

Zeptolabs Spying on You? - synpic
http://locusdementia.blogspot.ro/

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huhtenberg
One man's "spying" is another man's "analytics".

It's ironic to see these tracking services launch to much fanfare and pats on
the back on HN every few weeks, only to be followed by the "WTF is this in my
logs" posts like this one.

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gyardley
Good lord, it's 99.99% likely it's just for some ad targeting, and it's not
like they don't disclose it in their privacy policy
(<http://www.cuttherope.ie/privacy.html>):

 _We may also employ third-party ad serving and/or analytics technologies that
use certain methods to collect information through the Services. These
technologies may be imbedded within the Services and may collect demographic
and location information as well as information from your device including,
but not limited to IP address, UDID, software, applications, hardware, browser
information, internet and on-line usage information and in-game information._

If you don't want this sort of thing to happen, stop agreeing to it. It's not
like you _need_ to play Cut the Rope.

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synpic
No you don't, but I find it "strange" to see DEVELOPERS getting targeted. And
this, by monitoring what apps a user is installing (and reinstalling). This
includes and possibly even targets beta, internal, stealth mode builds. This
is done by an app market vendor (Getjar) who has every motive of knowing what
are the currently developing apps and who does them. This is not related to
"analytics" but resembles more to some form of "insider trading", IMHO.

~~~
gyardley
Everyone's being targeted. GetJar is undoubtedly receiving data from millions
of phones, not just yours - you only _noticed_ because you're a developer.
GetJar has no idea you're a developer, and if they did, they wouldn't care.

The 'spy on currently developing apps' thing is a nice-sounding theory, but
it's wrong. I've worked extensively in this industry (although not for
GetJar), and the only developers any company in this space is interested in
are the ones that are already moving a ton of units, not ones working on
applications that statistically are unlikely to see the light of day or make a
single sale. And they're only interested in the big developers because they
want to sell them some advertising or get them to run ads in their apps. The
money you can make from advertising is huge, while the money you could make
from some sort of corporate espionage is tiny. (How would you even sell it?)

The data collected is almost absolutely related to ad targeting. The
advertising company fetches a list of installed applications, ignores all the
stuff it knows nothing about, and uses the rest to construct a profile about
what you like which it can use to show you better-performing advertisements.
You use Fandango? Great, we'll show you movie ads. You play Cut the Rope a
lot? Great, we'll slot you into our casual gaming segment, and show you casual
games.

There's still plenty to object to, if you like - sticking this in a paid game
is kind of lame, even if they did disclose it - but it's not at all what you
think.

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clideDevAtHome
Ok, you may have point, but it also is plausible what has been said, that
being an app store (like Google Play is) what you are actually looking for is
not an ad profile, but a developer profile.

If I would be running an app store, I would certainly be interested in the new
games/apps that are going to come out and see if I can convince the developers
to list it on my store first, given certain incentives (because if I have apps
I make money, so my actual target as an app store are the developers).

Notice that GetJar does not describe itself as an add network but an app store
of some sort. If they are indeed an ad network, this behavior is somewhat
expected, otherwise...

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gyardley
GetJar's been trying the third-party / bundled app store schtick for a while,
but the money in this corner of the world is in driving application installs
through advertising. Here's an example from an industry news site:

[http://www.gomonews.com/even-more-ad-funding-getjar-
monetise...](http://www.gomonews.com/even-more-ad-funding-getjar-monetises-
its-app-downloading-service-with-getjar-ads/)

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nekgrim
Getjar is spying on you, not Zeptolabs.

I don't see the "sendInstalledApps()" lines in my logs, neither the
"FOUND_INSTALLED" part in the "Sending POST data" line.

I have the com.zeptolab.ctr.paid app too.

Maybe they changed that in the last versions?

~~~
niggler
Original post was from January, enough time for a change

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rmrfrmrf
Please. Everyone online company is spying on you.

