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I cannot ever imagine installing something like AliExpress as an app.
by lukeify 28d ago
I cannot ever imagine installing something like AliExpress as an app.
- unixhero 28d agoIt's great for shopping. But in the US you have amazon prime. We don't.
- fragmede 28d agoWhere is "we"?
- ngl999 28d agoLikely the place where people are "willing to trade privacy for convenience", according to Baidu's CEO.
- stinos 27d agoI always wonder if it's worth it. Like: is it actually convenient, or is it 'solving' inconveniences which actually do not exist or didn't exist before using the service? I have never used Prime or AliExpress but also don't consider our typical shopping very inconvenient. And the most inconvenient parts are actually the ones which seem necessary to to get the proper goods (from past weeks: vegetables/fruits/shoes - it's not really possible to order that online and get exactly what we want). And everything else is available from other webshops.
- rcruzeiro 28d agoAccording to their profile: Norway
- dogman1050 28d agoI have Prime, but I can't imagine installing the Amazon app either. The website works just fine.
- nntwozz 28d agoThis is the way. It's prudent to treat apps with skepticism, it's unfortunate it's come to this. I study Apple's Privacy Nutrition Labels religiously every time I consider installing an app. I like the ones with "Data Not Collected".
- woadwarrior01 27d agoI'm an app developer and all my apps have the "Data Not Collected" privacy nutrition label. I love the idea, but Apple's enforcement of it is very lackadaisical. I've reported dozens of apps that were blatantly lying on their privacy nutrition labels to Apple and I'm yet to see any such app's nutrition label change. Here's a good overview of the problem: https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.02658v3 https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.02658v3
- voakbasda 27d agoWhy have rules (or laws) if they don’t enforce them? Or only enforce them selectively when they feel it necessary, such as when not doing so would threaten your stock price (or re-election campaign)? Maybe I just answered my own question? Reminds me of meat processing regulations. I can sell my animals whole to buyers through a custom processing exemption, but they must go pick up their meat from the butcher. The law says I cannot pick up and deliver it, but it is trivial to find people advertising that extra service. Reporting them does not result in any obvious action. In both of our cases, our honesty is a liability in the marketplace, because people are ignorant of such laws (or simply don’t care). Really, they simply want the product that they want, as conveniently as possible. We are then forced to compete in the marketplace with liars and cheats. I am sure our peers here can find countless examples in other areas where this flavor of dishonesty prevails. Hell, I would love to hear some counter examples, because I cannot help but view this state of affairs as intentional at this point. The purpose of system is what it does (or, in this case, does not do).
- otherjason 27d agoThe cynical way to look at this is that the purpose of the system (the privacy nutrition label) is to support Apple's carefully-crafted and -marketed image as the most privacy-focused of the tech giants. Actually having enforcement of the contents of said labels would be a nice potential byproduct of that, but that's not strictly required to accomplish the system's purpose.
- embedding-shape 28d agoI don't have Amazon Prime (nor am I in the US) yet use Aliexpress perfectly fine on my mobile phone without using an app. Frankly, I don't understand how the two is related at all?
- doubled112 28d agoAliExpress won't allow me to open most pages in the account section on my iPhone. Instead I get a page telling me to install the app. While browsing, there are also popups offering the app approximately every third link I click. Some of them are telling me to install the app. Unless the situation has changed recently, it's not perfectly fine, it is unusable on purpose.
- emctech 28d agoAE website on mobile is terrible, they basically force you to use the app. I exclusively use the website on my PC
- whstl 28d agoSo they're pulling a Reddit, basically. "The app is great because the website is heavily degraded".
- Ntrails 28d agoI just request the desktop site, it's fine
- deepsun 27d agoReddit is fine, just a small popup at the bottom. Facebook kn the other hand turned off most functions on mobile, e.g. chat. Good thing though if you don't use the chat long enough, friends start using other means of communication.
- pudgywalsh 27d ago
- lovestory 28d agoYou probably buy things off amazon that are dropshipped from AliExpress all the time. Stop with the elitism
- 63stack 28d agoThis is not about the products that are shipped, but the app itself. I would caution people to never install it as well.
- toasty228 27d agoDo you trust the X app? Whatsapp? gmaps? Where do you draw the line? Is it one of these HN usual "ChInA BaD" psychosis ?
- 63stack 26d agoIn order: no, no, no, and no. I accepted that I can't avoid google spying on me on android, if I could have a phone that works with banking apps without google's crap I would, but thanks to their safetynet racket it's not possible for me.
- aureate 28d agoI buy directly from AliExpress all the time. I wouldn't install their app.
- ohyoutravel 28d agoLove Temu and AliExpress for specialized components at dirt cheap prices. I would never, ever install their app. Ever, security nightmare. Similar to how I use Amazon Prime but would never order something I ingest, put on my skin, or (usually) wear from it. Not elitest.
- Lio 27d agoI would never use Temu for anything. Elitism has nothing to do with refusing to buy products made with slavery. A lot of people are critical of historic slavery whilst happily buying from Temu. That’s scummy as hell. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67752413 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67752413
- ivanjermakov 28d agoNot sure if they still do, but a couple years ago prices in the app were lower than on the website. And they promoted installing it to save money.
- rigrassm 27d ago> Not sure if they still do, but a couple years ago prices in app were lower than on the website. And they promoted installing it to save money. Translation: They are able to mine your personal data more completely with an app installed vs the website which they can sell for pure profit. They promoted installing it to extract more value from you.
- swores 27d agoThat's definitely a feasible explanation (and the one I would assume to be true for AliExpress). But there is another, slightly less evil, explanation that I know at least some companies have pushed their apps because of: the thinking is that if you're on their website, there is less friction to open a new tab and search for a lower price from their competitors, than if you're in their app. Obviously it's hardly any different - opening a new app (the web browser) vs. opening a new tab in the app you're already in - but the theory is that there's a slight psychological difference. Of course I'm not saying that trying to prevent your customers from searching for better deals is a nice thing to do. Just adding that data mining isn't the only reason for some companies to want people to use their apps.
- flkiwi 27d agoIt's quickly getting to the point for me that "find the thing I want locally and buy online if it's cheaper" is reversing. I've actually been to one of the few remaining electronics retailers to look for a PC for my kid recently, and it was nice not to be assailed by dark patterns (yes, there are dark patterns in b&m retail, but they're much more obvious).
- WarmWash 27d agoIt also all goes to the party, who are the owners of Alibaba (and every other company in China). Should you ever need someone in a foreign country to do something for you, it's good to have as much information as possible at your disposal about them.
- BatteryMountain 27d agoAbsolutely crazy the amount of dodgy apps people install and giving permissions to read the system when asked...
- GJim 27d agoYesterday on here, somebody was demo'ing a sun clock website that asks for your position....... ....and yes, many HN'ers were clearly happy to give there precise GNSS coordinates to some random scrote who askes for them.
- toasty228 27d agoWhat's the threat scenario here? Unless you Saddam Hussein...
- GJim 27d agoa) They don't need by exact location, so why ask for it? b) Browser fingerprinting and the like links this position to me and my activities. Do you not find it bizarre that many people see nothing wrong in routinely giving their precise location to anybody who asks for it?
- jusssi 27d agoA lot of people install TikTok. Or Instagram.
- crossroadsguy 27d agoOr Claude/etc on their personal computers and then even live dangerously.
- croes 27d agoBut isn’t the promise of the app store that the apps are checked for malicious code and more control of the permissions compared to a browser website?
- lukeify 27d agoThat's the promise, yeah.
- toasty228 27d agoThey're all doing some level of this
- lopis 27d agoThat's why I don't install any app, unless I really have to. Just use the website.