this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024
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Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 75 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A privacy policy can be “we don’t collect your data.”

[–] nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca 8 points 3 months ago

....is it, though?

[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 47 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Crash reporting, probably.

Tap for spoilerThey gonna rat you out to the feds if you divide by zero.

[–] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 11 points 3 months ago

Feds/0

Checkmate, atheists

[–] Uli@sopuli.xyz 36 points 3 months ago

It's got your number.

[–] original_reader@lemm.ee 22 points 3 months ago

My recommendation: get rid of that app and go for a zero-tracker one:

Calc You

... or any other great FOSS calculator out there.

[–] unrushed233@lemmings.world 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Because it's Google's proprietary garbage app. Use FOSS alternatives from F-Droid instead.

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I'd rather have a Foss project with a simple privacy policy that clearly says they store nothing than one that has no policy at all

[–] unrushed233@lemmings.world 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A privacy policy is only legally required when you actually collect user data. Most devs don't write a privacy policy for no reason, so seeing one can often be suspicious. Btw if you are worried about a FOSS app tracking you without disclosing it in their privacy policy, if this is the case, F-Droid would display it under the Anti-features section.

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 1 points 3 months ago

Its a good practice to have a policy, even if its not legally required

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 months ago

Privacy policies are BS anyway. Better to just not have an app that depends on a server or entity.

[–] JayK117@aussie.zone 12 points 3 months ago

Because someone wants to know if you use the calculator to spell boobies (8008135)

[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I work for a company that requires everything to have a privacy policy that meets some minimums. We're technically not supposed to even use Google websearch because putting any question into it potentially sends company information into the world and out of our control. That one's not really enforced, thank goodness.

Without a privacy policy, I guess the calculator app could scrape the numbers you're entering, plus, idk an email and a OneNote entry for context, to reverse engineer the latest doodad we've been designing.

It's difficult to imagine what numbers from the calculator alone could be used for, but combine it with other information and you've got a problem.

[–] unfnknblvbl 1 points 3 months ago

Is day today having a privacy policy implies that the app is in fact being used for data collection. However, it appears to point to the general Google privacy policy...

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 9 points 3 months ago

Who knows, maybe they're required by Google to provide a privacy policy, like xscreensaver was

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 5 points 3 months ago

Use the one that comes with Lineage OS. Alternatively you could use one off of F-droid

[–] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Because Google Calculator collects everything, just like any other Google app (except for Pixel Launcher probably).

[–] JillyB 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I just checked mine and it has no permissions. How is it collecting everything?

[–] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago

It collects its own part (logs and probably even the calculation history).

I use opencalc, stick to FOSS software as much as humanly possible.