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I really hate when they advertise something on sale in the store, but they only give you the sale price using some bullshit app or you have to sign up for something. No. Fuck you. Give me the god damn advertised price or don't advertise the sale anywhere but your fucking garbage apps.
I got flamed to oblivion when I said that it's stunning how many people will gladly allow any old app onto their phone and have access to their data and scrape their life patterns in order to get like 2 for 1 fucking McDoubles or something.
Used to be when they wanted marketing data they paid professional firms to go out and perform scientific research and compensated people for participating in the study. Now they just throw a 50% off coupon at someone that they may or may not even use and people are like "Here's all my location data for the last month as well as all my contacts and hell why not be able to use my camera and microphone too fuck it, 50% off a Happy Meal is just too much to pass up"
I've literally gotten up and left a restaurant before for not having menus. A QR code on a stand on the table that takes you to a fuckin PDF download...fuck outta here with that bullshit.
To be fair, two for one McDoubles seems like a pretty good deal. Why should I care about my data, they’re just using it for advertising/analytics, it’s not like they’re blackmailing me or stealing my identity or robbing me of something I could sell on my own. Seems like a pretty clear win-win: I get reasonably-priced meals and they get data that I wouldn’t be using anyway.
Now the constant notifications and hassle of downloading the app in the first place to get reasonable prices are a different story.
I guess my main concern has more to do with data security. Since you know these apps are being written with fuckin AI and shit now and nobody is paying close enough attention to this...every app you install is just another potential "We are writing to inform you that your data was exposed in a breach we found out about 6 months ago and just told you about now since thats our legal minimum requirement and we only do the barest minimum required because otherwise that cuts into our profit margins. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Please refer to the 180 page terms of service to view your lack of remedies in this case as we include verbiage there that says you cant sue us since you agreed to this in exchange for a half price meal deal. Thank you for being a McDonald's customer!"
The normalization of this, and the lack of real consequences when they inevitably fuck up playing fast and loose with our data, is why I say fuck the apps.
Around 2015, My niece told me she worked at a bank teller and the first thing they did was require her to install the bank's app and rate it five stars. She said her phone is too old and they got angry. And she'd tell me they'd do "phone sweeps" to see if the app was on people's phones.
Do min-wage companies still do this or do they know better?
Lmao wtf? Sounds illegal as hell.
I’m not installing anything work requires on my personal devices, f ‘em.
I have told managers, to their faces, I do not have a smart phone... While holding my smart phone.
So far, while most have quite noticeably glanced at my phone, none have actually called me out on it.
If any of them ever do, I will just get a prepaid flip phone and use that for work.
"What's that in your hand, then?"
"That's not my hand."
Potato?
I've just straight up told an employer before that if a smart phone was required to do my job then they needed to provide me a company phone.
they found other options for me, but it really pissed off my supervisor. eventually i left because he was an asshole. gave them a -1 day notice and just stopped showing up. i do freelance work now. they deserved that hit.
Welcome to employee abuse. When your job is tied to whether you can pay rent, health insurance and credit, they've got you by the balls.
Personal devices are personal.
Nowhere in the civilized world are they allowed to do this.
America is a pro-business country.
They can fire you for any reason, like if they hate you're gay. They don't SAY that. They wishy washy it with "not a cultural fit". Or throw you into difficult situations so they can fire you with "unable to complete tasks".
I have Europeans who joined my company surprised at how little protection they get.
right to work state here. they can fire me because they don't like my haircut.
Union worker here. They can't fire me for shit unless I really fuck up
When I worked at UPS, we weren't allowed to have beards and our hair couldn't be long enough to touch our ears. Literally fireable offenses.
They don't even have to give a reason. The only reason they'll try to justify it is to prevent the employee from getting unemployment benefits.
There is a bank in the UK that used employee bank balances to prove they didn't need a pay rise last year, which they were able to do because banking with them was a condition of employment
When I was in school they once checked everyone's phones to make sure we had installed Twitter and followed the school's accounts for each department. That was about a decade ago so it's probably TikTok or something by now.
If nobody causes noise, everything goes.
Also, the app is probably poorly designed, doesn’t support dark mode, and is probably very slow even on the latest iPhone.
iPhone defaultism is such an american cliche
The website for my place of work is pretty terrible. I have customers tell me all the time "well it doesnt say that on your website!" Now, half the time they are referring to googles AI answer.
The other half of the time I click and poke thro our website on their phone, until I find it. Ok it wasnt obvious and Im sorry our site sucks. But your reason for insulting me and my coworker when we are calmy and clearly explaining what is wrong or what needs to be done?
"The website said it as in stock"
"Sometimes it's wrong. The website also shows pictures of employees smiling. You see that here?"
Interesting how the masks date these comics now.
It’s 2026 and I still wear a mask when I’m out. I don’t know why people act like COVID is gone and somehow long COVID isn’t a thing anymore. It’s still mutating, and endemic now, and there are a ton of health consequences to catching it that may not be immediately obvious, including organ damage.
I don’t wear one, it’s nice to see people's faces. And sure it still exists, but we’re past the point of it being a big scary virus anymore, I don’t want to act like it’s 2020 and stunt my social growth.
I’m surprised how many people say they still wear masks, I feel like it’s 1 in 50 people at most, but these comments make me think it’s 1 in 2 people.
but we’re past the point of it being a big scary virus anymore
Just in the last 28 days, nearly 1000 people died of Covid in the US, and there have been over 7 million deaths from it over the last 6 years. And that’s only the deaths that have been reported. Doesn’t account for people who’s lives were cut short due or other complications in relation to the virus. There’s been way too many sentiments of “many of you will die, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take” around COVID-19.
My spouse and I have high risk conditions. Like, the flu nearly killed U.S. back in 2018, no way I’m risking COVID-19. Even just getting vaccinated gave me a bout of laryngitis and messed up my throat and voice for nearly two years. And my wife had worse side effects to the Moderna vaccine, to the point I was worried about potential hospitalization.
Also, I’m an IT Engineer and literally use my brain to make my living, and I’ve seen a massive drop in logical skills over the years among peers, it’s definitely affected people mentally to varying degrees.
As for social growth, I don’t care about that. I’m in my 40s and long past giving shit what random people who see me think about me. My wife is the one person who matters to me more than anyone, and I’m not putting her or us at risk for social cred.
I still wear a mask too. But mainly for privacy reasons.
Nord sells masks now?
Funny. Nord has a bit of a tainted reputation though. I wouldn't touch them with a 10ft pole.
I wouldn't fucking trust any of them, since they literally get to see ALL your data, ALL the time. You as a pleb and not 733t h4x0r will literally never know if they launder your data and all they have to do is know whom not to bother as there are very, very few of such people as a whole.
You clearly haven't done a lot of research then. Lots of VPNs have no logs policies, those VPN providers have been audited, and their claims of no logs hold up.
Take Proton VPN for example. They're based in Switzerland. According to Swiss law, If you collect data, you must justify it, protect it, and be transparent about it. Proton wouldn't risk their entire business on the assumption that they won't be caught lying. Why do you think so many companies set up their headquarters in Switzerland?
And do you honestly believe there are no undernet layers to any of that?
You’re right about one thing. You still have to trust someone. A VPN doesn’t eliminate trust, it shifts it from your ISP to the provider.
The difference is that reputable VPNs are audited, operate under stricter legal frameworks, and have a business model built on not logging user activity. That’s a very different risk profile than “you can’t trust any of them.”
Think of it like this:
Your ISP is a glass car. A bad VPN is tinted windows. A good audited VPN is an armored vehicle.
A tank could still destroy it, but you're no longer an easy target.
A lot of people exaggerate what VPNs actually do. They’re not magic, but they’re also not useless. They reduce risk, which is the entire point.
More like no condom vs a condom with a poked hole. Chances are lower, but information is always visible.
Plus whoever is buying that data, owns the agencies that do audits in the first place.
That's true, but for good or ill, it's uncommon to see both a customer and an employee wearing masks nowadays.