Comment on [deleted]
NGnius@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
This is the sort of app that really needs to be open source or at least open dataset. Right now there’s no way to see if their data is reliable. Aurora Store tells me that app has tracking in it (minor, but still, ewww), which is also concerning, so I’m not going to install it to find out if that information is at least provided in-app.
Oh also it’s developed by this super generic-looking company BashSquare. Overall not very confidence-inspiring.
You can’t trust those “app has tracking in it” flags because they usually have scary wording for extremely basic and normal things that wouldn’t impact your privacy.
An app anonymously tracks if an user clicks a button or not. This becomes “ThIs APp pHOnEs HomE tRaCkiNg uSErS”
I’d be inclined to agree if it wasn’t broken down into more detail than what I actually shared. The app includes ads and one of the trackers is Google AdMob, so that’s definitely not anonymous tracking. It’s also impossible* to be sure whether the other two trackers, Google Crashlytics and Firebase Analytics, are anonymous.
*without reading the source code, at least
The ads are not present in the app unless you voluntarily watch one in the Support tab
Unfortunately that has no bearing on whether the tracking is active
An app anonymously tracks if an user clicks a button or not. This becomes “ThIs APp pHOnEs HomE tRaCkiNg uSErS”
That is not normal and I absolutely object to it! Fuck anybody who wants to normalize that.
does it contain information on the leadership of these companies
a lot of lemmy commenters support further action against chief executives and particularly genocide supporting chief executives
Keeponstalin@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I don’t know anything about BashSquare, but the developer is Ahmed Bashbash, a Palestinian software engineer from Gaza residing in Hungary.
Here’s the About page:
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As far as what’s on the boycott list, it follows the official boycott list from my knowledge and gives an explanation on why a brand is boycotted
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It works without camera access if you have no need to scan barcodes, it does need network to access the boycott list information. It doesn’t need notification or sensor access to work. At least on grapheneos
NGnius@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
That’s quite compelling but I still can’t find any official confirmation of that information. The BashSquare website doesn’t mention any employees but does mention the app (and their website is on the G Play store). IMO the information you’ve provided is enough to confirm it uses some of the public boycott list, but could still be omitting things (though very unlikely; that would be a wild Israeli misinformation campaign).
The boycott website doesn’t provide barcode prefixes for companies to boycott, which means there is still some information that isn’t verifiable, and it’s one of the more crucial parts of the app’s functionality (if you’re not scanning barcodes you could just use the website). I did manage to find a way to look up barcode prefixes but there was no mention of a public API so it makes me think that either they’re part of the app (see qualms about open/verifiable dataset) or the app is using some proprietary API/scraper to get that info.
Thanks for the info!
Keeponstalin@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It looks like he’s the founder of BashSquare from his profiles, I found his website. ahmedbashbash.github.io Looks like it has contact information, you could possibly ask clarifying questions if you wanted to.
I’m pretty certain it’s not some kind of Israeli honeypot or something like that. They’ve also done a few donation drives in the past.
The barcodes themselves provide the information for the business the product is from, at least most of them. There is also community input, where people can request a product be added if it is on the boycott list but they find the barcode not identifying it. They are also working on community additions to alternative products to boycotted ones, that should roll out in a future update
I know grapheneos does sandboxing which is really nice. You can also further isolate by setting up a new profile or using the private space, depending on what your threat level is. I just have it on my regular profile myself