Native Apps Should Be Avoided Whenever Possible

No One’s Happy (via Matt Birchler): Most native apps collect far more data than their website equivalents ever could. They request permissions to hardware, sensors, and background processes that browsers deliberately restrict. The third-party software embedded in these apps frequently transmits your location, device identifiers, and behavioral data to third parties before you even see a consent prompt. This data is in tandem bought, sold, and aggregated by brokers. It has been used to out individuals, track immigrants, and enable prosecution over reproductive healthcare. Although I’ve scaled back the number of apps on my devices in an effort to de-clutter, I’ve been finding that so many apps take up space and provide few extra features over simply visiting the mobile web site. Considering that Safari Extensions such as ad blockers and other privacy tools have no effect within apps that use WebView to display content, that also means that there’s nothing to prevent you being tracked…