I have recently started university and am required to use an app that has three Facebook trackers, one of them being a Facebook location tracker according to Exodus App Privacy, for the dining plan, when it would literally work perfectly fine using your student ID and ordering to a real cashier, LIKE HOW IT HAS BEEN DONE FOR DECADES.

I have also read many stories of people that live in apartments that require them to use a mobile app for god damn LAUNDRY. All you need, is a card reader, and it will work perfectly fine like it has been for the longest time.

Privacy concerns aside, it is just annoying that you need this app and that app and this app and that app and it just clutters space on your phone. Security concerns too as now they have all of this additional info on you online, such as your phone number your email your real name, instead of just your credit card info like a card reader would have. And I am willing to guarantee that their security model is absolute horseshit because they have such a small team of engineers working on the app and the servers.

Literal enshitification

  • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    681·
    9 months ago

    The number of business that just expect that everyone has already downloaded and installed their app has become ridiculous.

    Best Buy now demands an app be installed for order pick up. They are so sure you’ll have already done that there are no instructions in their parking lot for pick up that don’t include the app, no way to call them, and the lot employees say, “Just use the app and we’ll get your order.” It’s like the 20% tips programmed into just about every payment machine these days. No, I won’t leave you a 20% tip for handing me a receipt.

    Even when going to Best Buy’s service desk the reps looked at me like I was crazy. “No, I won’t install your app to pick up an order” was met with confusion and open irritation. Fuck that.

    And don’t get me started on ‘Reddit is better in our crappy Reddit app.’

    • Evie @lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      9 months ago

      Dude same here for the Reddit prompt ! I browse incognito without a profile just to see some headlines… and every ten minutes or if I got to a risque sub, it will stop me and ask for the app download or if I want to stay on the browser… if I wanted the app… I would have gotten it… I am on the browser for a reason…

        • Evie @lemmy.worldEnglish
          62·
          9 months ago

          Yeah… Miss boost for reddit…

          Excited it’s coming out for Lemmy though. Right now I am on liftoff and it works well though

      • royal_starfish@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        9 months ago

        Try to use “request desktop site”, stuff may be sized weirdly, but at least you don’t get that stupid pop up anymore

      • brbposting@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        When something’s flagged NSFW, you can replace the “www” with “old” (e.g. old dot reddit dot com) to bypass :)

    • Serinus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      9 months ago

      Fast food is about 30% more expensive if you refuse the app.

      Personal experience:

      Tim Hortons

      Wendy’s:

      • kungen@feddit.nuEnglish
        16·
        9 months ago

        That’s always the case in the beginning with those apps. And once they have market dominance and/or the shareholders want their ROI, they increase price and hope people still use it. See Uber for example.

      • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.eeEnglish
        41·
        9 months ago

        This is why I hope to god when I’m living in my own we never get to the point where apps become 100% required to purchase shit from a store. I’d rather starve and miss a day’s worth of meals than order off an app.

        • new_acct_who_dis@lemmy.worldEnglish
          31·
          9 months ago

          Grocery shopping and food prep is always an option. Cheaper and healthier too.

          If you have time to browse Lemmy, you got time to throw some shit in an air fryer/insta pot/slow cooker.

          • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.eeEnglish
            3·
            9 months ago

            That I can totally agree, as someone who actually enjoys cooking. If I could get my family on board, I wouldn’t mind getting their help making and freezing meals on the weekend for days when we just don’t feel like cooking or my mother’s back is bothering her or whatever.

            • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              9 months ago

              My bachelor days I’d make a tray of lasagna or a pot of beef stew and I had meals for almost 5 days. I will say that I was really sick of lasagna or beef stew by day 4 though.

    • Gestrid@lemmy.caEnglish
      6·
      9 months ago

      Weird. I can just go to the mobile Best Buy site, pull up my order from my account, and get the barcode they need to scan from there. No need for the app.

      I can do the same with the desktop site.

      • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        IMO people should not have to know a company’s policies and go through their website to make a purchase. Anyway, it would have been nice if they put that information on the sign in their pickup area, or their pickup reps or desk clerks mentioned it when I told them I didn’t have the app. Instead they made it clear that everyone should either already have the app or install it because they said so.

        Way, way too many companies and organizations (like the OP’s) are pulling this kind of crap.

    • YurkshireLad@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      I ordered online and picked up in store at best buy without their app. I showed them the email they sent with the info. No problems at all.