When looking for inspiration, it's easy to come across dubious offers. Here you can read how to protect yourself from it.
As our cooperation partner checked4you reports, there are websites that entice you with numerous recipes, but some of them also offer subscription boxes.
Pasta with tomato sauce for the third time in a row? Nope, that's much more creative! But how? The Internet offers an almost endless universe of cooking recipes. And the number of rip-off attempts is at least as large as the variations of potatoes and mince.
There are websites that entice you with numerous recipes that will make every master chef's mouth water. In order to view them, you must first register.
There can be a trap lurking behind this: somewhere it says that the recipes are actually only intended for traders (e.g. companies, clubs, etc.).
But driven by curiosity, you can sometimes overlook this - and as a consumer you suddenly have to pay several hundred euros for a supposedly completed membership.
Strangely, the providers insist that you pay even though they supposedly don't make their prescriptions available to consumers. Okay, that's not okay. North Rhine-Westphalia consumer advice center has successfully sued the operator of such a website .
Data as currency
Recipe apps for smartphones or tablets should also be used with caution. Even when offered as free, they are rarely free.
The apps often crave a lot of permissions and data. You pay with them. For example, some want to read your address book or access WiFi information.
If you use such an app, the manufacturer could, among other things, find out what you eat, when and how much, how many people live in your household, what food preferences you have, when you shop where and how much money you spend on food. And in some things Supermarket data collection continues. This can make you a popular target for targeted advertising attacks.
In many free apps, only a small portion of the recipes are visible or the functions are limited. After just a few clicks, the cooking fun is over and if you're hungry for more, you first have to activate a paid full version or even a subscription.
The apps are also lucrative advertising platforms. Some of them are retail companies, food manufacturers or well-known TV chefs who garnish their app pages with advertising banners or overlay annoying windows that you first have to click away if you hit the small close field with your finger.
You should pay attention to this
- What performance does the free version of the app offer?
- What rights does she want to have? (The program doesn't actually need to scan your contact list to display recipes.)
- What data is sent to the manufacturer and what does he do with it?
- Is there a large company behind it that wants to sell its products via the app?
- What do other users say in their reviews: Is the provider reputable?
After installing, you can remove unnecessary rights from the app in your device's settings if you use Windows, iOS or Android version 6.0 (Marshmallow).
Photo credit: marcoderksen on VisualHunt / CC BY-NC
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )