Field Notes are the in-between work - research, methodology, the threads that did not fit the chapter. New ones land roughly every week. Members read the full text. Anyone can read the titles and the first paragraph.
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June 10, 2026
The grading system in Digitally Undressed did not start as a letter grade. It started as a threat model. Here is the methodology behind the rubric - and why some apps keep landing in the F tier even after their privacy makeovers.
The first version of the grading rubric was a spreadsheet with fourteen columns. Collection scope, data retention policy, third-party sharing, opt-out friction, breach history, regulatory actions, and eight more. Each column got a score from zero to three. The totals mapped to a letter grade.
That spreadsheet is still how the grades get calculated. The letter grade is just the last step. An F does not mean the app is unusable. It means the data collection practices, breach record, and opt-out design collectively hit a threshold where the risk-to-benefit math stops working for most users. Some people will run the same math and land differently. The rubric makes the math visible so you can disagree with it honestly.
Collection scope is the heaviest column. It is not just what the app collects from you while you are using it. It is what the app collects when you are not - background location pings, contact list harvesting, behavioral signals inferred from how long you hold your thumb still on a photo. An app that collects only what it needs to function starts at a three. An app that collects across surfaces you do not realize are connected starts losing points fast.
Opt-out friction is the column that surprises people most. Some apps earn a low score not because they refuse to stop collecting, but because the path to stopping is deliberately exhausting. Count the taps. Count how many times the app re-asks after you said no. Count whether the opt-out page loads behind a spinner that times out. That friction is a product decision. It belongs in the score.
The methodology is not in the book because fourteen columns of spreadsheet would kill the pacing. But it is not a vibe. Every grade in Volume I has a scoring sheet behind it. This note is the start of making those sheets public, for anyone who wants to check the work or run the same rubric against an app I have not graded yet.
If you want the full scoring template, it goes out to members. The link is in your welcome email.
- Avery
