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Comment by Pfhortune | Hacker News Reader

The framing of this article is absolutely ludicrous. I'm no Apple apologist but this is genuinely a good feature that puts power to control who gets access to contacts back in iPhone user's hands.

"The city is helping citizens install locks on their doors to keep burglars out! That's going to really hurt all the new small-time crooks who might just be starting out!"

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My reading of the article is quite neutral, it gives the pros and cons to that changes for all concerned parties. The author even acknowledged that they like the new feature.

Who is the headline for?

page views/ad impressions it's clickbait

What if there are less challenges to the current social networks? is that not a more likely outcome, if the equilibrium settles toward stasis and lack of growth? I like my privacy, but I worry the cost for the collective is very high. I worry we'll be less likely to access all the many others ways in which social networks and algorithms and incentives might work, without the helpful pressure on incumbents...

One of the largest problems that needs to be solved in the space of social networking is flagrant disregard for privacy. Worrying that granting users the ability to protect their privacy may stymie the rise of new companies emerging to abuse their data in order to compete with existing problematic social networks is kinda nuts.

I’m not going to lose any sleep from making things harder for data theft startup. The incumbents will have to destroyed in a different way, on another day.

Do remember that in your example the city previously gave out crowbars to everybody in the city.

Like Apps can only do what Apple lets them. If they were doing something people didn't like; it was because Apple let them. Sure, it's good that Apple now is doing something but they're just filling in a hole they dug.

It's ridiculous to equate all new social media apps with burglars

If they want to take your stuff and you don't want them to the analogy works.

No it doesn’t. It’s a faulty analogy. I’m pretty sure that burglars don’t give you a choice. You choose to use a social network.

Now you can choose how to use them with even more granularity

QED thanks bye

It's forced on non users. Look up shadow profiles.

Hiring someone to clean my yard and then found him snooping inside my office would make a very strong case of him being a burglar.

I choose to live in a house, in a city. I don't choose who in my city tries to get into my house.

Even if a social app starts off as a scrupulous player who’s acting responsibly with your data, doesn’t mean they are going to stay that way.

It’s very common for companies that gain some traction, but aren’t on the path to be the next unicorn to get sold off to private equity firms who try to extract the most the value for the least effort. That often involves selling any all data to a data broker.

Personally, I’d treat most apps/companies as if they could be burglars, and only give them access that I need to get value out of the app. I don’t really want to be friends with my landlord or my doctor on the socials anyway.

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