Hacker News Reader

Comment by josuepeq | Hacker News Reader

It’s okay to be a luddite. Not everything needs to have an interface.

Got into a spat with a manager at my apartment complex because I refused to install their app just to deal with a maintenance issue.

He was like, “I don’t see the problem, you have to use the Latch app to open your apartment door.”

To which I replied, “No, I have the door keypad code memorized.”

Just like I don’t need an app to make a log of exit/entry history in a backend database just to enter my apartment via a Bluetooth lock…

…I should not have to install their app to make my apartment livable.

Indeed, my argument was convincing enough to have a resolution which didn’t include installing their app.

View on HN

It's not about being a luddite. In many respects I consider it the opposite. It's engaging with technology in a way that demands standards of behaviour and performance.

I don't want the new thing because it is the new thing. I want new things that are better.

People accept abusive technology because they consider that's just the way it is with this new thing. It's a failure to understand what should be considered unacceptable.

My apartment complex came to install keypads and centrally managed smart thermostats and I would not let them.

Thankfully my lease was old enough that I was able to argue against it. I don’t want a 3rd party company tracking my habits, and I don’t want some manager boiling my pets alive while I’m gone because they decided they think our AC is set too low.

You got lucky. If you've got an apartment in, say, a healthcare facility, they'll install those thermostats and whatnot. Usually the neighbours are clueless about technology so complaining doesn't get very far at all.

It's even worse if some staff wrote paranoid in your file, 'cause they'll argue it's good for "exposure".

You mean if you are permanently resident in a mental institute they don't let you control the temperature? That's hardly surprising...

I read it more as a senior living facility.

Those folks pay out the effing nose, they ought to be allowed to control the temp in their apartment.

Some day, that could be you.

> you have to use the Latch app to open your apartment door

So what happens if you arrive home with a dead phone?

And possibly worse, they have a log of when you come and go?

You have a unique code, don't they already have a log of your coming and goings?

But I would absolutely not install an app for that.

They do. But the apartment complex gets a nice little kickback, especially since an app for unlocking your front door is one that has at least a plausible argument for having your location, which means a whole bunch of location data that can be mined/sold/both.

Usually smart lock does not have network connection(due to using battery).

But the app on your phone does not have that limitation.

I am a student and where I live most student housing has an app to open the door instead of a normal key. My current place used Bluetooth, the previous one was even more inconvenient because it used NFC. It sucks, and if you accidentally forget your phone at home you're fucked, but the landlords do it because it lets them block old tenants from entering without having to switch the locks.

> And possibly worse, they have a log of when you come and go?

Most apartment buildings in the US already use face-tracking cameras to get this log

Does this app work on GrapheneOS? LineageOS? Android betas? Who will troubleshoot issues if it doesn't?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com