MagneticFusionSep 23, 2023

I hate how everything requires you to download a shitty proprietary data harvesting app nowadays when everything can be done just fine without an app.

https://lemm.ee/post/9057055

I hate how everything requires you to download a shitty proprietary data harvesting app nowadays when everything can be done just fine without an app. - lemm.ee

I have recently started university and am required to use an app that has three Facebook trackers, one of them being a Facebook location tracker according to Exodus App Privacy, for the dining plan, when it would literally work perfectly fine using your student ID and ordering to a real cashier, LIKE HOW IT HAS BEEN DONE FOR DECADES. I have also read many stories of people that live in apartments that require them to use a mobile app for god damn LAUNDRY. All you need, is a card reader, and it will work perfectly fine like it has been for the longest time. Privacy concerns aside, it is just annoying that you need this app and that app and this app and that app and it just clutters space on your phone. Security concerns too as now they have all of this additional info on you online, such as your phone number your email your real name, instead of just your credit card info like a card reader would have. And I am willing to guarantee that their security model is absolute horseshit because they have such a small team of engineers working on the app and the servers. Literal enshitification

Show threadDocMcStuffinSep 23, 2023
I went to college before it was app everything and our student id’s were smartcards. Dining plan associated with the smartcard. Just stick it in the reader when you show up and you’re good. You could put cash on your card then use it for the vending machines or laundry or any little incidental on campus. If you needed cashed added to your account, your parents could go online and do it, or you could. That was the only online component. The entire system just worked without any fuss or privacy concerns or anything.
Show threadWhisp
That's how it worked at Uni for me too. Basically like a preloaded debit card that also was a security card to let me in/out of buildings. Pretty convenient actually.
Sep 23, 2023 at 8:13pmWeb
Show threadidunnololzSep 23, 2023
Our university made it so anything you can buy with the card was like 20-50% more expensive tho. I usually never bought anything on campus because of it :/
Show threadPigsInCloverSep 25, 2023

Yeah at my alma mater the “dining dollars” only covered pretty overpriced crap.

My degree program -> required to be full time and live on campus in specific dorm buildings-> the specific dorm buildings required you to purchase one of the two highest meal plans.

So just to complete specific programs you had to spend $1,000+ a semester on a meal plan for pretty terrible food that you would never see the value of, even if you didn’t want it.

And on top of that, you’re likely paying far more for all of it in the long term via student loan interest.

That made it all the more infuriating to me when my limited set amount of “dining dollars” in the plan (usually $100) only covered stuff like a $4 bag of fruit snacks or a $3 snack-sized bag of potato chips. This was back in 2015 too.

For profit higher education is greaaat.