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Comment by _heimdall | Hacker News Reader

> Missing from this is the reality that the modern world increasingly requires using these applications

We don't have to accept this though, everyone in the modern world makes a choice to accept the implied requirements of being part of the system. We accept the assumption that we are all online, that we all have a mobile phone, and that we all keep up with news and pop culture to an extent that we all seem to zero in on the same transient topic like a solar eclipse or an interest in atching movies about both Barbie and Oppenheimer.

Anyone can choose to avoid any one of these parts of the modern world. We're parts of that world, we aren't victims of it.

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The problem here is that the choices are all glued together. If you disable saving location history to third party servers and all your apps still work by just using it locally, that's one thing, and certainly when that option is available then people should choose it.

But if disabling third party storage breaks the apps, you can nominally stop using the apps, but that's often not a viable option and even if it isn't completely infeasible the user will be under significant pressure to indicate consent even if they would prefer not to. That's not where we want to be.

> Anyone can choose to avoid any one of these parts of the modern world.

Well my apartment building is about to replace the doorbells with a cell phone app (or phone calls as an alternative). No cell phone -> no door bell. I'm just a renter; I get no say in the matter.

> I'm just a renter; I get no say in the matter.

Surely you evaluated alternative apartments before deciding to rent at the one you are currently in, right?

You provably missed the “is about to replace” part, not sure the OP was aware of what would be coming when he moved in.

No, I saw that. My comment was a poorly worded attempt to suggest that, as a renter, they can certainly choose to avoid it by moving just as they chose to avoid the other apparents they evaluated but never moved into.

They're not forced into anything.

Can people not still rap their knuckles upon your chamber door?

I assume they would need to rap on the main entrance door, which could be five floors below this individuals apartment - not just their apartment door.

(I.e. this is an entry phone that permits you to remotely unlock the street level door which is being replaced with a mobile app / phone call)

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