All,
I have heard increasing reports over the past couple of years about issues with Tapatalk -- particularly in terms of honoring and respecting user privacy, and mis-using customer data. Also unfriendly tactics like using their app to track users and actually download and make copies of subscribing forums on their own servers. They also default to uploading images directly from your phone/mobile device to their servers for posting onto this site, and by doing that they retain rights to those images. Effectively, over the past few years, Tapatalk has been gradually inserting itself more and more in the middle between their app users and the forums they are members of. The goal of all this is to get more and more customer data, and monetize it for themselves - and their own profits.
There have also been numerous, and several significant security breaches of Tapatalk code. In a number of instances, Tapatalk has not bothered to inform their users -- let alone forum owners -- about the breached code and security issues introduced. This has placed forums using their code in jeopardy of hackers, spammers, and false accounts. All of this is very documented. They have even changed code (to patch security issues) and not even changed the version of the new/patched code, meaning that forum owners or users who had downloaded older, insecure versions of their software had no idea that a newer version existed and that they should download it to close the security loop-holes.
NUMEROUS forums around the world have shut down their Tapatalk interfaces and have unsubscribed themselves from Tapatalk's network of forums. Many of them have used their conversions from older, less browser- and mobile-device friendly software like vBulletin, phpBB, Simple Machines Forum, ipBB, and others, to XenForo. XenForo is expressly designed for mobile devices, and displays very well on a wide variety of devices, form factors, and browsers.
After many weeks and months of research, and some middling and less-than-satisfactory experiences over the past year of my own with Tapatalk, I have decided to remove Tapatalk from its interface with this forum. After this point, forum members will need to use regular mobile or desktop or tablet browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc.) with the regular web version of this forum.
At the current time, I am planning to switch Tapatalk OFF on April 15, 2019. That is a full two weeks from now -- plenty enough time to familiarize yourself with using a regular browser to access this site, create a bookmark, play around with it, and so forth.
I wanted you all to have plenty of warning about this. Only a minority of folks (perhaps a few dozen to 50 total) use Tapatalk with any regularity, so this will not impact many of you in any way. For those who DO use Tapatalk, I think you will be very pleasantly surprised about the experience with the forum that you will have with your device.
Your personal privacy and security (and the forum's security) will both benefit from this forum no longer using Tapatalk. This is mainly a move to make your security (at least with this forum) and privacy better.
You of course are welcome to continue to use Tapatalk to access any and all other forums that you subscribe to using that app. Just no longer this forum, after April 15.
You are welcome to comment and discuss in response to this message.
Cheers,
Gerry
I have heard increasing reports over the past couple of years about issues with Tapatalk -- particularly in terms of honoring and respecting user privacy, and mis-using customer data. Also unfriendly tactics like using their app to track users and actually download and make copies of subscribing forums on their own servers. They also default to uploading images directly from your phone/mobile device to their servers for posting onto this site, and by doing that they retain rights to those images. Effectively, over the past few years, Tapatalk has been gradually inserting itself more and more in the middle between their app users and the forums they are members of. The goal of all this is to get more and more customer data, and monetize it for themselves - and their own profits.
There have also been numerous, and several significant security breaches of Tapatalk code. In a number of instances, Tapatalk has not bothered to inform their users -- let alone forum owners -- about the breached code and security issues introduced. This has placed forums using their code in jeopardy of hackers, spammers, and false accounts. All of this is very documented. They have even changed code (to patch security issues) and not even changed the version of the new/patched code, meaning that forum owners or users who had downloaded older, insecure versions of their software had no idea that a newer version existed and that they should download it to close the security loop-holes.
NUMEROUS forums around the world have shut down their Tapatalk interfaces and have unsubscribed themselves from Tapatalk's network of forums. Many of them have used their conversions from older, less browser- and mobile-device friendly software like vBulletin, phpBB, Simple Machines Forum, ipBB, and others, to XenForo. XenForo is expressly designed for mobile devices, and displays very well on a wide variety of devices, form factors, and browsers.
After many weeks and months of research, and some middling and less-than-satisfactory experiences over the past year of my own with Tapatalk, I have decided to remove Tapatalk from its interface with this forum. After this point, forum members will need to use regular mobile or desktop or tablet browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc.) with the regular web version of this forum.
At the current time, I am planning to switch Tapatalk OFF on April 15, 2019. That is a full two weeks from now -- plenty enough time to familiarize yourself with using a regular browser to access this site, create a bookmark, play around with it, and so forth.
I wanted you all to have plenty of warning about this. Only a minority of folks (perhaps a few dozen to 50 total) use Tapatalk with any regularity, so this will not impact many of you in any way. For those who DO use Tapatalk, I think you will be very pleasantly surprised about the experience with the forum that you will have with your device.
Your personal privacy and security (and the forum's security) will both benefit from this forum no longer using Tapatalk. This is mainly a move to make your security (at least with this forum) and privacy better.
You of course are welcome to continue to use Tapatalk to access any and all other forums that you subscribe to using that app. Just no longer this forum, after April 15.
You are welcome to comment and discuss in response to this message.
Cheers,
Gerry
