not James bond types, they're janitors and receptionists. All a bad actor needs is a way to get into the network and they can wreak all kinds of havoc or spy undetected for months. It seems like this issue is being used for culture war but there is a real problem.
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