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Comment by jacurtis | Hacker News Reader

> before something happens and my social security number winds up on a sticky note on some hacker's monitor in Belarus

Isn't the point of the article that they can't leak something they don't have?

So if I never get your social security number from you, then I have zero risk of leaking it or exposing it to hackers. I can't give them (intentionally or unintentionally) something that I don't possess.

The author says:

> Given these criteria and extremes, we decided that our best course of action is to just never have our users' private data.

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To your next question on what happens if Matter is acquired. Well the app might stop working or change how it works or have new logo in the corner, but your data never left your device, so you don't really have to worry about it being leaked to Belarus.

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> Well the app might [...] change how it works [...] but your data never left your device, so you don't really have to worry about it being leaked to Belarus.

You're one update away from having an app that has access to all its data and can ship it anywhere. Do you keep updates off?

I wish I could keep my updates off.

Every time I turn on my computer dnfdragora is like "there are 35 new updates!"

Oh yeah? But my computer is working. Those updates could fix problems that I don't have but could break stuff I have as well. I'm not updating until they release Fedora 40. (my nvidia driver stopped working when I upgraded to 39, again...)

To begin with who thought these notifications were a good idea? Just appear meekly on the system tray when you have something to say. The only time a popup is acceptable is if it says "yo, your computer is on fire." Anything less is unnecessary distraction.

I want my software as-is, changing only when I want it to change. The other day a Windows update removed my "show desktop" button from the task bar to insert a copilot button. Who asked for this? The taskbar changes when I say it changes! I started using the program because I liked the way it was. If it wasn't the way it was I wouldn't have started using it, so why change?

To make matters worse, I don't think there has ever been a time a software updated that I said "they finally added X!" It just never happens. It's insane. Things really only get worse with time. Ten years ago GIMP didn't have nondestructive editing. It still doesn't. I'm still waiting for it. They said it will come in GIMP 3, for years. I feel like that update is just never coming. We're at GIMP 2.99.18 now. Can you believe it? 2.99.18. Who even reaches minor version .99?!

This is viable when your app works completely offline.

As soon as it has a server to talk to things changes. It becomes rather expensive to maintain a server that has to support any previous client, or to support all the users who don't know how to update.

In practice auto-update is the best default. Android lets you turn it off. On iOS I don't know.

I can do anecdata too. Photoshop added content-aware fill, and then generative fill. These have been useful additions for me, saving time that was previously tedious stamp-tool work.

You missed the point. It’s not about whether updates are good or bad, because yes anecdotally it could be either. It’s about whether they are consensual. And whether constant harassment that you can’t opt out of counts as consent when you give up or misclick

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