Re:Now Apps Can Track You Even After You Uninstall Them
by huebnerob on Monday October 22, 2018 @11:31PM
(#18280532)
Braze bundles uninstall tracking with marketing push notification campaigns. Frankly, I think it's wonderful to be able to show marketing people how their spam affects our install base.
Re:Now Apps Can Track You Even After You Uninstall Them
by mcherm on Monday October 22, 2018 @09:48AM
(#18274590)
TLDR: If you use regular push notifications (even for legitimate purposes like keeping up-to-date info in the app) then you can tell when someone uninstalls your app. If you wanted, you could then market to that person.
True, but this doesn't bother me much, and I'm usually a privacy maven.
Re:Now Apps Can Track You Even After You Uninstall Them
by B-Con on Monday October 22, 2018 @09:45PM
(#18280162)
Clickbait phrasing.
tl;dr:
1) Services can track you based on the data you've given to the app.
2) Obviously, this doesn't stop when you uninstall an app.
3) It's possible (using push notifications) to determine if users have uninstalled.
4) The service behind the app can then track you with a specific "uninstalled the app" status.
As an aside, I dislike the fact that "app" has become such a catch-all. It introduces confusing language, like in this example. The "app" didn't track you because the "app" was a client-side binary for interacting with a service. The service tracked you from the beginning.
Re:Now Apps Can Track You Even After You Uninstall Them
by B-Con on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @04:41PM
(#18296161)
The user is too focused on the app, and part of the problem is when we stop using correct phrases and start using "app" for everything.
User installed and app and agreed to use a service. User uninstalled an app.
User needs to understand that installing an app and using a service is not an implementation detail, it is a fundamental part of what they are doing. Dumbing our vocabulary down to use "app" for everything makes this education harder.
https://support.google.com/firebase/answer/6317485?hl=en
Check under the "app_remove" section.
Also, a blog post of how this was used in conjunction with Firebase functions.
https://medium.com/@tarunkakkar/detecting-app-install-frauds...
True, but this doesn't bother me much, and I'm usually a privacy maven.
tl;dr:
1) Services can track you based on the data you've given to the app.
2) Obviously, this doesn't stop when you uninstall an app.
3) It's possible (using push notifications) to determine if users have uninstalled.
4) The service behind the app can then track you with a specific "uninstalled the app" status.
As an aside, I dislike the fact that "app" has become such a catch-all. It introduces confusing language, like in this example. The "app" didn't track you because the "app" was a client-side binary for interacting with a service. The service tracked you from the beginning.
Uninstall app: said tracking continues.
From a user point of view, the technical implementation doesnt change the above equations.
User installed and app and agreed to use a service. User uninstalled an app.
User needs to understand that installing an app and using a service is not an implementation detail, it is a fundamental part of what they are doing. Dumbing our vocabulary down to use "app" for everything makes this education harder.