HolderComm AI Transformation, Digital Strategy & Creative Services

Somewhere between the third pop-up asking us to “sign in to continue,” the gray-on-gray opt-out button and the 32nd app requesting location access “only while using,” something broke. Not technically. Psychologically.

By Eric Holder, HolderComm AI Transformation Consultant

I’m talking about a growing phenomenon I’ve observed—and increasingly felt myself—around smartphone app fatigue. It’s not just about annoying design. It’s about trust, control and a broader shift in how users view their relationship with digital platforms.

This isn’t theoretical for me. I’ve been working in digital infrastructure, data strategy and user-facing systems since the early 2000s—starting with my first tech startup, ISP, in the aughts.

We launched ISP as an SEO-focused agency, helping businesses gain visibility in a fast-evolving web. But that work quickly evolved. Clients weren’t just asking how to rank higher. They were asking how to build better sites, how to scale in the cloud and how to extract insight from the data they were collecting.

ISP expanded into web development, cloud integration and business intelligence services. We were helping companies answer not just “Where are my users?” but “What are they doing, and how do we serve them better?”

That evolution—from traffic to insight, from exposure to intelligence—taught me early how data becomes valuable only when used responsibly. That lesson continues to echo today.

From On-Prem to Insight: Trust as Infrastructure

Later, during my time at LSI, I worked with channel partners like Rackspace, who at the time were powering Facebook’s infrastructure through on-prem data centers. It was a different world—hardware-centric, physical, localized. When businesses owned the stack, the assumptions about privacy and data access were much clearer.

That clarity faded as we moved to cloud.

At Virtustream, I helped guide global enterprises, governments and service providers through complex cloud transformation journeys. Working through Dell and EMC partnerships and deep SAP alliances, we moved mission-critical data—ERP systems, structured datasets, analytics platforms—into secure cloud environments.

Virtustream wasn’t just about IaaS. It was about managing sensitive data with care. We helped companies unlock operational insight from structured data while ensuring they could control access, track performance and meet compliance demands. That experience taught me that data governance and ethical design aren’t secondary to innovation—they’re prerequisites.

At Cloudreach, we scaled that transformation. Partnering with major hyperscalers, we helped modernize enterprises from infrastructure up. And even then, long before “app fatigue” was a common phrase, I was already seeing the tension between frictionless UX and meaningful consent.

Consumer UX Hasn’t Kept Up

That’s why the current consumer app ecosystem feels so disconnected from what I’ve seen work at scale. Many mobile apps still operate on an extractive model: collect data first, ask for permission later. Force sign-ups. Obscure the settings. Default to “yes.”

And users are noticing.

A 2022 study published in Frontiers in Computer Science found that people are significantly less likely to install apps that request sensitive data without clear justification. Another analysis of over 2 million app reviews found even subtle privacy concerns were tightly linked to poor trust and higher uninstall rates.

A 2025 investigation by Which? revealed that installing 20 top apps meant agreeing to 882 permissions, including risky access to location, photos and microphone. Some used dark patterns—grayed-out opt-outs, persistent nags—to coerce user agreement.

This isn’t just a design flaw. It’s a strategic miscalculation.

Generational Aversion, Shared Recognition

What’s fascinating is how this plays out generationally:

• Boomers are highly cautious. Their avoidance of invasive apps is rooted in a deep concern over fraud and misuse.

• Gen X—my cohort—balances comfort with skepticism. We use the tech, but we question the tradeoffs.

• Millennials are practical. They’re more likely to accept some tracking for convenience but expect clear value in return.

• Gen Z may appear indifferent, but research shows they’re keenly aware of data use—especially around identity, privacy and surveillance. They’ll engage, but they don’t blindly trust.

Across all generations, one thing is clear: pattern recognition is setting in. Users are no longer passive. They’re observant. And increasingly, they’re choosing less—fewer apps, tighter settings, more “no thanks.”

Rebuilding the Trust Layer

For those of us building the future of digital systems—AI platforms, SaaS products, content experiences—this is a wake-up call.

We’ve reached the limits of what can be achieved through frictionless collection and opaque policies. The next wave of innovation will come not from gathering more, but from giving more: more transparency, more control, more value in exchange for trust.

That means:

• Eliminating manipulative design patterns and forced registrations

• Designing intuitive, opt-in-first flows for data use

• Explaining the why behind every data request

• Embedding consent as a user feature, not just a compliance box

Where We Go From Here

App aversion isn’t a backlash. It’s a correction. It’s a signal that users—consumers, professionals, even digital natives—are no longer willing to give away control in exchange for convenience.

As someone who’s worked across SEO, cloud, data intelligence and AI transformation, I believe the path forward isn’t about nudging harder. It’s about designing better.

And it starts by remembering what we learned back when we built the early internet: you can’t earn attention if you lose trust.

#AppFatigue #PrivacyByDesign #CloudStrategy #UXDesign #AILeadership #DataEthics #DigitalTrust #ConsentIsAFeature