I currently use “The Transit App” for navigating by transit. How bad is that privacy wise? I know it tracks your location at least while you’re in the en route mode because it advertises that as part of its real time tracking system, and I’m torn on whether I’m okay with that given that I directly benefit from the improved real time data whenever someone else taking the same line is end route (you can see transit vehicles being tracked by another user’s app session vs data from the transit agency itself). Is there anything more shady going on with that app? Is there any way to tell whether it’s recording my motion sensors? Is the generic sounding name intentionally hiding that it’s made by the CIA or something?
You are correct and I get that. Where I get frustrated is when companies decide to, after I have agreed to share data for one purpose, but then later that data is sold or used instead for secondary unrelated purposes. The clearer and more upfront a company is with how they treat data, the more I can trust it. Of course because of the history of how many companies about-faced on this, that trust is not permanent.
As an aside, the current funding model for the company behind the app is subscriptions from users, and subsidies from transit agencies and local governments, such as Calgary Transit.