App Cleanup

Hi friends!

Welcome to Reclaiming Data. We're finally kicking off the party.

Just about everything we do, from paying for coffee to scanning into the gym, requires an app. Over the years, we build up collections of forgotten apps. But our apps don't forget us.

Many apps love to share your secrets with data brokers that collect, consolidate, and sell them to anyone willing to pay. Down the line, we'll dive into what these brokers collect, where they get it from, and who they sell it to. But for now, let's start by making their jobs a little bit harder.

Your first mission is to clean out unused apps. Think of it as doomscrolling, but for once, you get to doll out the doom. If you're like me, you may even find deleting apps triggers the same dopamine hit that endless scrolling has trained our brains to crave.

Delete apps you've forgotten about, such as:

• The parking app for a city you've driven to exactly once
• The agenda for an event you attended 3 years ago
• The mobile hotel key that turned out to be clunkier than just pulling out a physical card

For extra credit, you can also delete apps you use infrequently and re-install them as needed. I primarily use airline and ride share apps when I travel, so I delete these between trips. The next time I need to check in for my flight or schedule a ride to the airport, I re-download the app and sign back in seamlessly.

If you're on the fence about an app, keep it for now. Our next steps will look at privacy-friendly ways to access the apps and services we need. We want a system that fits into your life, not one so restrictive that reclaiming your data feels hopeless.

That's all for now!

Party on,
Zak