It is a requirement of both Android and iOS app stores to have a policy prominently displayed for users.
this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024
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Privacy
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This. Although I'm not sure if it's about in-app display, but it needs to be on the store and on a website somewhere.
The default Samsung Calculator doesn't display a privacy policy (or any menu options really) in-app, but you can find them as a link at the bottom of the 'See Details' page under 'Data Saftey' on the play store. Annoyingly, it's just a generic set of terms that covers most of their products/services. That document says they collect and share all sorts of data, but the store page for the calculator say no data collected.
This is why privacy policies are a virtue signaling joke. They all start with "we respect your privacy" which is so objectively, categorically, false 99% of the time that it should be considered illegal (e.g. false advertising) for the org to even associate those words with their business, in any capacity. Every evilcorp has one policy that is hundreds of pages long and covers everything they ever have done, and ever will do, across every subsidiary and product of the entire umbrella organization. The whole privacy policy system is designed so every consumer rubber stamps them and legally absolves the corporation for everything they will ever do, because it's impossible for any human to read or understand them. By impossible I mean literally impossible – you would need more than a lifetime to read them, let alone comprehend them...
If we didn't live in a capitalist dystopia, privacy policies wouldn't be needed most of the time, because data laws qould be so comprehensive they explicitly apply for 99% of interactions, and every system would be designed from the ground up for zero trust (e.g. all data is E2EE). But in the 1% of cases where they are needed they're dynamically generated from templates, based on a users current preferences/settings. The "use X app" policy would be different from the "integrate all of my other various PII linked services to my account" policy. In the case of a completely offline calculator, with no API, and no telemetry/analytics (or them all disabled by default) the policy would not even be a link; just a one-liner that says "App can be used with zero data collection". If you download the app and choose to enable a data collection setting, that's when you would be shown the policy related to the specific data points that setting relates to.
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It's Apple Review Guideline 5.1.1:
(i) Privacy Policies: All apps must include a link to their privacy policy in the App Store Connect metadata field and within the app in an easily accessible manner...
For Android it's in their User Data article:
Privacy Policy All apps must post a privacy policy link in the designated field within Play Console, and a privacy policy link or text within the app itself...
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A privacy policy can be “we don’t collect your data.”
....is it, though?
The actual menu item goes here: https://policies.google.com/privacy
Which, without reading it, is, "we collect all your data. For perfectly good reasons though, trust us!"
A privacy policy could literally say "our policy is to track and store nothing". Having one does not make it evil.
In the case of Google, I would not be surprised if it stays running in the background using a relatively large amount ram just for fun.
In this case, it redirects to Google's general privacy policy that covers all their services. Anyway Google's calculator stores a history of all the calculations you did in your account somewhere. So I guess it needs to have a policy stating what they do with that data.
It's shit like this that makes me want to never use another Google app or service.
What possible justification is there for storing history of calculations in a calculator app?
I'm not saying I agree with their justification but I could see why they might be collecting yet another data point: education level. If someone constantly uses a calculator for simple calculations they might have a low education level. People in that demographic will be served different ads than more educated people.
It sucks, but I could see Google doing that.
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Crash reporting, probably.
Tap for spoiler
They gonna rat you out to the feds if you divide by zero.
Feds/0
Checkmate, atheists
Uh oh.
It's got your number.
God damnit... Just take the upvote and go.
It just links to the overall Google privacy policy, in accordance with Play Store rules mandating privacy policy being easily accessible to users.
The calculator app doesn't request any permissions which you can check in settings
Alas, no permissions doesn't fully mean no privacy intrusion/violation. For example, system permissions are not needed to track how many times you calculate 8008135, and upload that statistic together with your IP address to a public website.
Technically the network permission is required
But basic internet permission is given to all apps without asking. Network permission allows things like talking on lan on other ports.
To send data home only the general internet permission that every app has is needed. E.g. you 'download' an 'image' from https://stupidcompany.com/userbob/8008137_210x_in_24h/alsoclearlynot1337
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My recommendation: get rid of that app and go for a zero-tracker one:
... or any other great FOSS calculator out there.
Oh nice. Thank you. Installed.
We send your calculations to your fourth grade teacher
[aggressive ruler-slapping in the distance]
Shows them with the "you're not going to have a calculator everywhere" talk
Who knows, maybe they're required by Google to provide a privacy policy, like xscreensaver was
Google is so far off the deep end of "cloud" shit and surveillance capitalism that the people running the Play Store can no longer even conceive of software that's incapable of spying because it doesn't connect to the Internet to begin with.
Because it's Google's proprietary garbage app. Use FOSS alternatives from F-Droid instead.
Do you happen to know a good alternative to Google's Clock app on F-Droid?
Yes, I use and recommend Clock You: https://f-droid.org/packages/com.bnyro.clock/
+1 for the Minecraft Clock mentioned in another comment tho
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I'd rather have a Foss project with a simple privacy policy that clearly says they store nothing than one that has no policy at all
A privacy policy is only legally required when you actually collect user data. Most devs don't write a privacy policy for no reason, so seeing one can often be suspicious. Btw if you are worried about a FOSS app tracking you without disclosing it in their privacy policy, if this is the case, F-Droid would display it under the Anti-features section.
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I work for a company that requires everything to have a privacy policy that meets some minimums. We're technically not supposed to even use Google websearch because putting any question into it potentially sends company information into the world and out of our control. That one's not really enforced, thank goodness.
Without a privacy policy, I guess the calculator app could scrape the numbers you're entering, plus, idk an email and a OneNote entry for context, to reverse engineer the latest doodad we've been designing.
It's difficult to imagine what numbers from the calculator alone could be used for, but combine it with other information and you've got a problem.
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They want to know if you type in 8008135
Because someone wants to know if you use the calculator to spell boobies (8008135)
scandalous
I can't believe you use the calculator for 2x2! Do you need help from mathtutors.com? It's only $5 per month but just for you we're applying a special rebate which puts your offer at a much lower $12 per month.
We also noticed that you calculated numbers near 700,000....are you try to buy a house? And also you keep dividing things by 9 and 12. Are you expecting a baby soon?
Because Google Calculator collects everything, just like any other Google app (except for Pixel Launcher probably).
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I use opencalc, stick to FOSS software as much as humanly possible.
Use the one that comes with Lineage OS. Alternatively you could use one off of F-droid
Just use CuteCalc instead.
That's so cuuuuute
A teenager making a simple and cute calculator and deciding to share it with the world and the world takes that, people contribute, and project emerges
This is actually inspiring
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