Saw this today and now I’m reconsidering if Boost is right for me. I’m really hoping this is shitty boiler plate that was accidentally copied and over looked because that is some bullshit to say “unless we decide we want to use your personal data for whatever we want”.
I know “legitimate interest” is a phrase from the cookies law but there is no legitimate interest justification for this. My data is my data and I decide who has a legitimate interest in it so advertisers can fuck off, as can Boost if this the direction it’s going.
Edit to say this blew up. I didn’t realise I was kicking as big a hornet’s nest and haven’t read all the comments yet.
To be clear, what I don’t like about this and other provisions in the terms is the language and implications around data use. I’ve no problem with ads being shown - I want developers to get paid for the work they do and that makes it possible for users to have “free” access to software if they can’t afford to purchase.
I also want to add the response from Boost’s dev below to make sure it’s visible. You’ll see that it is boilerplate but required by Google and was present in Boost for reddit. I just hadn’t seen it because I purchased it immediately based on a recommendation. It doesn’t make me happy about it but does remove some doubts I was having about the direction Boost is heading.
I will be purchasing the app to support the dev because I do like Boost but I understand not everyone can afford everything so you’ll see some other suggestions in the comments below that don’t have any ads if you’re not happy with the free version and ads with their associated loss of data privacy.
Dev here.
The dialog and its content is not created by me, it is a standard solution from Google to comply with GDPR and other laws. More info here: https://support.google.com/admob/answer/10114014?hl=en
The consent dialog is also required by Google AdMob to show ads, and it is shown when the ad network is initialized.
When the app launches, first it checks for the remove ads purchase, and if it is not present, it will initialize the ads sdk. The ad network is not initialized if the remove ads purchase is detected.
Boost for Reddit was using the very same ad networks and consent dialog.
It’s like you only read the first sentence of their response and ignored the rest.
Boost has to show the google ads consent and TOS. It only shows up if it downloads the google ads SDK after checking to see if you purchased ad free. So if you purchased ad free version you wouldn’t see this TOS since you didn’t get the Google Ads SDK.
You are most definitely not more valuable than the data collection they can do. Do not kid yourself.
I think their point was that they value/respect themselves enough to not sell their information for better UI
But not enough to spend a few bucks on the ad-free version of the app
If I personally wanted to spend money, I would donate to people who make open-source Lemmy clients free for everyone without spying on non-paying users instead of paying for this.
But you’re not the same as everyone else and it’s to be expected that they have different priorities, right?
That’s exactly why I included the word personally.
That word also adds about a thousand layers of snark, depending on how you read it
Oh, so it’s OK if Google does it… Fuck you defending these tech giants stealing data. Seriously. Fuck defending any part of this shit.
I need you to understand that me saying “Boost is pulling a Google ads SDK and that’s their terms of service” isn’t me saying it’s ok. Me saying “you’re not more valuable than the data” is also not me saying it’s ok. Both of those things can be true while it’s still not ok. The world isn’t black and white. The difference here is knowing who, what and why to be mad/angery/upset at something. Otherwise you just have misdirected anger. The original comment called out boost as being a data predator (which I don’t use Boost for the record). I simply pointed to how the app and systems are setup and how the prompt shown isn’t Boost’s doing, it’s part of an SDK that boost uses as they’re injecting ads into the free app. They have to show whatever TOS the ad injector/SDK uses.
Keep defending the bahavior.