A Boring Dystopia

You recently calculated 34*5+1. Do you want to buy a new washing machine?

It's because of the log function

Something about this just doesn't add up.

"Continue to use of all the numbers you love!*

Starting August 1st, numbers 9, 7 3, 2 and 0 will only be available to members subscribed to our premium Calc+ tier.

Please don't log my calculator inputs it's more embarrassing than my browser history is.

I can’t even imagine what data there is to collect for an application this simple.

That privacy policy better be really short.

On the bright side, a simple calculator ought to have plenty of free and open source alternatives that don’t harvest any data.

Using our implementation of Microsoft recall, we can see that you're calculating the price for your online purchase of Samsung AiPro Washing machine. We can see you can't afford it, but don't worry! We've applied a 10% coupon to your purchase so it'd be a bit cheaper for you!

Still not good enough? Try our Ai powered financing application!

My calc app also has its privacy policy there. It says

OpenCalc does not collect any user data.

"=" [locked] Infix subscription required

...

"base ten" [locked] subscription required, reverting to octal

They want to monetize any proofs you find.

Now get to work crunching numbers.

Seems like everyone is going out of their way to tell us how much they "value" our privacy. The value they place on it wouldnt even get a burp from an atm machine

GrapheneOS + network permission toggle
Or just use a FOSS app from F-Droid

It's possibly compliance. I know google requires you to have a privacy policy to even publish an app, no matter what.

In fairness, I've had to write a privacy policy due to store restrictions. It boiled down to "everything stays on your phone. I don't collect your data, I don't want your data, I don't even have a backend server that could be collecting your data. If you find my app sending telemetry of any kind, please tell me immediately because that should not be happening"

That being said, this doesn't exactly inspire confidence

80085

A car is parked at the far end of the street. Hidden by the shadow of an old elm, and a reflection of the blue sky on the windshield, an agent patiently writes out his notes:

8:15 am A leaves house on foot 8:17 am B arrives driving and parks car (license plate: GYX 455), walks away 8:40 am B arrives, enters house 9:20 am A arrives on foot, leaves in car

This is called a stakeout. A form of surveillance.

IT folks will also recognize this as analytics data. You can almost see the json: timestamp, event name, metadata

As analytics data gets tagged to individuals, it becomes targeted surveillance.

Regular analytics is like a surveillance camera: you just see each person in a snapshot, all in the same place. You’re seeing the story of the place. Like a 7-Eleven, tracking when its customers come to decide when to make the coffee.

But modern analytics is more and more all the events about a person or cluster of people. That’s a lot more like the FBI following Hemingway, keeping a log of all his activities to build a profile.

I've published a simillar app to the play store (a calculator for keeping track of your stats in a game) and it got denied because it had no privacy policy, and I had to add one. Maybe that's why they need to include it?

If you type in 867-5309, Jenny will call you back!

Why didn't every privacy concerned people switched to foss already?

Gotta love that internet access is implicitly provided in Android now /s