GDPR and Apps

Posted by TekMol on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @03:20AM
from the self-post dept.

I got a ton of emails these days from websites I use. They seem to be panicking to violate the GDPR. Seemingly they tried to comply by sending out emails which is probably complete nonsense.

Anyhow, what I find strange is that I got zero of these emails/messages regarding the apps I use. I'm sure apps are covered by the GDPR just like websites.

Why didn't the authors of apps take similar steps? They probably cannot email me because they do not have my email. But couldn't they pop up a dialog or remove their app from the app store or block european users just like some websites did? Why do app authors behave so different?

Or is it because apps are not phoning home so much / don't have as many embedded 3rd party code that phones home to 3rd parties?

( 2 comments | 3 points | on HN )

Re:GDPR and Apps by roptat on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @03:51AM (#17185871)

Same here, only one app, Anki, took the time to inform me they had changed their privacy policy (although they didn't block my account before I accepted the changes).

I don't think they have less trackers. I think it's even easier to unintentionnaly add a tracker to an app because some of them come with dependencies when you're not careful. See https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/reports/ for some reports on what tracker typical apps use.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:GDPR and Apps by olivierduval on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @08:46AM (#17187208)

I think it's because it's harder to update an app... and publisher don't really care: they see apps limited to the phone even when they display ads... Moreover, mobile ads publisher may not have already updated their sdk. Deleting the apps from the appstore wouldn't be a real solution since the datas are already out of the phone... So, basically, it seems to me that phone apps are less GDPR compliant, that's all

[ Parent | on HN ]