HN

Comments (105)

• Menu

  john_strinlai
  >This thing also has a "Text the President" button that auto-fills your message with "Greatest President Ever!" and then collects your name and phone number.when is the onion going to go bankrupt? it has to be soon, i imagine. no way it can compete with reality at this point.(the rest of the article is a bit too depressing for me to comment on at the moment, other than saying "wow, gross")
• Menu

  saadn92
  The closing point is the one that should get more attention — every single one of these apps could be replaced by a web page. And from a product standpoint, there's really only one reason to ship a native app when your content is just press releases and weather alerts: you want access to APIs the browser won't give you. Background location, biometrics, device identity, boot triggers — none of that is available through a browser, and that's by, unfortunately, design.
• Menu

  joshstrange
  Do these posts just get upvoted due to the graphics/animations? I find this site incredibly difficult to read with things re-playing as you scroll up and down and the articles I've read from here are often light on details. The graphics seem very AI-generated (overlapping text and other little issues) which makes me think the whole thing is from an LLM.While this post does have some interesting information, I have to wade through distracting animations that seem "off" which makes me questions all of it.
• bluepeter
  Relatedly, I just registered for PACER to download court documents. It's pretty shocking that to get public legal documents the US Federal Court system requires full name, birthdate, address, phone, email, credit card info... and I THINK (it's past the initial registration page so can't confirm 100%) also mother's maiden name and 2 common security questions. Just a treasure-trove of PII if it ever falls into the wrong hands. (What's esp frustrating is even after going through this, I had to call a number and wait on hold for 1 hour to activate the account.)
• pickleglitch
  I'm old enough to remember when people actually took the Hatch Act seriously.
• h4kunamata
  Ahhhh the USA, we can do anything, but others cannot!The duality of the Statunitians politician.Folks kept saying Apple protect your data and what not, now folks have their entire phone scanned by Apple unless they prove they are adults by sending personal documents which are being breached left and right.Deserved!!!!
• Menu

  drnick1
  You could not pay me to use any of these apps. All of my own devices run some form of Linux (Debian for servers, Arch for desktop/laptop, GrapheneOS on phone). I generally refuse to use non-free software, the main exception being Steam on a dedicated gaming rig.I really don't understand why everything has to be an "app." My phone only has a handful of apps, including two web browsers, through which other things are accessed. No app gets access to location, sensors, the camera, or the microphone.
• CobrastanJorji
  Most of this is bad, but I think it's reasonable for the FEMA app, whose purpose is to help you get to the nearest shelters, to have access to your location.
• anon
  undefined
• ethagnawl
  The names of the offending apps on the cards need much more emphasis.
• cdrnsf
  Don't install these apps unless you absolutely have to. If you absolutely have to install them, uninstall them as soon as you're done using them.
• Menu

  maest
  FYI, regardless of election outcome, the next government is highly unlikely to roll this back
• mmethodz
  Which government?
• thomastjeffery
  Title is missing the number 13, which makes it much harder to parse. Should be "Fedware: 13 Government Apps That Spy Harder Than the Apps They Ban"
• Menu

  fhdkweig
  Why is every part of this website animated, and part of the text is backwards? Am I the only one who sees it this way?
• luxuryballs
  These devices don’t actually give access to biometric fingerprint data do they??
• Daunk
  Heh. American funny
• Menu

  shevy-java
  There is currently an attempt going on by several governments to crack down harder against the people. While before it was "only", say, California and their age-sniffing laws infiltrating and tainting Linux - thus declaring war against the people, as revealed by Meta acting as primary lobbyist here - today I read that now that age-sniffing was also approved in some european countries (in one EU country the parents are required to install a sniffing app and thus verify the age of the kids; I think it was in Greece. I'd never help any government act as fascist sniffing proxy trying to control and monitor by kids, that is an act of betrayal of such a government), their next line of attack is against VPN. Suddenly the picture shifts, because if VPNs are targeted, how does finding an excuse such as "but but but think about the kids", make any sense? That is very clearly governments becoming increasingly fascist. Add a few lobbyists here and there who benefit financially from this and now we suddenly understand how democracies are undermined. See also:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_corruption_scandal_at_th...Democracy needs to be adjusted - right now private interests can too easily sabotage and undermine it.
• lucasay
  [dead]
• Menu

  thebeardredis
  Surprise... water is wet. Now bring in the NY Communist Times and the Bolshevik Broadcast Corp for a "differing view".