OK - I think we can all agree this is shit. What are the (serious) alternatives?
WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook
41–50 of 91 posts
Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook
#42What happens if a whatsapp user doesn't have a Facebook account? More interestingly, what if a someone never uses FB account on his/her phone, like I do?
In my case, whatsapp asks to connect to my (non existent) facebook account every few weeks!
Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook
#43Facebook paid a boat load of cash for WhatsApp. Why did you think they did it? out of the goodness of their heart? It's a business, people! and if you are not paying for it, their revenue stream must come from somewhere else. You are the product as much as the user. Get over it. If you don't like it, don't use it. Use Signal instead, which I do, and it's great. There are also alternatives like Wire, which is really g…
They removed paid subscription several months ago. It seems that they can make more money from matching WhatsApp and Facebook social graphs than from annual subscription.
Did anyone ever pay for this? I mean, did they have some algorithm that concluded I and everyone I've asked were more likely to uninstall than pay, so we were never asked?
Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook
#44To avoid this, simply collect and destroy any phones owned by your friends who might have your phone number or email in their contact lists. I always use a sledge hammer for this, but some people prefer a sturdy boot. Don't forget to recycle!
I know it's a joke, but it got me wondering: What kind of treatment do you need nowadays to actually safely destroy flash storage? I doubt a single smash from a sledgehammer/boot has a good chance of destroying SIM and internal storage and µSD card such that forensic analysis can't recover its data. Thermite?
Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook
#45What's the value of WhatsApp? It is the scale of the product. I use it because most of my friends are on it. There are many other alternatives to WhatsApp as pointed out by many in this thread, but none of them have nearly the same traction.
The only business model that allows such scale is the ad supported model. If WhatsApp was subscription based, I am sure they could not have achieved this scale. And I wouldn't have found value in it.
I realize that the ad supported model is what indirectly adds so much value to WhatsApp. Therefore, it makes sense to me to support that model if the model is reasonable enough. They have end to end encryption, which means my content is safe from prying eyes. That's already huge. So I really don't mind if they share my number with Facebook.
Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook
#46Facebook paid a boat load of cash for WhatsApp. Why did you think they did it? out of the goodness of their heart? It's a business, people! and if you are not paying for it, their revenue stream must come from somewhere else. You are the product as much as the user. Get over it. If you don't like it, don't use it. Use Signal instead, which I do, and it's great. There are also alternatives like Wire, which is really g…
They removed paid subscription several months ago. It seems that they can make more money from matching WhatsApp and Facebook social graphs than from annual subscription.
That's truly remarkable. Facebook doesn't make that much money per users (about $1/user/month, as best as I can figure). I know people who would pay twice that for a privacy-keeping subscription tier.
Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook
#47OK - I think we can all agree this is shit. What are the (serious) alternatives?
Something that's not VC funded or otherwise depending on external money sources, or you'll have the same problem again a few years down the road when $Alternative is asked to turn a profit.
Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
How creepy Facebook is finally clicked for me after I gave my neighbor my phone number once moving to a new neighborhood. You know... in case my house lights on fire or something while I'm out. That night Facebook was suggesting I add my elderly neighbors as friends. We have 0 friends in common and I don't have Facebook installed on my phone (I just use the browser) so the only excuse I have is when they added me the…
I am pretty sure Facebook also makes a friend suggestion to you when the other person searched for your name or looked at your profile at any time in the past. Maybe your neighbor searched for your name after you gave your phone number to them.
I believe FB also suggests based on location. If both were connected to FB on their phones when meeting in person, the location metadata is used.
Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook
#49Is anyone surprised by this move?
This seems part and parcel of the $19B purchase price.
Maybe now, they can make FacePhone a reality. Not having to worry about POTS phone numbers when you're dialing someone is a killer feature.
Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook
#50OK - I think we can all agree this is shit. What are the (serious) alternatives?
Something that's not VC funded or otherwise depending on external money sources, or you'll have the same problem again a few years down the road when $Alternative is asked to turn a profit.
OK, but a messenger app's usefulness is almost entirely (as with social networks) governed by its network effects. You can have the best tool in the world, but if no one uses it, it's worthless.
It's a real shame that WA decided to drop their paid model (though at the price they were asking for it's clear to see why they'd favour this model).
Do we just have to face up to the reality with social networks and communication apps such as these, which is that the power comes from most people using it, and when most people don't care (s/care/understand/) about privacy, the "freemium" (we can haz data) model is the most obvious to profit from and so the one to which all the successful businesses are drawn to?