• AdequateSteve@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    1 year ago

    They can serve you ads just fine on mobile web, that’s not it. It’s that the app let’s them track your behavior far better than the web browser.

    • Preston Maness ☭@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      They can serve you ads just fine on mobile web, that’s not it. It’s that the app let’s them track your behavior far better than the web browser.

      It’s both. Firefox for Android lets you run uBlockOrigin, effectively killing the ads.

    • kadu@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      That would also explain why the fuck the native Reddit app uses 8x the mobile data than any other third party app I’ve ever tried, browsing the same content with the same usage pattern.

      • pachrist@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        I run a DNS based ad and tracking blocker on my home network (similar to Pihole) through my router, and it’s amazing what apps are totally incapable of running with those restrictions in place. Amazon’s app doesn’t work, neither does Wells Fargo. Apps that do this are absolutely predatory and need to be regulated. They harvest my data in shady, insecure, annoying, obtrusive ways, and if they or their customer’s mishandle it, I have essentially no recourse, except for maybe a $0.32 payout as part of a class action lawsuit.

        Would I have given my data to Cambridge Analytica? No. Did Facebook? Yes. Was it mishandled? Totally. What recompense will I get from it? Nothing! Will it happen again? Absolutely.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      You know what’s most fucked up about all of these types of practices? It’s that they had something great and have deliberately slowly destroyed it because of unchecked greed. Same with Facebook. They had a site so great that like 60% of the people on the entire planet signed up. They’ve been making money. Reddit and Facebook make millions of dollars a month. But it’s not enough for them. Nooo. They have to make billions. They have to make enough money to buy governments and amass as much power as small nations. The men running these companies are soulless. They try to fill the hole in their hearts with money, but it will never be enough. They’ve taken something that was amazing, something that benefitted billions of people, and destroyed it to serve their own selfish greed.