I'll second this, actually. For the simple reason that dumb, disconnected systems - like native apps and web services - tend to screw the end user less - because their lack of vertical integration leaves them with no motive. Or, more specifically, that by splitting the function into two different roles, you create two different entities who can keep each other in check.

When you control both ends, no amoral business entity can resist taking advantage.

Right now I'm looking at you, Twitter, lighting up my location icon on my iPhone for no apparent reason.

This is what happens when you grant patents to marketing departments.

If you want courtiers and party officials to control technical progress, just say so, and stop hiding it behind civilization-destroying fucking gibberish.

This will be perfect for my next level beats.

The latest revision of the official Twitter iPhone app (the app formerly known as Tweetie) has location service on whenever it is in the foreground. There is no way to turn it off. There is nothing to indicate what it is doing with your location info. This coming so close to the deprecation of 3rd party apps is a really, really bad sign for where this company is going.

I will never use their iPhone app again because of this. The #dickbar is merely annoying, recording your location without consent is actively offensive to the point I'm rethinking using Twitter at all. It's not an idle threat - I haven't used Facebook in several months because of their awful attitude towards privacy.

And if a location-tracking app is the only one left, buh-bye Twitter.

In all seriousness, it again comes down to cultural differences.

Chinese people can be absolute fanatics about respecting boundaries that are entirely imaginary to Westerners, while at the same time being completely oblivious to boundaries that are perfectly obvious to the rest of us.

Intention vs facts is the best I can come up with. It would be horrible to admit a bad intention, while no immediately perceivable fact could be construed to cause embarrassment (i.e. "but he is fat!"). Think of them as Vulcan clowns, if that helps. So you can observe or ask anything with impunity (e.g. how much money do you make), but you should always have a socially acceptable excuse for your actions ("no, i wasn't peeing on your foot, but it was on fire and i was trying to help. and i peed a little").

My in-laws are Chinese, so as puzzling as it is (and it is), I'm not the least bit surprised at this. I'm still trying to understand it, myself.

There is a logic, it's just backwards to my way of thinking.

+2

Common sense is different in different cultures.

In some places, common sense says you don't eat corn - it's for the animals stupid! How dare you serve it to me.

In Japan, where streets are small and houses close, people are very used to not looking and not seeing things plainly visible from the street. It would be really rude to stare, and it isn't done.

So yes, she does have a reasonable expectation of a kind of privacy that is expected in Japan, and which was violated by Google.

Any list without the long take that opens The Player is suspect.

Wake up and get your head our of your ass.

The feds are irrelevant. They long have been.

The big companies are the feudal lords. You are a serf.

Maybe - MAYBE - if the health care reform does what it should you will be less of a serf.

Ridiculous by North American standards?

Clearly you aren't posting from Trump Tower, etc.

Well good on you for insulting China. Always a smart rhetorical strategy to deflect on someone else.

Then there's this: "Still, South Korean animators make one-third the salaries of their American counterparts, and Shin declined to comment on the full extend of the work his company has oursourced to SEK, a state-run animation studio of North Korea."

Your outrage is a little excessive given that. And you could have addressed that. But didn't. /i got paid 3 times what you did for trolling comment boards //relax, kid, that's satire.

Oh it's much easier than hiding behind 7 Boxxys.

Have an account on your laptop that you never use anything. Have it clean your webserver - and flash - cookies on logout.

cybercafe, post, blah blah.

Meaning, he's been getting away with not doing hotter backups this long, and isn't likely to change.

If it's enough for the target market, this will be a big success. If not, it will be teh suck.

i'm neither for or against it either way. mobile access in the USA is very oligarchic - few companies who offer the same things. so this is different, and so good.

It sounds like a fairly good deal for the US and for more, uh, parsimonious consumers.

As phone and text, it's great, IOW. And that's where the usage seems to be for lower end consumers.

Probably not for the average ./er's kind of data consumption, but still a welcome addition to the US mobile market.