‘The tyranny of apps’: those without smartphones are unfairly penalised, say campaigners

www.theguardian.com

Ask Android @lemdro.id

ladfrombrad 🇬🇧 @lemdro.id

4mo ago

‘The tyranny of apps’: those without smartphones are unfairly penalised, say campaigners

www.theguardian.com /money/2025/feb/22/the-tyranny-of-apps-those-without-smartphones-are-unfairly-penalised-say-campaigners

Technology @lemmy.world

nahostdeutschland @feddit.org

4mo ago

‘The tyranny of apps’: those without smartphones are unfairly penalised, say campaigners

www.theguardian.com /money/2025/feb/22/the-tyranny-of-apps-those-without-smartphones-are-unfairly-penalised-say-campaigners

14 comments

You basically can't study in a College or a University in Canada if you dont have a cell phone or refuse to install Microsoft crap on it. What a stupid world.
- Denmark has this problem too. There are some university resources that are unreachable to students who cannot do an SMS 2FA verification.
  
  It's actually really discriminatory, on top of forcing student to give their personal data to MS.
I dunno. I don't have a smart phone, and I suppose I'm "missing out" on some of those deals, but I ain't worried about it. I don't want to be advertised at and tracked everywhere, but doing without is not a hardship. For the most part, the places that have apps and smartphone-only discounts and membership advantages and all are exactly the kind of places I don't want to go anyway.
I walk around with my head up, instead of scrolling through whatever y'all are scrolling through all the time. Got me a laptop at home, and a debit card and fifty bucks in my wallet. No complaints.
- The point is also in which direction do you think this will move? More app dependency or less? There'll be a point in time where cash won't be allowed and payments are by QR code bank transfer. Some parts of the world have places that completely excluded cash transactions. Once people can't buy basic goods without an app it'll be too late to start caring about app-led population exclusion.
  
  I hope societies don't go cashless. Power outages, website crashes and glitches, not to mention other things.
  
  All this is true. Having tech like this as more and more a requirement is scary, totalitarian sci-fi stuff, and it would be a truly serious problem if there was a future.
  
  Indeed it needs to be fought.
  I’m with @DougHolland@lemmy.world in that I oppose surviellance advertising anyway, so if the loyalty tracking were taking place without a special app (e.g. scanning a bar code from plastic/paper), I would still not register.
  how to hit back (when there is a smartphone-free loyalty program)
  In some cases we can do better than Doug. E.g. grab a paper loyalty application form (if they are available), scan the barcode or QR code, return the blank form to the top of the pile. Someone else will activate that bar code with their personal details later. You can regenerate the barcode, store it on your phone (which need not be subscribed to GSM service), or print it on paper, and use the barcode for discounts (& pay cash of course). You obviously corrupt their surveillance advertising DB and also get the discounts.
  Win-win for me. But I guess it’s questionable to what extent the DB is being corrupted. My own purchases are still aggregated together which supports advertising. OTOH, it’s all aggregated to a different person, which to some extent corrupts the info. It’s unclear if this is overall more or less harmful to advertising.
  how to hit back (when a loyalty program is smartphone-only)
  Ideas? Perhaps we could create a barcode-sharing platform whereby some people take a hit for the team and register, then share their barcode for others. The volunteer would at least gain the benefit of their data being littered with data of other people.

14 comments

how to hit back (when there is a smartphone-free loyalty program)

how to hit back (when a loyalty program is smartphone-only)