On iOS you can easily check what permissions an app has in Settings. For instance I can see I have granted Instagram access to location, microphone, camera, photo album. Threads has none of those. I don't use Health and I'm not sure what financial data would mean, Apple Pay? That's approved per each use.
If threads has figured out a way to collect those things without having permissions, then yes, that would be the darkest of dark patterns.
Oh god, why am I about to defend zucc? Anyway this article seems to be 100% wrong.
1-5: True but not dark patterns. Yes they are using the IG user base to bootstrap the threads user base. So what? Was it a dark pattern when google came out with docs and everybody already had an account?
6: Come on, threads asks for permission to send notifications just like every other app, and sends them at a very normal frequency for a social app, in fact if anything a bit less than IG, twitter, etc. Just say no when it asks for permission. Not a dark pattern.
7: Also not a dark pattern. Yes I'm sure the app reported that I liked a picture of a prothonotary warbler to the facebook ad targeting mainframe. Senator, we run ads.
8: As far as I can tell completely wrong. Threads doesn't have access to my location, health data, or financial data?!
9: Right, you can't use threads unless you have threads. Your FOMO is not a dark pattern.
10: False, there is a read-only website. It is very limited but it supports permalinks to threads, and from there you can navigate to user profiles, other threads, etc.
Also getting rid of Android Auto, according to the original source:
General Motors plans to phase out widely-used Apple CarPlay and Android Auto technologies that allow drivers to bypass a vehicle's infotainment systems, shifting instead to built-in infotainment systems developed with Google for future electric vehicles.
Yes, many cars with various levels of self-driving are available. Almost every car maker now has basic lane following and adaptive cruise control. Some add navigation, lane changing, and the ability to obey traffic signals. GM has a system called Super Cruise that allows the driver to take their hands off the wheel. Mercedes has Drive Pilot which is the first level 3 self driving system.
Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection has a long history of asking travelers where they’re going, why they’re traveling, and what constitutes a safe destination to them. We conducted our first traveler research in 2016 and have been doing studies ever since.
In our survey, we ask people where they’ve traveled in the last five years, and only the people who have visited specific countries are allowed to rate those countries on safety.
And the suggestions will restart in a few days. What we did is add "stop by the way" as a custom command to our "goodnight" routine, so the thing is reminded every single night that these suggestions are unwelcome. The annoyance maximization team at amazon hasn't deployed countermeasures to this yet.
I worked on a project (not cars, phones) where we replaced an older model that was operated through buttons and LEDs with a newer model that was just a giant multitouch screen. Surprisingly to me, it was way, way cheaper! And cheaper in multiple dimensions: the hardware buttons and LEDs weren't just more expensive, they implied a multi-step manufacturing and testing process on every unit. The touch screen was relatively standard and just came as an integrated assembly from a supplier.
We also went through a phase where we had a hybrid interface, the most common interactions done through hardware controls, everything else on the touch screen. There was always some level of regret associated with the hardware stuff, like we had some extra LED we never actually needed or just one more button would have been nice.