I have recently started university 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, for the dining plan, when it would literally work perfectly fine using your student ID and ordering to a real cashier, LIKE HOW IT HAS BEEN DONE FOR DECADES.
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
Reminds me of the episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia where they pick up people in the “Paddy’s Wagon” and Dennis forces them to use a painfully overblown app just to buy a couple of beers. It seems to have cooled off a bit but the rush for every little business to have its own app reminds me how every pizzeria and dry cleaner felt the need to have a website and social media presence.
I have 3 goddamn parking apps I have to keep on my phone, each with its own account, just so I can park in various cities when I travel. I’m sure my data is 100% secure too…
The final episode of the latest season goes harder on this issue. This time the turns have tabled though.
no physical park meters in the streets?? can they even enforce parking fees then? like, I understand private companies doing such bullshit, but not public entities
Wait until you find out that some cities sold or leased parking rights to private companies.
that’s some backwards-ass capitalist dystopia, even if you account for car-centrism