What do you think of apps that pay you to install them?

[cwblanch]

Hey,

I've never heard of this stuff before. I didn't realize it was a thing
I've just come across a few (http://www.thepennyhoarder.com/12-mobile-apps-that-will-help-you-earn-extra-money/) articles that have apps and other stuff pay you to use them or just install them. In the particular article I linked, the only ones that seem kind of safe and easy to install to me are the lock screen ones, it also seems tempting to try.

But one caught my eye #4: Media Research Panel. So it actually listens to TV shows and tracks them down. This doesn't seem very safe to me.
I'm just wondering what other people think of stuff like this? Or maybe people that use/have used it. If you have used it what was your experience like?

I'm really curious about these apps and my install a lock screen one just to try it out.

[QIII]

If it sounds to good to be true ...

What this sounds like to me is "Here! We'll pay you five bucks to install an application you know nothing about. But it's safe and won't turn you machine into a bot. Honest!"

[sffvba[e0rt]

If it sounds to good to be true ...

What this sounds like to me is "Here! We'll pay you five bucks to install an application you know nothing about. But it's safe and won't turn you machine into a bot. Honest!"

Well if I had to choose I would rather get paid to have my PC become part of a botnet then it becoming one regardless by mistake :p

[Bucky Ball]

If everything you do on the net is via a Google app then it's probably not that much worse, but I'm with QIII on this one. If it looks to good to be true, then ...


Well if I had to choose I would rather get paid to have my PC become part of a botnet then it becoming one regardless by mistake :p

LOL. Fair point. Might set up an old desktop I have hanging around and just prostitute it to paid apps and nothing else. Pretty soon I'll be rolling in cash and everything I buy, watch, and basically do will be on a data base somewhere for sale to the highest bidder (which might be how the folks behind these apps can afford to pay). Perhaps data mining, but up front (as up front as it can be without actually saying 'we want to mine your data and sell it to the highest bidder' that is). Just a guess. :)

* Just had a thought while I was away: this could be a fix for unemployment! Everyone bot-ing away night and day and the poor become the rich. Hmm ...

[Habitual]

Pure garbage.

[robsoles]

If they want use of my processor and I don't think their cause worthwhile they will have to steal it off me with more imagination than sucking me into it with stuff I am ready to assume I can find reasonable similes of for (genuinely) free.

[benrob0329]

Reminds me of the Amazon reviews by people who were given something if they do a review.....I wish that would happen to me!!!

[Copper Bezel]

Review scams on sites like Amazon can be really absurd and creepy.

But these "paying" apps are all of one of two classes - survey apps or, in the case of ibotta and maybe some others, just a different delivery mechanism for coupons. They're paying you, by micropayment, to do market research for them on yourself.

It's not a scam, and it's not a thermodynamic miracle in economic form. Things like this existed before they were apps. Buuuut ... you're being paid for an invasion of your privacy, and filtering out the real ones from "WIN AN iPad BY CLICKING THIS BANNER" wouldn't be easy. I'd personally consider paid blood donation first in a pinch.

[cwblanch]

I think in the end I'm going to just not do it. It doesn't seem especially safe, and totally "too good to be true"
Not to mention from all the stuff I've read about it, it seems like you're doing a ton of busy work for literally pennies.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq]

LOL. Fair point. Might set up an old desktop I have hanging around and just prostitute it to paid apps and nothing else. Pretty soon I'll be rolling in cash and everything I buy, watch, and basically do will be on a data base somewhere for sale to the highest bidder (which might be how the folks behind these apps can afford to pay). Perhaps data mining, but up front (as up front as it can be without actually saying 'we want to mine your data and sell it to the highest bidder' that is). Just a guess. :)

* Just had a thought while I was away: this could be a fix for unemployment! Everyone bot-ing away night and day and the poor become the rich. Hmm ...Why use a old desktop, just use a virtualbox (apt:virtualbox) with and cap the CPU, ram, and net speed

[Linuxratty]

I think in the end I'm going to just not do it. It doesn't seem especially safe, and totally "too good to be true"
Not to mention from all the stuff I've read about it, it seems like you're doing a ton of busy work for literally pennies.

This is so very true. And they are laughing all the way to the bank.