Pocket: The App That Irked Me Over Privacy Today | Hacker News Reader

Pocket: The App That Irked Me Over Privacy Today

teaz.me

9 pointsteaneedz8 comments

If you are that worried about privacy on an app like Pocket, there is an open source alternative (https://www.wallabag.org/) and it has an iOS app. I have yet to try it myself because I didn't really expect privacy from an app like Pocket and therefore use Pocket but its features look equal (if not better) to Pocket.

To be honest, I don't see the big deal here. Pocket has already been adding 'trending', 'best of' tags to my bookmarks. Where do you think they got that data from huh? While this seems like another privacy red flag, it could be possible that they just keep a database of links with a counter column, and show recommendations based on that, or another algorithm.

I figured that the Trending Now and Best Of were just based on raw numbers of shares and saves - nothing that required much algo intrusion. I suppose that I was just looking for better clarity on what Recommendations is and would be doing. Pocket responded in a tweet that the Recommendations feature will not used to support ad targeting and our data (and metadata) will not be used for that. So, I feel a bit better. They also mentioned that Recommendations will not be loaded unless we tap on the tab for it. With all of the privacy intrusive practices being carried out today, I tend to question new features that aren't accompanied with a clear privacy statement.

Ah, I think I misunderstood your intentions. The nature of the article made me think it was another "Privacy is dead" rant. Thanks for taking the time to carefully research the new policies of Pocket.

I actually should have clarified my intent better and hope no real harm was done along the way. I'll definitely work on this going forward.

TL;DR: AN APP I USE FOR FREE IS TRYING TO MAKE MONEY OFF MY DATA!!!!!! Oh wait, they contracted me to say they weren't. HEY GUYS THEY WEREN'T, FALSE ALARM!!!

Nothing wrong with an app making money. It's all in the method.

Saved to Pocket.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com