B is an illusion, and it seems like about 90% of the time it's used for dumb or bad purposes even if it did work.

Locks can be picked. We still make and use locks.

If a type of lock was overwhelmingly used for bad reasons, and only worked when someone didn't cover their hands (analog pictures), I'd be arguing against that type of lock too.

▲

nxc18 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Is it a “bad reason”? Millions of people chose to use Snapchat specifically because of how it handles screenshots. It is a feature even if you don’t like it.

Many people would find it inconvenient to find another device to take a picture with. And that manual picture would then have baked-in evidence that it was taken surreptitiously.

Locks keep honest people honest, as long as the app is up front about it and lets users make the choice, I don’t mind.

▲

Dylan16807 6 hours ago | parent [-]

I said 90% and not a higher number because of Snapchat. It's not the example of bad reasons.

Nobody deliberately opted in to random information hiding in a more general purpose app, or watermarking, or DRM.

▲

nxc18 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Another view of it is that’s just a creative use of the medium. An interactive button doesn’t serve any purpose in the screenshot, so why not find a better use for that space.

When I’m in Safari, taking a screenshot can turn into a totally separate operation (full page scrolling screenshot) and that’s a good feature.

Others complain about Google Maps showing a popup telling the user about location sharing upon screenshot - I think that makes a lot of sense, considering it doesn’t show up in the screenshot and dismisses easily.

I’m very harsh on user hostile choices, in fact I spend a lot of time ranting and raving about it, but I just don’t see that here.

	▲	Dylan16807 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The ability to show exactly what you had on your screen is one of the biggest uses of screenshots. The ability for apps to do this kind of thing breaks that use. Offering something better can be valuable (sometimes) but don't alter the screenshot itself.