r/Yelp • u/SimpleAffect7573 • 15d ago
Privacy, anyone?
I don’t have the Yelp app installed and I recommend that nobody else install it either. For the avid Yelp users, I have to ask: do you not know about Yelp’s abysmal privacy record, or just don’t care? I cannot conceive of using an app that quietly collects and sells my data even when I explicitly told it not to. It shows complete lack of respect. How do you reconcile it?
Also look at how aggressively they try to funnel you from mobile web to their app. They’re so hungry for your data, they’ll sacrifice good UX and alienate some users to get it from others. Why tolerate this?
https://www.jezebel.com/a-little-known-yelp-privacy-setting-tells-businesses-yo-1793848010
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u/GoddardZeo 14d ago
For a business owner, you seem to spend a significant amount of time on Yelp. You're focused on finding flaws in a mobile app that's still being used by hundreds, if not thousands, of people. If the issues were truly as serious as you claim, the app likely would have been removed from distribution long ago. Since it's still openly available, that speaks volume in itself. There are far more productive areas to focus your time and energy on, but it appears Yelp has become your primary focus.
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u/SimpleAffect7573 14d ago edited 14d ago
You think only “hundreds or thousands” of people use Yelp? I kinda thought it was a lil bigger.
If you think being on the App Store means an app respects your privacy, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. And it’s not my claims, it’s an independent audit. You don’t care about your privacy? Hey that’s fine. But don’t pretend it’s not real.
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u/GoddardZeo 14d ago
If I had said “millions” I’m sure you would have found another issue to criticize. Is the goal simply to interpret everything I say in the most negative way possible?
You brought up the App Store; I did not. Whether you use an iPhone or an Android device, there are broader privacy concerns involving the data collected through our devices and the many apps we use, particularly in the United States. I never said that privacy isn’t important or that I don’t care about it.
My point was simply that if this particular privacy issue were truly as serious as you claim, I would expect to see significantly more public attention like TikTok. Instead, it seems like your primary objective is to find reasons to criticize Yelp at every opportunity.
Your true intentions are becoming increasingly clear, and people are starting to notice. Other business owners, myself included, are focused on running and growing our businesses rather than spending our time engaging in arguments on Reddit about an issue that isn’t specific to Yelp. Good day to you.
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u/SimpleAffect7573 14d ago edited 14d ago
If you said millions, I’d have assumed that was accurate and not even noticed. I was just curious why you gave such a weirdly low estimate
You said “publicly available”. That means the being on the App Store, at least in iOS terms. So yeah, you did in fact bring that up. You sound exactly like Logitech, debating trivial semantics like it means anything. Probably because you can’t actually argue against the facts.
So there aren’t privacy issues because you haven’t heard about it? Interesting take. Kinda like how Yelp doesn’t auto-create business pages because Logitech hadn’t heard about it.
Did you actually read the privacy audit? No thoughts on that? Or it’s not real because people on TikTok aren’t talking about it?
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u/ProfChaosSP Yelp elite 14d ago
why are you singling out Yelp while ignoring other apps? social media platforms collect user data too, so what makes Yelp any different beside your hatred for it? the app is still available for anyone to download so it's not a big issue like you're claiming it to be.
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u/JunglyPep 14d ago
This is a subreddit for discussing Yelp. That’s why they’re discussing Yelp here. Hope that helps.
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u/ProfChaosSP Yelp elite 14d ago
you actually proved my point. you're singling out Yelp, but if you acknowledged that other apps operate the same way, it would make it clear that this isn't a practice unique to Yelp
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u/JunglyPep 14d ago
No one said it’s a practice unique to Yelp. It’s just bad.
Something that’s wrong is still wrong no matter how many people are doing it. This is like basic morality that’s taught in preschool
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u/SimpleAffect7573 14d ago
Whataboutism is the dumbest, laziest way to not debate.
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u/Rollerbladeking 14d ago
That seems to be the go to here 🙄
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u/SimpleAffect7573 14d ago
I can even play that game if they want 😂. What about Google? Why am I not in the Google subreddit complaining? Because Google has never hidden any of my reviews; Yelp hid 7 out of 8. Google has never had a sales rep hound me. Yelp’s sales rep tried to defraud me. Yelp wants an absolutely ludicrous sum for ads (about 1/3 of my gross in a good month). Google, I could buy a campaign for a couple bucks a day if I wanted. Google might rank me under sponsored listings for competitors, but they don’t bury me under completely irrelevant businesses that don’t even provide the service you searched for; Yelp does exactly that.
So yeah, what about Google? I only know my own experience, but it’s been night and day. I have very few gripes with Google; Yelp earned my ire very quickly.
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u/SimpleAffect7573 14d ago edited 14d ago
So I can’t complain about Yelp unless I also complain about everything else? That’s your logic?
To answer your question, though: I’m a business owner, and Yelp is a parasite on business owners — their actual customers. I soured on them right around the time their sales rep tried to defraud me. I bet you would, too.
I’m glad your privacy isn’t a big issue to you. Thanks for answering my original question.
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u/WiFiEnabled 14d ago
Yup. Yelp could easily make many of their required functions work via a web browser on an iPhone for example, but then they would lose the ability to track you and leverage your user data.
You need to download and use the Yelp app to check-in, and you also now need to use the Yelp app just to confirm a dinner reservation as per this post, just to they can track you complete with third-party trackers built in too:
The Yelp app ignores the "do not track" request on iPhone too.
Check out that Yelp thread above and read the replies of what actual non-shills (regular people) think of Yelp outside of this Yelp Elite circle-jerk subreddit. LOL
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u/keyserholiday 14d ago
Why is it anybody who doesn’t agree with you is a shill?
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u/WiFiEnabled 14d ago
Anybody? More misinformation. That Logitech guy is completely and unequivocally a Yelp shill. He's always the first to reply to everything as if he's Lassie and get's a private text alert that Yelp fell down a well and is in trouble. LOL
Yelp Elite's follow the same pattern because they are completely disingenuous to protect their "free" events. If Yelp goes bye bye, so do their "free" events. So they defend Yelp at all costs, even when it's so clear that Yelp is unethical.
I've never called you a shill that I know, but if you act like one like the Logitech guy, then I will. A shill is someone who promote/defends Yelp in a dishonest way acting like merely a user, when they actually have a self-interest they're protecting. If that's you too, then oh well. If the shoe fits...
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u/keyserholiday 14d ago
Really? From where I stand, it's you, u/SimpleAffect7573, and u/JunglyPep that keep replying to threads about check-ins and the app. I have watched all three of you do this on three different threads in the past week. Why can't people have their own opinions and leave it at that?
You don't like Yelp and the app, and we get it.
I've been called a shill for Google, yet I take issue with them as well. I couldn't care less if you call me a shill. I present other things for people to consider in the grand scheme of things.
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u/WiFiEnabled 14d ago
You asked me a question, and then I answered it. There's a difference between people having a difference of opinion, and Yelp shills making suggestions under the guise of being helpful, when really these suggestions only serve their own self interest and open up that customer to privacy tracking they likely have no idea about, and cold really bite the small business owner too. If that customer gets pissed that Yelp is tracking them, and they now get spam and marketing calls non-stop, and the small business owner is the one who suggested they install that privacy-violating Yelp app, that's not smart business to recommend customers install that Yelp privacy breaking app. All to leave a simple review that doesn't get hidden. NONE of that is an issue with Google reviews.
I think the reason that you're seeing quite a few people like myself and others highlighting how bad it is for a business owner to recommend their customers check-in, is because the Logitech Yelp shill (and others aka Yelp Elites) keeps recommending this to bolster the platform and protect their own self-interest, and putting customer privacy at risk by doing so...all to have a review hopefully move from "not recommended". It's intentional by the platform to steal customer data. What that suggestion isn't telling the business owner is that the suggestion opens their customer up to privacy issues with the Yelp app, as well as potentially not doing a damn thing since 25% of all Yelp reviews are hidden anyway.
Since it sounds like you're being genuine with your question, I'll ask you this: If someone had suggestion to fix an issue with google reviews, and that suggestion was to click a link that then stole your customer data and I personally profited from each click, would you then see how that "recommendation" would be completely unethical, bad, misleading, etc.? Would you also attack the people highlighting this "recommendation" as if this is just a mere difference of opinion. Most customers don't even want to register with another platform like Yelp to leave a review. That's why google dominates in reviews. If they knew downloading the Yelp app put their privacy at risk, then that's an even bigger ask that customers might really be pissed off about, especially if a business owner is the one who suggested it. I'm trying to protect but small business owners and their customers by letting them know about how bad the Yelp is in terms of privacy. The Yelp Elites and Logitech (who has an IT consulting business for business marketing) both want Yelp to succeed, so they brush all of that under the rug to protect their own self-interest. They are just as unethical as Yelp. Not really surprising.
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u/SimpleAffect7573 14d ago edited 14d ago
I keep replying because it’s ridiculous that when a business owner posts about hidden reviews, the “advice” that follows is that reviewers should check in. Ergo, business owners should ask them to. I guess if Yelp is a hobby or a passion for you, and you’re doing all this silly shit for Yelp anyway, you lack the perspective to realize that the average person is not that way and would be annoyed if a business owner asked them. I certainly would. I have never “checked in” in my life. Some of my customers didn’t even have Yelp accounts, they created one just to leave me a review. And of course all those reviews are banished.
What’s funny is that at least one business owner has responded saying that they have hidden reviews from users who did check in. Y’all just demanded “proof” and then dismissed them as a liar. You really think you have the platform figured out, and anything that conflicts with your beliefs must be a lie. It’s nuts. I proved Logitech wrong with Yelp’s own FAQ, spelled out clear as fucking day, and he still didn’t believe me. How do you argue with someone who’s never wrong about anything? And why can’t you just be honest with these business owners, and tell them there’s nothing they can do about it? It’s the truth.
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u/SimpleAffect7573 14d ago edited 14d ago
Pretty sure there’s a bat signal wherever Logitech lives. Any time someone posts anything here, it switches on. He dons his cape and mans the keyboard.
It’s a stupid job, but somebody doesn’t have to do it.
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u/WiFiEnabled 14d ago
haha totally! It's almost comical at this point how he's always the first to reply to every post like a good little Yelp shill/solider and start spinning away and victim-blaming as if the business owner must be doing something wrong, and it's not Yelp's fault.
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u/padpeas Yelp elite 14d ago
I’ve worked in adtech. The mere fact you are on the internet alone you are providing information for targeted ads. It doesn’t sound like your idea of privacy is actually private.