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Unpopular truth: Telemetry collection actually happens because people are garbage at being helpful to support (www.uncommonapps.nyc)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Building relationships with customers through support didn't turn out as hoped

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[–] 23 points 4 months ago (7 children)

I mean yeah, to some extent you're right.

But it is also due to telemetrics being helpful in diagnosing issues before users even report them, measuring their business effects, or even doing A/B tests to see how a new feature may affect the user experience.

Problem is that companies realised this info can also be used for other purposes - such as, datamining the users - to create another lucrative revenue source...

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    A/B testing without consent is unethical. This doesn’t fly in any scientific fields, yet the technology industry doesn’t think twice about experimenting on users without consent.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    I think it's a bit of a stretch to consider A/B testing under the same umbrella as subjecting somebody to a scientific study. A/B testing can be selling different products in different stores or trying different pricing strategies. There are certainly shady things you can do with A/B testing, like trying out dark patterns, but require consumers give consent for any kind of market experimentation?

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    Yeah, it depends on the potential adverse impact. On a web app that does nothing significant, it doesn't matter. If life and limb are at risk, or someone's money, that's different. And if it's a bug fix, you need to consider the consequences of not fixing it too.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    What a load of bollocks.

    Nobody owes you anything, especially if it's a free service. And A/B testing is pretty much the only way to get reliable results on how a feature may shape user experience.

    Or would you rather companies just delivered features without any care how it affects users?

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