It is endlessly frustrating that companies have universally decided that they won’t let people say “no” to stuff, ever. There are no longer options to reject stupid-ass new “features”, only postponement until next time you open the app/website/program. They’ll continue pestering you for the rest of your life. I realize that my frustration may be a little over-zealous, but we deal with these interfaces dozens of times per day and this is user hostile behavior. There isn’t really an option to just use another service or program, since the entire technology landscape has been commandeered by a few major corporations, and they all enact the same shitty things as a group.

@[email protected]
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131Y

What app or tech is badgering you? I feel like with standard android and pop! OS I have zero complaints. Everything just works

Duolingo just did this to me yesterday. Pissed me off

@[email protected]
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21Y

Huh. I guess I mostly use foss stuff and maybe a few apps like youtube premium/tv, that I pay them for service so I never hear about it.

I’m learning Japanese with duoligo, I discovered that you can get the free trial for premium, cancel it when it reminds you your trial is almost up, and then 2 days later it offers you the free trial again.

Salamander
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91Y

My girlfriend kept complaining about losing her hearts on Duolingo and I was very confused as I never had any “hearts” during regular lessons. Eventually I found out that since I had created a classroom while exploring the site, I was given access to a teacher version of Duolingo - which is basically a free premium version 😅

Surprise LPT! I’ll have a poke around, see if I can do that too. I’ll report back. 🫡

@[email protected]
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4
edit-2
1Y

Discord has been hassling me about whatever name changes I read about. I only open it once or twice a month, so I’ve been able to delay taking whatever action so far. If I was in there on a regular basis, that’d be a big pain in the ass.

ETA: Oh, and the IMDB app keeps asking me to sign up for an account. I’ve been saying no for literally years.

Karyoplasma
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1
edit-2
1Y

Discord wants to move away from the #4-digit identifier system because it is an unnecessary hassle for users. The downside is that it means that a username must now be unique. That’s why they’re asking you.

I guess at one point they’ll just force change your username and you’ll have to stick with it or make a new acc.

This happens with YouTube, for example. Even though I pay for their premium, whenever I disable their shorts section they tell me “ok, we’ll hide it for 30 days”. How about you don’t show me your shorts ever again?

@[email protected]
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3
edit-2
1Y

Use something like ReVanced, which has the ability to hide Shorts forever (or until YouTube changes their backend enough that you need to update your ReVanced install to continue blocking Shorts). ReVanced also has the ability to unlock certain Premium features for free, and it supports SponsorBlock, among many other things.

Use Firefox with adblocker then disable the YouTube app so it goes with Firefox as your default

@[email protected]
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English
11Y

Yeah that’s understandably frustrating. I heard they make like no money off of that. Wonder how long before it hits the killed by google list.

yt enhance u disable it 4ever

Paying for the ability to not be fucking spammed with scam ads was your first mistake

Lol for real

YⓄ乙
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141Y

Companies like this are abusing you as a paying customer. I would use newpipe if you’re on android or if apple has any alternative to newpipe then use that otherwise use firefox with ublock.

Streetdog
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11Y

I use piped.video for the dozen or so subscriptions I have. I don’t have an account, I once exported my subscriptions and when I erase browser history I upload that subscriptions file. All I want to see on YT is right there.

@PetrusHyde @Gnubyte the problem with these platforms is that you don’t have the control. You can only choose from the available options the platform owner give you

@[email protected]
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26
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1Y

Nowadays it’s even in cars. When service is due, my car offers me to call service desk to schedule an appointment now or later. To get rid of this message, I need to make the call just to tell the person on the other side that this is a company car, I’m not the owner, and service is being scheduled by the leasing company through other means anyway.

Usually Fleet Management companies want you to do an Oil Change and Tire Rotation every 5000mi. So… Yeah.

@[email protected]
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131
edit-2
1Y

You should be pissed off! It’s software paternalism, utilizing new speak, removing your vocabulary and agency.

Every time you’re given a dark pattern dialogue where it says " would you like this thing that you don’t like? Yes absolutely, later " the developers don’t respect you, they’re trying to say you don’t know what you want, they’re using propaganda on you…

It’s like the classic police interrogation question " is that when you stopped beating your wife?" Yes and no are both traps. So some edgy developer is trying to trap you with oh but you consented (can send it) to seeing this later. When it’s really user hostile dark patterns using forced language to remove your agency as a human being. It’s fucking scummy

This is why I love open source software, not only is it highly unlikely for you to see a dark pattern, if you do you can fix it!

can send it

Consented?

Oh my god! The first organic boneappletea I’ve seen on lemmy

@[email protected]
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181Y

Guilty as charged! I use voice to text typing on my cell phone. Google does love its bone apple tees

ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝
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31Y

bone apple tees

I think you should start the community ASAP.

@[email protected]
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57
edit-2
1Y

I hear your frustration, but there are other options. They won’t necessarily be the same, or perhaps equivalent in every way, but they do exist. You don’t have to use the same corporations over and over again.

@[email protected]
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3
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1Y

So what “other option” do I have to stop my kid’s ClassDojo app from badgering me to “upgrade” to “plus?”

Keep in mind that it’s the public school system that chose to use ClassDojo, not me.

And that’s only one out of about half a dozen shitty third-party services with shitty ToSs that the school system has tried to push on me in the last week!

@[email protected]
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-11Y

There’s always options.

  • Refuse to use the applications and consult with the school board with your concerns. Involve other parents and start a movement.
  • Use a different local school system. Is there a local private school that’s better?
  • Home schooling is another option.

I’m not saying any of those are easy options. In fact, you may have no good options today. But you don’t need to stay that way forever. Explore what options you could have next year, or the year after. What can you work toward?

At the end of the day, the more everybody gives in and allows the abuse to happen, the move it will be normalized and accepted. If you don’t like what is happening, then make changes in what you accept in your life.

@[email protected]
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91Y

Actually, we do often have to use the same corporations over and over again. The choice to abstain or switch can often require more time, training, or money.

Even with suites like Adobe, the support for their programs from third parties is HUGE. That’s finally changing slowly, but it’s still typically easiest to stick with things like after effects and premier because it’s got massive community resource support. Templates can be a huge shortcut, and without the right options mane projects are made a lot more difficult and/or decreased in quality.

@[email protected]
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English
21Y

I’ve don’t think I’ve ever used an Adobe product. While they may be huge in specific fields, there are other options. Yes, extra time, training, and money will need to be used to move to alternatives, but what’s the other option? Continue giving Adobe money and support their monopoly? Be the change you want to see.

SokathHisEyesOpen
creator
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51Y

Do you know of a music streaming service that isn’t Amazon, Apple, YouTube, or Spotify? Because I’ll check it out if you do. In my car I have a thumb drive with my entire lifelong music collection on it, but at work I can’t plug anything into my work computer and need something that is accessible through the internet. I can’t imagine not having music to listen to while coding, I’d eventually lose my mind.

baduhai
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31Y

I hear decent things about Deezer, never tried it myself though.

mPony
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11Y

Deezer is pretty decent.

Since I just ranted about the family plan of YouTube: Deezer doesn’t enforce (or even demand) family members to be in the same household. So I have Deezer Family and share it with family members living in three different cities.

SokathHisEyesOpen
creator
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21Y

I’ll check it out. Thanks!

@[email protected]
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English
41Y

I use Koel. https://koel.dev/

Install it at a host of your choice and access it in a web browser or with mobile apps.

SokathHisEyesOpen
creator
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21Y

Thanks! I’ll check it out.

Have you checked out Plex? Host your own steaming server … for years I used a 10yr old Mac Mini.

SokathHisEyesOpen
creator
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31Y

A streaming server that I can access from my work computer? Like on the web or something? I can’t install Plex on my work computer. I set Plex up about 6 years ago, but then I realized I could just stream my movies and songs onto my home theater system straight from a HDD, so I didn’t get very deep in the Plex configs before I stopped using it.

codus
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31Y

With Plex you can go to https://app.plex.tv from your work computer and steam from your browser. That said, if you can install software, Plexamp is a great way to listen to and rediscover your music.

SokathHisEyesOpen
creator
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11Y

Thank you! I’ll set it up this week.

ddh
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21Y

Also have a look at Jellyfin, basically a libre replacement for Plex

Setup a self hosted media server, put your media on it, stream from that.

“Do you want to try the new Lemmy™ Story Experience? Click here or remind us now to keep reminding you until you finally cave to our humungous data-hoovering tentacles, puny little user.”

Kalash
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151Y

That fucking imdb.com redesign, so terrible.

ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝
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21Y

Yeah, I have my fingers crossed for a Fediverse IMDb as I have been moving me stuff over to Trakt but they could get snapped up and pull the same BS.

I swapped over to https://www.themoviedb.org years ago and have never looked back.

Never heard of this. Checking it out. Thanks!

I’ve been pissed about this for a decade

RoboRay
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201Y

The only way to say “no” is to not give them the opportunity to ask the question to begin with.

Yes, the most egregious one that really grinds my gears is on the front page of YouTube, where it will show a shelf with YouTube shorts with an X top right. If you click it, it will hide the shelf and say “Okay, we’ll hide shorts for 30 days” which is something no body would ever mean by pressing that button and it’s such patronizing, insidious bullshit.

Wow, you used to be able to just completely disable shorts in the settings.

@[email protected]
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8
edit-2
1Y

At least it shows the shorts of the creators that you are subbed to.
I usually only watch the one on the front page if I can recognize them in the thumbnail or it actually seems interesting and never ever scroll them.

My only gripe:

  • Youtubers use shorts for the short sketches instead of actual short videos
  • Only 60s long
  • Vertical instead of horizontal
  • Both rot my brain. :(

And you can’t see which ones are from your subscriptions and which ones aren’t, right!

Yup.
But if, I usually only watch the once I recognize. Those random brain rotting shorts are very noticeable from the ones I usually consume.

I freaking hate Shorts, and the persistence with which YouTube attempts to shove that crap down your throat is absolutely infuriating.

YouTube also recently made the thumbnails larger, which is also really bad as it makes it more difficult to see what videos are in your subscription feed (even moreso with all the shorts clogging it up).

I’ve been watching shorts lately and now EVERYTHING is about shorts. I don’t ever get the little x anymore to remove the annoying fucking shelf anymore. Why does all this shit have to suck so much.

Same. I wish it wasn’t there.

@[email protected]
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English
221Y

Apparently it’s where the real money is. People doom-scrolling through an endless stream of crap.

Karyoplasma
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41Y

TikTok makes tons of dollaroos with shorts, now Google wants a slice of the pie. “Me too, me too”. It would be funny if it wasn’t so annoying.

Flippiej
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111Y

YouTube Revanced is the way (Android). Just disable shorts or anything else you don’t like and live happily ever after.

Is it a little more finished now?

When the original vanced got stopped, I could never get the patcher for revanced to work on my phone, and it wasn’t even clear what the issue was. just a lot of errors and glitchy youtube.

I’ve just beeing using firefox with ublock, but its not very convenient.

Yes, I’ve had a better time with it since then. I also couldn’t get it to work initially but now I’ve used it on two phones and it works fine. The trick is to use a slightly older release of the YT apk.

I Cast Fist
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51Y

If it’s not, NewPipe still works like a charm

From my experience, yes. The initial setup was kind of annoying, but it’s been almost entirely smooth sailing from there.

@[email protected]
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English
51Y

You know, I don’t think I’ve ever even been the the front page of YouTube.

It’s like Stack Overflow in that regard. Google just takes you to pages in it, and then you leave again.

Lvxferre
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481Y

I don’t think that you’re being overzealous. Far from that - even the phrasing rubs me the wrong way; it conveys "you’re something fooling itself that it has a choice. You don’t - you aren’t a rational human being, you’re a user. Do as you’re being ordered to. The continued pestering adds “You’ll be bossed around until you learn to obey.” to the insult.

On a lighter side I agree with Grouchy that you have options. I think that we should start giving those companies the middle finger. And frankly I think that we’re better off doing so for other reasons - the data vultures love this sort of “non-confrontational on surface, but bossy upon analysis” discourse.

Sinnerman
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91Y

the data vultures love this sort of “non-confrontational on surface, but bossy upon analysis” discourse.

We need a simple name for this, like we have for enshittification or shrinkflation.

Consumer manipulation?

Corporate badgering?

Sinnerman
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21Y

Hmmm… maybe something involving “false dichotomy”, “Sysyphus”, “pestering”, “options”, “forced politeness”, …

Illusion of choice.

It’s a subset of dark patterns.

Sinnerman
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51Y

Yes! It’s a dark pattern microagression.

WasPentalive
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21Y

Dark Pattern

Lvxferre
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71Y

Perhaps “donkey taming”? Donkeys are often associated with stupidity, but they’re actually rather smart… and stubborn, they don’t do what you want them to do unless you’re really insistent, and slowly lead them the way that you want. What those businesses are doing with users is the same.

ZephyrXero
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651Y

I think another issue here is a side effect of the move to Software As A Service. With installed software you could run an old version nearly forever, but with SASS you’re always on the latest version

@[email protected]
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English
81Y

Nagware was huge 20 years ago, hell Evernote still does it. They move the nag around each time as well.

And this is one of the best reasons to categorically refuse to rent software.

Agreed. I hate anything auto updating on it’s own because changes can break or remove features at any time.

No, YouTube. NO. I will NEVER, EVER want YouTube Premium. Stop asking me about it every fucking time I watch a video.

YouTube premium is probably the video streaming purchase I get the most use out of lol.

Because they irritate people into getting it. You wouldn’t have it if they didnt turn features off and increase ads until you wanted it.

Fuck google

I heard it’s one of the better ways to support YouTube creators. That’s why I got it.

I have adblockers and a pihole so ads weren’t that bad anyway.

SokathHisEyesOpen
creator
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71Y

You’re only saying that because they forced you to buy it!

Actually I’ve had YouTube premium for a few years now and I love it! I use YouTube a lot, but I also then get YouTube Music which I also use A LOT because it’s actually a really good music service.

Music plus ad free YouTube? Video/music background playing? All worth the money to me, and I’m helping keep a service I enjoy alive as YouTube still isn’t profitable. Which also slows enshitification of another product I enjoy.

I want to help YouTube be profitable while I still like it, to

SokathHisEyesOpen
creator
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31Y

I tried the YouTube music service and I hated it. It would play the low quality BS that people uploaded instead of studio quality recordings from the bands. It also has way too many live versions of the songs. I also didn’t like the interface. My wife and I considered signing up for YouTube premium, but it costs as much as traditional cable. I might as well just get Comcast or something. At least then I could watch baseball without a VPN. But I’m glad you enjoy it.

Onihikage
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English
31Y

Are you sure you haven’t gotten YouTube Premium mixed up with YouTube TV? The latter is priced like traditional cable because that’s basically what it is; premium is just YouTube with no ads, basic app features that shouldn’t be paywalled in the first place like downloading videos, and YT music thrown in.

The YouTube premium family plan (pairs with more accounts/devices) is a little more expensive at like $23 but I didn’t think that was cable tv expensive. All the full-package cable replacement services I know of are around $70-$90.

If they wouldn’t have that fucked up “same household”-policy for the family plan, I would be all over YouTube Premium. But for me alone it’s too expensive (I don’t use it THAT heavily) and I couldn’t share it with my family that lives in three different places.

SokathHisEyesOpen
creator
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21Y

Ah yes, I was thinking of YouTube TV.

Having all the live versions of some songs is the best part for me. I love live recordings.

I’m ashamed to report the same.

Same here. I always said “ain’t no way I’m ever paying for what used to be free!”

Fast forward to political ad season and some orange peckerhead keeps popping up… “Alright, here’s your damn money. Now let me watch this autistic guy unclog drains in peace.”

Mewtwo
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61Y

Download LibreRube and PipePipe. No ads.

I switched to Nebula as most of the YouTubers I watched most are on there. NewPipe for the few that aren’t. Now I’m spending the time I used to waste watching YouTube contributing to openstreetmap.

I’ve considered getting nebula. Are you also able to comment, like or dislike? Are there custom playlists?

No comments, likes or dislikes or playlists. No recommendation algorithm, just a nice simple video streaming platform with no ads

deo
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141Y

You don’t want Shorts? Gotcha, we will remind you in 30 days.

You want to avoid shorts and the algorithm by automatically opening the subscriptions feed? Fuck you, here’s shorts in your subscriptions feed! proceeds to switch to RSS (That’s my journey with YouTube)

@[email protected]
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3
edit-2
1Y

I never even knew they suggest those with prompts. I use librewolf/Mull+uBO+yt enhancer for years so I guess it just filter those out. Also, you can convert short to regular videos so that’s cool too

Free Software is the only solution to this in the long run.

I Cast Fist
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221Y

I’ve yet to accept Whatsapp’s new (2020) terms of service. App still works. So I consider it a small, petty victory for me

SokathHisEyesOpen
creator
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31Y

Nice!

Sinnerman
link
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611Y

Every time I go to the ATM to get cash it shows me an ad for a service and the options are “Yes” and “No thanks.”

I am forced to choose one. I am forced to thank them for showing me an ad before they give me my own money.

Jesus where are you from? I never heard of ads in an atm, that scares the sht out of me, something I am trusting my personal data with could end up selling it or using it for ads.

Change banks

SokathHisEyesOpen
creator
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331Y

It would be nice if there was a “fuck-off forever” button.

I would love to see this on my ATM!

I would much rather just see my bank balance.

Fair. :)

It’s called a baseball bat.

@[email protected]
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English
71Y

I hate this specifically for one of the corner stores at my house. When I use tap-to-pay (or I assume swiping a card), it gives me a “Would you like to register for our rewards program? Selecting no will not impact your ability to complete this purchase” prompt…

Except then I’m forced to actually physically click “No”, which circumvents the whole point of not having to touch the POS terminal when using tap-to-pay…

@[email protected]
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English
81Y

Tap to pay isn’t there to stop you from interacting with the terminal though? I mean yeah it was handy during the pandemic to now have to touch things many other people touch but that wasn’t the main idea behind tap to pay.

@[email protected]
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English
81Y

Yep, my apologies I should’ve been a bit more clear - a lot of stores during the pandemic put up signs saying that they preferred for you to use tap-to-pay as a preventative / safety measure, and this store is one of them.

Of course, even during the peak point of the pandemic that prompt was still there, and is still there… and due to the medication that I’m on I am somewhat immunocompromised so I would prefer to not have to touch the screen since everyone who pays using anything that isn’t cash has to also touch the display.

@[email protected]
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English
21Y

Ah then yeah that kinda silly. They should at least have a cashier override for that prompt if they are going to brag about not having to touch it.

Tap to pay is there for banks to eliminate the last money transaction they weren’t taking a cut of: cash payments.

They haven’t been trying to get this shit going for almost 2 decades because the convenience othe their customers is their driving motivation…

@[email protected]
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English
21Y

I mean I hardly use the tap to pay feature on my cards but I use credit cards for everything. Tap to pay is more secure so protects the banks more. Same reason we moved to chips instead of always using mag strips.

@[email protected]
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Eʋegbe
11Y

I’ve actually worked in smartcard issuance at some point and tap to pay isn’t at all more secure than the cards with smartchips requiring physical contact and a pin code that the banks had finally gotten around to adopt after more than a decade of Visa and Mastercard trying to force them to ditch magstrip (which was laughably insecure).

Tap to pay actuall reduced security because it removed the “locked for anything with a key known only to the user” element and replaced it with a limit on losses (i.e. pinless payments are limited to a certain amount so losses if the card is stolen are limited) and replaced the physical connection requirement with a radio-range one which can be worked around with a directional antenna (something as simple as a pringles can).

Sure, it’s better than magstrip, but then pretty much anything is better than magstrip.

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