Just because many privately owned apps are bad, does not mean the concept of apps is bad. If the government in theory can offer a "secure" open source channel for me to do my business with them without having to go there or pay for postage, why not use it?

And why do we still believe that paper docs are secure? Someone needs to look at them and can just as easily "lose" them, too.

The problem here is the smartphone ecosystem. If there were merely an "app standard" which I could run even if I did not have a Google or Apple device, that would be fine. But, requiring that I give at least some information to Apple, or even more information to Google in order to use a government service is what I take issue with.

The bigger problem is that this issue is almost entirely artificial. Most apps are merely glorified web pages. Functionally, they could (in most cases) just be websites and function exactly as well.

You almost certainly have the right to mail a paper check for most things. While I tend to have my bank do it for most things it’s absolutely an option in general. I certainly still use check for a lot of purposes in the US.

Each month my ISP sends me a flyer telling me how much easier it would be to pay them if I let them auto-draft their fee out of my bank account.

Each month I tell them what I think of that idea by sending them another check.

Ahahaha me to.

im not living on the grid, yet i havnt installed a single covid app yet. I do live like i am off the grid, while on it. Have my cake, and eat it to.

Ahh the churn of Investor money. HN likes to have go's at crypto about "Adding value" but im yet to see a long term sustainable unicorn that comes out of its bloodthirsty VC flush stage to long term sustainable numbers, and product...

HINT: Users will GET RID of YOUR PLATFORM as soon as humanly possible the moment you flick the switch and try and make a profit. ATTENTION is CHEAP! there are a thousand other unicorns and VCs looking for pie. You will go out of fashion, you will be replaced.