Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?

14 May 19 - 05:35 PM (#3992405)
Subject: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: Mrrzy

I resist using apps when I can use the website. So I read papers online but do not download each paper's app. I believe (in a total absence of knowledge) that apps sends those people info on me that my just going to their website does not. Also if (I believe) the paper gets hacked the hackers have a direct route to me if I have the app, but not if I have merely visited their site.

Am I wrong?

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14 May 19 - 05:40 PM (#3992407)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: Mossback

Not wrong, and to be commended. Apps is crapps.

Nice these days to see someone who is not a mindless technoaddict.

Good on ya!

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14 May 19 - 06:04 PM (#3992424)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: Mrrzy

Thanks Mossback!

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14 May 19 - 07:45 PM (#3992442)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: Stilly River Sage

I'm assuming you're discussing apps on phones or tablets? I use some apps on my phone and Amazon Fire tablet (New York Times and Washington Post, for example). I hate all of the permissions Facebook wants with their app, so I use the browser for that one. Twitter, Instagram, they're all apps.

Mrrzy, I mentioned a event at my post office in a Mudcat thread - the building has been hit twice in two months by drivers jumping the curb. Never before in 20 years. I saw the brick mason examining the second boarded up spot and asked if he had a card. The next day I started seeing ads for finding local brick masons in Instagram and such - because the computer BROWSER I'm using tells everything, it isn't just apps. The browser is Chrome, or if I'm using another browser I'm still likely logged into Gmail on it so it still knows everything.

Make life easier, download the app. (Read the reviews first, of course, and make sure it's the authentic version.)

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15 May 19 - 02:02 AM (#3992453)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: Mr Red

Surely the App has to give an advantage over using the browser?

Otherwise why use it? Convenience is not enough for the wary. My browser homepage is a local .htm file full of links to MY favourites, set in 2 dimensions (3 if you count the various categories). Browser favourites are for occasional needs and can be edited on the hoof. And they can be read by the providers of free browsers. Chrome IS Goggle, FireFox defaults to Goggle - there is a reason for that. I can surmise but they ain'ta telling us.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, if the App is free, there is a reason. And whatever they tell you, isn't what they don't tell you. There is a reason for that!

The internet has always been full of fake news, personal agendas and covert surveillance. It just has been getting more subtle/complex as the medium matures.

Fakebook's algorithm has defaulted me to adverts of second hand cars with occasional "other" ephemera. Because, I presume, my "personna" is parked in one of the outlier categories. I have never looked at second hand cars on the internet, and wouldn't buy that way, so Up Yours Fakebook, I win.

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15 May 19 - 02:07 AM (#3992455)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: DaveRo

Main reason for using an app: often you get features not available on a website. For example The Guardian app allows me to read through today's paper serially (or did when I had it) which I like, rather than requiring me to find and select articles.

Reason for not using an app: you can avoid advertising! This also speeds it up hugely and avoids ad-borne malware (such as is currently plageing a forum I use). And you can suppress tracking to some extent - this browser blocks all Google ads for example.

On security and privacy either could be better. I trust and understand Firefox. I would trust the NYT and WashPo apps (but they probably require a subscription). I wouldn't trust some others. Secure programming requires care and effort - and a policy and procedures to ensure it. I can't imagine some publishers prioritising that.

Mostly I use a browser and reject apps.

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15 May 19 - 06:19 AM (#3992482)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: Jos

I never knowingly use or download an app (my mobile phone is texts and calls only) but whenever I try to do a restart of my laptop I get a message saying 'This app is preventing your computer from restarting' - and there seems to be no way of finding out what 'This app' is. So I just click on 'Restart anyway'.

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15 May 19 - 07:52 AM (#3992497)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: Dave the Gnome

I user apps on android devices. Provided you are sure the network is secure with decent passwords and encryption, preferably a VPN, I see them as being just as if not more secure than browsing.

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15 May 19 - 10:02 AM (#3992513)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: Mrrzy

Bbbut I read the Guardian on their site, article after serial article?

The apps keep promising me better INTERACTIONS but I don't want to interact- I want to read.

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15 May 19 - 10:17 AM (#3992514)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: Nick

In my experience they are at their heart similar.

They are programs. Even for old people like me I can see they are the same.

If they are there to steal from you then they probably will.

My experience of the internet and computers over the last 40 years is that on balance it has been a huge positive to me. You need some common sense and a reasonable attitude to risk.

A bit like life.

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15 May 19 - 10:34 AM (#3992516)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: DaveRo

Dave the Gnome wrote: Provided you are sure the network is secure with decent passwords and encryption

That may be true of the transfer of data between the app and the server. An app and the browser should use the same https mechanism. But they may not: I know what encryption standards Firefox requires (TLS versions, permitted ciphers, accepted root certificates). I don't know what, say, the Daily Mirror App uses. And it doesn't apply to the programming of the app itself. Again, I know what Firefox's Same Origin Policy is to guard agains XSS. I don't know what some random app does.

But malvertising is the major threat. If an app serves malware in its adverts, you may not be able to block it as you can in a browser where you can block tracking adverts, selected adverts, or all adverts.

Mrrzy wrote: Bbbut I read the Guardian on their site, article after serial article?

How - exactly? On its website (on this desktop), under 'Today's paper', there are two articles listed under 'Front page'. There are four in my Kindle Edition. UK News has 36, International has 14... I can read each in turn, or skip to the next. Is there some way of doing that on the website?

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16 May 19 - 12:59 PM (#3992646)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: Mrrzy

I scroll past the ones I am not reading

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16 May 19 - 03:11 PM (#3992660)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: DaveRo

Today's Guardian (Kindle Edition - similar to the print edition) comprises 121 articles, The website - "Today's Paper" - has 42. So you won't see most of it. The rest are deeper down in the site.

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17 May 19 - 10:18 AM (#3992770)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: Mrrzy

The WashPo says no today's paper without the app. Grr on Tues (health) and Weds (food) sections.

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17 May 19 - 12:57 PM (#3992790)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: DaveRo

I can get the WashPo in Firefox on my Android tablet.

I read half a dozen articles a week on the NYT and WP sites. I use Private Browsing (as Firefox calls it - Incognito in Chrome?) and have tracking protection enabled so I appear as a new reader each time.

I would pay, say, a couple of dollars a month for that, but their subscription rates are far too high for such occasional access.

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18 May 19 - 12:44 PM (#3992864)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: Mrrzy

I get the paper paper on Sundays.

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19 May 19 - 11:38 AM (#3993034)
Subject: RE: Tech: (And BS) Why app rather than website?
From: Stilly River Sage

I got the paper New York Times on Sunday so I could use the digital version, and I read that online on Sunday also. The paper version was great for layering in the garden. Now I get the digital version for a bit less than the paper subscription, and I grab other people's newspapers out of the recycle bin at the city hall.

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