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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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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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.
If it worked for you word of mouth will spread and others will try it as well. I don’t see why these companies shouldn’t be interested in that. They might lengthen the process and not give you the most efficient solution however.
People find love through dating apps, people can learn the basics of a language through language apps. The company wins either way. Maximizing screen time is not everything.
Good point. It’s hard to learn a language and if you invest the time you’ll get a good grasp on it through these apps. I leant multiple languages at school and it was really similar to what Duolingo e.g. are doing.
BUT in the end you still can’t master a language without speaking it with other people. That however, is not a service that these apps can provide. They should, however, make it possible for you to find a basic foundation for communication. The gamification aspect also helps.
Regarding the privacy argument I completely agree.
That is part of the business model, actually: if these apps absolutely never work, then there will be no word of mouth, no success stories to use in promotional material, and users would pretty quickly figure out that it isn’t entirely their own fault that they haven’t made the progress that they’re expecting.
But this is not a big ol neocapitalistic conspiracy against someone personally. Maybe your pictures do suck, maybe your bio is perfectly written etcetc. Many reasons why it might or might not work out for you.
Those companies are not as aware of their actions as many people think. They see ‘x’ happens and they might find a way to let it happen more often, but they seldom know why it happens.
Especially when it’s about interactions between people and not just system-user interaction.
That is how it works, yeah. Very good point. Nobody needs to be actively malicious or conspiratorial, and it’s silly to imagine people being that conniving: The most profitable matching algorithm on a dating app just happens to be ineffective for most people, and whoever happens to stumble on that algorithm first ends up making the most profitable dating app – no need to know why it works, just that it does.
Yep, exactly
Thank you for your contributions.