The Fantasy of Opting Out
This article talks about the cost of opting out, but doesn&#x27;t go into some of the more insidious ways in which companies have made it harder and harder to do so. I recently opened the Downloads app on my new Mi phone only to find a notice asking me to grant authorization to Xiami to &quot;... collect, process and use [my] personal data&quot; in order to use the app[1]. Why does a basic <i>downloads</i> app need to gather and analyze my personal data? Why can&#x27;t I use a version of the app that doesn&#x27;t collect that data, and why is the agreement framed almost as a carte blanche for Xiaomi to collect personal data? I can see that the downloads app is running in the background, because it sends me notifications every now and then about recent downloads, which was what prompted me to open the app in the first place as I wanted to disable those on the app level. Now there&#x27;s an app on my phone that&#x27;s constantly running in the background whose behaviour I <i>cannot</i> control except by blocking all permissions and internet access unless I decide to give Xiaomi the keys to my data. I won&#x27;t even go into the &quot;Security&quot; app that comes pre-installed that cannot be removed and has permissions to record audio granted by default!<p>Similarly, Gitlab recently prevented people from logging in and even deleting their own repos unless they agreed to data collection[2]. They had the feature to &quot;opt-out&quot; by setting DNT on your browser - but only if you granted them permission to collect data first. They did turn that feature back, but only after widespread criticism from all quarters. I might just be cynical, but I think we might see more and more companies use basic features as Trojan horses for data collection that is <i>unnecessary</i> to the functioning of those basic features themselves, with options to &quot;opt-out&quot; as cover and PR.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;yxokdzY.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;yxokdzY.jpg</a>
[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;programming&#x2F;comments&#x2F;dm72oa&#x2F;gitlab_mandating_thirdparty_telemetry_locks_out&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;programming&#x2F;comments&#x2F;dm72oa&#x2F;gitlab_...</a>