Increasingly required smartphone apps
Aug. 20th, 2018 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtbcLast year here I wondered about the increasing unviability of my preferring to pay by cash instead of by contactless payment; more recently I mentioned my avoidance of goldibehr has mentioned here the dreadful state of Android app privacy and in general I am very skeptical of corporate administrative competence in dealing with me: where possible I want the control to be in my hands and I want a paper trail of evidence.
The world seems to be going in a different direction. It appears to be becoming normal for organizations to expect me to install their apps on my cellphone. I am appalled: I am not going to run their proprietary code (probably mostly authored by halfwits pressured by tight deadlines) in an environment with a poor security model and infrequent vulnerability patches. Even when apps are trustworthy, my fat fingers and my lack of intuition about their graphical user interface mean that I often fail to properly operate the software.
So why on Earth am I expected to entrust payment and other big-impact operations to my cellphone? For instance, when my flights were canceled earlier this month I was expected to
Similarly, I switched my checking account to a different bank because I was being required to now use a cellphone app to authenticate some transactions; the physical security token device was retired. Their online banking had never been that good and had otherwise been going downhill so I suppose it was a blessing to be pushed into leaving them. Their service had been fine otherwise so had they simply employed FreeOTP or somesuch then I may have stayed with them; some evils are necessary. My new bank does single-use codes by SMS.
Perhaps analogously to how I complained last year that it is becoming increasingly difficult to use Linux desktop applications from outside the context of a heavyweight
direct debitwherein the vendor takes the payment automatically from one's bank account.
goldibehr has mentioned here the dreadful state of Android app privacy and in general I am very skeptical of corporate administrative competence in dealing with me: where possible I want the control to be in my hands and I want a paper trail of evidence.The world seems to be going in a different direction. It appears to be becoming normal for organizations to expect me to install their apps on my cellphone. I am appalled: I am not going to run their proprietary code (probably mostly authored by halfwits pressured by tight deadlines) in an environment with a poor security model and infrequent vulnerability patches. Even when apps are trustworthy, my fat fingers and my lack of intuition about their graphical user interface mean that I often fail to properly operate the software.
So why on Earth am I expected to entrust payment and other big-impact operations to my cellphone? For instance, when my flights were canceled earlier this month I was expected to
use the Delta appto rebook; fortunately by walking some distance through the terminal I was able to find alternative means. Or, the last appointment I had made in Dundee I canceled at the last moment because when I arrived the car lot was full of
not in usepayment machines so I could not pay by cash and print a ticket; there were signs saying how I could use Apple or Google Pay or call some number with my credit card details. (Parking fee enforcement businesses are among my least trusted so I was glad to see the Parking (Code of Practice) Bill introduced in Parliament.)
Similarly, I switched my checking account to a different bank because I was being required to now use a cellphone app to authenticate some transactions; the physical security token device was retired. Their online banking had never been that good and had otherwise been going downhill so I suppose it was a blessing to be pushed into leaving them. Their service had been fine otherwise so had they simply employed FreeOTP or somesuch then I may have stayed with them; some evils are necessary. My new bank does single-use codes by SMS.
Perhaps analogously to how I complained last year that it is becoming increasingly difficult to use Linux desktop applications from outside the context of a heavyweight
desktop environmentnow I wonder how tenable I will find it to continue keeping my banking information away from my smartphone.
