Fantastical & Privacy

[DCIFRTHS]

I love the interface of Fantastical - I've used it in the past. What concerns me is the security of my data. I've read the privacy information on the Flexbits website here and here. I am wondering what the community thinks about using a third party app, like Fantastical, and giving it access to my Mac/iPhone calendars. Thoughts?

 

[maflynn]

What concerns me is the security of my data.

Seems like Fantastical collects a lot. If you're comfortable with them collecting this information, keep using it. It seems more of a personal decision. It doesn't matter what the community thinks as much as, are you willing to give Fantastical access to these items listed below?

Seems like a no brainer to me, but I'm generally a fairly privacy minded person

Personal Information​

We collect information that personally identifies, relates to, describes, or is capable of being associated with you (“Personal Information”), including:

• Identifiers such as name, email address, IP address, billing address, phone number, device ID;
• Commercial Information such as transaction history, payment method information, content of correspondence with us such as emails, chats, or text messages, crash reports, usage analytics, customer satisfaction surveys;
• User-Created Data such as events, tasks, meeting proposals, reminders, contacts, calendar names, meeting templates, notes; and
• Geolocation Information (approximate).

 

[DCIFRTHS]

Seems like Fantastical collects a lot. If you're comfortable with them collecting this information, keep using it. It seems more of a personal decision. It doesn't matter what the community thinks as much as, are you willing to give Fantastical access to these items listed below?

Seems like a no brainer to me, but I'm generally a fairly privacy minded person

I’m not comfortable with them having all this data.

My dilemma is this: I am trying to convince myself that I am comfortable because I like the program.

I’m going to go with my gut and not give away my data..

Thanks for the smack in the head

 

[Ursadorable]

Considering how corporations as a whole seem to only pay lip service when it comes to securing customer's data, and when a breach happens, it's "Whoops! We're sorry."... I've found the less data corporations have on users, the better.

As it is, Apple is starting to become just as egregious in collecting hoovering up user data (like the whole Siri Suggestions access to application data that defaults to on, and how you have to manually turn off each application from Siri's grasp). It's still a step up from Microsoft's CoPilot, which isn't saying much.

 

[NoBoMac]

Take with a grain of salt, but cited privacy policy reads like a standard boilerplate that just about everyone uses, but if dig deeper (grain of salt part), you get this FAQ.

Privacy | FAQ

Information about Flexibits, your data, and your privacy.

flexibits.com

Quick glance, they claim to only pull in data when using Openings and Watch app.

There are other apps I've seen that for some reason require signing up for an account on their servers to push data to Watches, so might use their apps but sure as heck am not going to use their Watch app. And one reason why I no longer use Fantastical on iOS (still have it on Mac).

 

[DCIFRTHS]

Thanks for all the input. I have decided against using it due to security concerns.

 

[DCIFRTHS]

Take with a grain of salt, but cited privacy policy reads like a standard boilerplate that just about everyone uses, but if dig deeper (grain of salt part), you get this FAQ.

Privacy | FAQ

Information about Flexibits, your data, and your privacy.

flexibits.com

Quick glance, they claim to only pull in data when using Openings and Watch app.

There are other apps I've seen that for some reason require signing up for an account on their servers to push data to Watches, so might use their apps but sure as heck am not going to use their Watch app. And one reason why I no longer use Fantastical on iOS (still have it on Mac).

Curious as to why you use it on the Mac? I’m assuming it still can transmit data that is personal. Is it because you don’t have to create an account?

 

[NoBoMac]

Curious as to why you use it on the Mac? I’m assuming it still can transmit data that is personal. Is it because you don’t have to create an account?

TLDR: just 'cause.

Spent $$ ages ago for it. When they went subscription, something got messed up on iOS side of things and was "upgraded" to the new subscription version and could not get back features that I was supposedly entitled to as being grandfathered in, so went with different app there (Calendar 366).

Did not want to pay for some other calendaring app, not a fan of (now free) Outlook, so kept the Mac version of Fantastical.

Most of my use of calendar is on iOS, particularly phone since that's with me all the time, so not using Mac side of things a lot.

Nothing in my calendar is particularly sensitive (no codes, generally no locations, doctor's appointments generally are just last name for them and no notes why, "Gym", "Breakfast with family", etc) so if by some chance it's getting Hoovered, meh. Just having a smart phone, email, messaging, cloud stuff, credit cards, bank accounts, etc leaves a big enough trail to follow, not going to stress my calendar.