I should have known if the apps free, you’re the product. Duolingo appears to harvest the most data compared to other language learning apps.
Source: Surfshark Research
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The fact that the lines and the labels are not aligned makes this visualization very weird.
The whole chart is a disaster.
The dots are aligned with the lines, not the row labels.
The app names, which should be headers, aren’t aligned with there own columns. I’m guessing that was to fit an aspect ratio for ads?
The color coding fades from red to blue… there are a morbillion other colors, why not make them distinct?
Not to mention how deceptive the actual content seems to be.
Yeah. I can see why they did it, but just… no.
Genuinely how do you read this? Which dot means which thing??? Why is it made like that???
This is a greater crime against humanity than the thing they were trying to highlight.
What a terrible table lmao
Bruh. I want to start punching puppies who made this
Does anybody know some open source language learning alternatives? Preferably Linux or Android
Your own learning resources + Anki.
However, this requires significantly larger amount of work compared to said learning apps, which has establisged learning course in form of easily digestable chunk.
You need to digest textbook and such on your own into small chunks, then Anki cards. It’s essentially building course by yourself.
Fluent Forever from Gabriel Wymer gives some idea on how to utilize Anki, though the author moved to build his own closed source app.
Also, like, language learning apps suffer from the same problem as dating apps: if these apps could actually teach you a language, you’d eventually get proficient enough at the language to no longer need the app — and if you no longer need the app, then it can’t harvest your data or subscription money anymore, and line goes down. So the app always needs to give you the impression that you’re making progress, while actually sabotaging your learning at every step.
This isn’t to say that these apps don’t have a place in the language learning process, but rather I’m saying that you need to be incredibly wary not just of the privacy issues, but of how to actually use these apps effectively. If you’re aware of their tricks, then they become less effective.
Yeah duolingo is useless for me lol. I took spanish throughout highschool and I recently installed the app and the intro test shot me straight to the end. Just one year of a highschool class will teach more.
Their “Spanish for English speakers” course goes all the way through CEFR B2 proficiency. There’s no way to attain that in a year of HS Spanish unless you were in a Spanish-speaking high school, fully immersed. Some versions of the Spanish course (for other native languages) may not go as far, that’s just the one I’m working on.
When it says purchase history, surely that’s not all your purchases?
Also, on iOS at least, many of these would ask for permission and be met with a “that’s a no from me dawg”. Things like photos, contacts, and location data for instance.
Same with Android. I have all those disabled. Still good to know it’s possible if you don’t check and enable everything. Maybe a separate shape for options you can disable would make this chart look busier but give more info.
I agree it’s still good to know these things.
I also think there should be reasonable limits on what data they can try to access. Like do Uber need to know my location? Obviously, whilst I’m using the app, but they absolutely don’t need to access my contacts.
What is “customer support data” being harvested, and how much of this is actually optional?
This appears to only apply to iOS, and not Android.
It makes sense now, since it’s impossible to do some of this on Android, so far as I know.
