Ah, yeah, that’s true, but the point is that you should be respected by default (even if they just asked yes or no). It’s on by default, turns back on almost every update, and some level is on at all times (mandatory).
It should be off by default, rather than on by default, so you can choose to have it, and we don't accidentally go to prison for going to a doctor who was legal to visit last week and forgetting to alter one of a million privacy settings on one of fifty devices.
Even if it shows being turned off you can't be sure it really is. And yeah they have a tendency to secretly turn malicious features on with little updates. One would really be naive to believe them after their past bad behaviour. It is just another step in slowly boiling the frog to death. Maybe it will be off by default only for as long as people get used to it and normalise it and then, next step turn it on again, more quietly of course.
Even if it shows being turned off you can't be sure it really is. And yeah they have a tendency to secretly turn malicious features on with little updates. One would really be naive to believe them after their past bad behaviour. It is just another step in slowly boiling the frog to death. Maybe it will be off by default only for as long as people get used to it and normalise it and then, next step turn it on again, more quietly of course.
Also, if they were behind a configuration option and defaulted to on, most people would be fine turning it off and forgetting about it.
This seems to be about lack of control. It's good for developers to think carefully before they ship products that do things with no way of being told not to.
EDIT: Welp. Apparently these settings exist.
I don't understand the point of the blog post then. Why is it so upsetting, if you have the ability to turn it off?
Exactly, even if it shows being turned off you can't be sure it really is. And yeah they have a tendency to secretly turn malicious features on with little updates. One would really be naive to believe them after their past bad behaviour. It is just another step in slowly boiling the frog to death. Maybe it will be off by default only for as long as people get used to it and normalise it and then, next step turn it on again, more quietly of course.
Why would you not default to off and let users make a conscious decision, especially if they had turned it off previously? Because this sounds like making excuses to be honest and the usefulness is irrelevant if I do not like to share data.
I’m not sure what you’re getting at, but these are privacy settings that people choose, and they shouldn’t be constantly worrying if an update will violate their privacy.
The default setting should be to respect the privacy of the user first. Since they know most users will blindly go with the default, it's an asshole play.
More accurately, it's set as default and requires a user changing their region to turn it off. Still not great for freedom of information, but not quite as bad as mandatory.
It's on by default, but literally the first thing we ask you, actively, is about giving us feedback and let you turn it off right then. It's not remotely hidden.
I totally understand, though about trust. We've been asking users for feedback for 20+ years, I hope we've shown ourselves to be good actors!
Also an explicit action. Look, most people don’t know anything about computers. If it says use recommended settings, they will go for it. Even an explanatory first-install screen with “consent” is just jumbo jumbo to regular folks. It’s not comparable to installing custom software or enabling a feature from the settings. It’s incredibly irresponsible.
Even so, such invasive features need to renew consent and/or periodically alert users. The risks with someone else enabling them to spy are too high.
Why isn't it off by default! We always get mad at all these companies invading our privacy by default, or why aren't we notified and given the chance to turn it off from the start.
Still, i shouldn't have to do either - neither liking sh*t i don't really dig, nor having to turn off some setting because somebody thought it is acceptable to just change the default behavior...
Also, i don't want to give them _even more_ data about me, even if that is an uphill struggle, more and more seeming sisyphus-like...
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