For as long as you have been a member of your local gym, you have used a small plastic tag to access it. But now the tag no longer works. Instead, you have to download an app to get inside for your workout – and that app requires location access and Bluetooth access, which would allow it to track your location within the gym, and potentially anywhere based on the Bluetooth signal.

This is just one example of being forced to use apps where we otherwise might not want to. It happens if we want to communicate with government, to engage with health services, to authenticate our identities, and so much more.

In many ways, this is a consequence of the very success of mobile apps: they have become handy tools for a litany of everyday tasks, and an indispensable part of life. And while it might seem innocuous, this proliferation of apps comes with several hidden problems. So what’s driving it? And how can it be fixed?

The Apple App Store launched in July 2008 with 500 apps. It had 50,000 by the end of its first year. By 2013, it had roughly one million. It........

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