I hope someday we can have Friendster 2.0
Daaang....i really miss that place
this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2024
1 points (100.0% liked)
Technology
59601 readers
2940 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Remember Livejournal?
Or deadjournal? If livejournal was too mainstream, but you still had to get your emo thoughts on the internet
Deadjournal was (is?) such an excellent niche corner of the internet. I remember being young and having trouble connecting the site, totally my fault, but I sent them an email and the admins Cryo and SCSi personally helped me get it figured out. In hindsight I couldn't imagine another platform taking the time.
It may not be super active, but Insanejournal is still a thing.
Perhaps I'm just old, but picking the color of your profile is all zoomers wanted?
I mean shit, I'm not going to be happy until I can have auto-playing music on my profile.
And glitter bomb unicorn gifs
Haven't you seen how so many are crazy with discord paying options that is basically custom flashy avatar profile pages?
The kids nowadays would have their brains exploded if they saw any hi5 page with custom css.
I had to go look this up since I don't use Discord, and I think I just had my first old person moment. $10 for a freaking frame around your avatar? What in the hell?
And it blinks. And has anime effects :D
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
From noplace's FAQs:
do you collect my data?
we use your phone number as a way for you to sign up and log into the app. that's the only thing about you we collect.
we don't share your number or anything else about you with third parties like some other apps do. we want you to be able to securely log in and chat with ur friends, that's it.
Emphasis mine. Now their privacy policy:
Types of Data Collected
Personal Data While using Our Service, We may ask You to provide Us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify You. Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:
Phone number Usage Data Usage Data Usage Data is collected automatically when using the Service. Usage Data may include information such as Your Device's Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that You visit, the time and date of Your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data. When You access the Service by or through a mobile device, We may collect certain information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile device You use, Your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of Your mobile device, Your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser You use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data. We may also collect information that Your browser sends whenever You visit our Service or when You access the Service by or through a mobile device.
So, it looks like they're starting off with lies right at the top, like every other tech startup.
- Your Device's Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), - absolutely necessary for anti-ddos techniques
- browser type, browser version, - necessary for UX to build a functional website for the browsers that customers actually use
- the pages of our Service that You visit, the time and date of Your visit, the time spent on those pages, - critical for determining what is popular and what isn't to improve how the interface is designed and what parts are pulled forward and what parts are hidden in menus
- unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data. - useful for determining how often you switch devices and the performance and other experience metrics to drive making the app more user friendly
I work on web software professionally and this is a pretty minimal list that is completely justifiable for maintaining operations. If you can't answer basic questions like "what are users doing with the app?", you can't make intelligent decisions about how to improve it.
There's a lot of the same stuff here: https://legal.lemmy.world/privacy-policy/
I don't know anything about this app or company so I'm not going to defend them, but there aren't any real red flags here. If this amount of data collection bothers you, you really should stop using the internet in general.
If this amount of data collection bothers you, you really should stop using the internet in general.
I'd prefer we not surrender to mass surveillance. If we support alternatives, they remain viable.
I think you’ve missed the point. It’s not the data they are collecting but the fact they say they don’t collect data.
It's pedantic, but you are not your computer. They don't collect (according to them) PII other than phone numbers.
Not sure I agree entirely. The actions I take are definitely data about me.
Also, in many jurisdictions data that could be combined (even in the future) with other data to identify you or something about you, is considered personal data.
For example, Device ID is AstridWipenaugh’s device and they use the app in the morning.
(I don't like this kind of data collection either fwiw, not trying to defend them or anything)
On Android at least, device id's are unique per app, and reset when you reset your phone to factory. In theory they can't use this data to cross-track you personally, since every service that uses a device id has a different one for the same user.
They can probably still build up a pretty accurate profile of you based on other data they collect though.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Sorry, I kinda got lost in the sauce on my original comment, lol. My issue isn't so much with the data collection, itself. My problem is that their FAQs say things that appear to be outright lies. Not even just embellishing the truth or something, but complete falsehoods.
I don't care so much that they collect a bit of data. But if they're wiling to lie to a potential user about their data collection, I can't help but wonder what else they might be willing to be dishonest about. I already have doubts about their crypto claim in the FAQ based on their founder's history with NFTs, so I worry that this might also be something they're not being truthful about.
Yeah as someone who has worked in web development for over 20 years everything in here is completely standard. Almost every major website in existence collects this kind of analytical data.
...and that's a bad thing.
Like the comment I replied to already explained, this information is necessary to make informed development decisions. If you don't know who is using what feature you might be wasting resources on something barely anyone uses while neglecting something everyone needs.
You also need some of that data for security purposes. You can't implement rate limiting or prevent abuse if you can't log and track how your services are being interacted with.
And this is aggregate data. I can promise you not a single person cares about what any individual user is doing (assuming it's not illegal)
load more comments
(3 replies)
And just to piggyback on this comment, I'm an Android developer and we this information is critical for determining similarities for bug solving.
You would not believe how often there is a bug caused by a specific model of phone. That connection you can only know if you log that for every crash you get.
It sounds to me like the usage data is talking about the fact that every major web browser sends identifying information about the browser, device, etc. when you visit any site.
For an app, they're likely getting data from Google Play or the App Store for crashes, installs, comments, whether they like it or not.
People don't often accuse me of being an optimist.
Oh for sure, I don't doubt that. The issue that I take is that their FAQ - which I imagine is rarely actually read by users, but is definitely read more often than the ToS - is directly contradicted by their ToS. While they say they only collect one data point in the FAQ, the ToS outlines several other data points they collect. While they say they don't share your collected data with third parties, the ToS states that they may share your collected data with third parties for advertising purposes. The FAQ denies being connected to crypto schemes, despite their founder (Tiffany Zhong) and parent company being heavily involved in crypto.
While these are all standard practices for just about every web platform, it's the lies in the FAQs that should be concerning to users. If they would have just said exactly what they do with your data or what their background is in, or even just not included it in the FAQs at all, I wouldn't have any problem with it. But they're willing to openly lie to their users, and I don't think they should be trusted.
Gen Zs do. not. give. a. fuck.
Yeah, I thought about that halfway through looking through their ToS. I wish I was smart enough to figure out how to package this into a message Gen Z can actually understand and care about.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
You don’t need to share everything about you all the time. There is nuance in privacy and intimacy between close friends and family.
Until we realize that, we will continue to learn this lesson over and over until it sinks in.
These are the steps we must climb.
we? i am fairly sure most people know how to use social media without being consumed by it.
Not everyone that uses social media is making a mistake.
You can have social media and still have a private life? Just don’t share everything on social media.
noplace had already gone viral ahead of its public launch because of its feature that allows users to express themselves by customizing the colors of their profile.
Reads like a book about the future
Wow this really is idiocracy
Noplace in my life..👎🏼
Something's weird with this; I have heard absolutely nothing about this. Surely this is botted? Social media platforms don't take off like this. Regardless of if its legit or not; who is funding this? No social media platform ever makes a profit.
Pretty sure they ran a shitload of ads on tiktok using vc money before the app even released.
Instead of algorithms, noplace leverages AI technology to drive suggestions and curation.
Instead of algorithms, noplace leverages algorithms to drive suggestions and curation
Most bullshit take I have ever seen. You can't replace a recommendation algorithm with AI, since its basically the same.
Not basically, most (current) recommendation systems are AI/ML based. Any big platform is using AI/ML recommendation algorithms.
load more comments
(2 replies)
So disruptive!
load more comments
(4 replies)
the App Store description and screenshots have a very heavy fellow kids vibe.
IOS only of course. Pack it up, nothing to see here. This is another clubhouse.
Do people who don't have to buy their own hardware yet even use Android?
Absolutely. Android devices are dirt cheap, and ubiquitous in most of the world. It's an obvious choice for many based on that alone. There's also lots of families that aren't in Apple's ecosystem.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I presume this is botted but this is another thing that makes me want a more modern federated MySpace.
I think that's what Diaspora is trying to be. I've not heard much from that project recently, though, so I have no clue if there's any activity on that platform anymore.
Gotta love how all the images in this article are straight from the noplace media kit (link to google docs in footer).
view more: next ›