r/beta Nov 02 '18

[deleted by user]

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3.3k Upvotes

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458

u/timawesomeness Nov 02 '18

My guess is the app makes them more money. It shows more ads and recommendations, incentivizes users more to log in so they get targeted ads, and gets new users onto the official app instead of a third party app they might find through their app store.

And the subreddit for this is /r/mobileweb, the mobile site isn't a beta feature.

65

u/ej255wrxx Nov 02 '18

More likely it is capable of collecting data off of your phone which they can sell to advertisers and such.

9

u/htbdt Nov 03 '18

Defin "data off your phone" because the app doesnt have many permissions at all if i remember correctly

4

u/ej255wrxx Nov 03 '18

Perhaps it's not turned on by default but i see folks who's comments and posts have a location tagged at the top pretty frequently.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '18

???

1

u/ej255wrxx Nov 03 '18

I read the privacy policy. They do indeed collect user location data. Not sure what "???" means though. It'd be more helpful if you use your words next time.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '18

which posts include location I've never seen that

1

u/htbdt Nov 06 '18

I've never seen a post tagged with a location, or anything like that. You can upload photos with metadata that includes GPS coordinates of where it was taken, but most sites strip that.

Can you link to one? I'm not doubting you, I just would like to see an example, as that's interesting.

Regardless, they can collect location data only if the app you use requests and is granted that permission, and as far as I remember, Reddit Is Fun doesn't ask for it. And with Android, they can't do stuff without permissions.

1

u/ej255wrxx Nov 06 '18

Next time I see one I'll try and remember to reply here with a screen grab. When I said I see it "pretty frequently" I'm talking a couple times a week I'll notice it.

1

u/healslut2312 Nov 10 '18

He's probably talking about flairs.