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WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

reuters.com

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Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#351

Post by dnautics »

crdb wrote: post #287
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is strange because France is, philosophically, a "communist" country and sharing economy innovation is usually welcome and happily embraced; // When I (UK) think of France in this context I think they're strongly in to workers rights and that probably Uber aren't (based on the kerfuffle in London)? That makes it completely unsurprising to me that Uber wouldn't be doing well in France?? Uber is super-capitalism,…

I'm not talking about politically, but about philosophy or spirit. Compared to the Anglosphere megacities, there is a certain comradeship amongst the French (which you find in other countries, like Japan), a sense of shared fate and community spirit, the idea that this goes before profit and efficiency. The use of the word communism was deliberately ambiguous and a bit of a pun given the leaning of a sizeable portion…

Just FYI usually in English we would say communitarian where a French person might be tempted to translate as communistic or communist. Communist in common English is pretty much restricted to the political philosophy.

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#352

Post by pjmlp »

supergarfield wrote: post #315
pierrebeaucamp wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that matters at all. Many countries have their own debit card system and for what it's worth, I think EC cards are great debit cards. They can, however, not replace credit cards. All the benefits from credit cards really come from the fact that you're paying with credit: - Travel a lot? They sure accept Visa. - Want to pay some street vendor? Square is only possible because they don't need to dial your…

The advantages you give aren't directly related to the cards being real credit cards, though. Visa debit cards work fine all over the world, and with Stripe. (In my experience it's very common in Europe for debit cards to be dual network, domestic and Visa or MasterCard. I don't know about Germany, though.) The real advantages of credit are spending money you don't have, and points/cashback.

You can get them with debit cards as well, depending on your bank account contract.

On some banks there are bank accounts with automatic credit, up to a certain limit of expenses.

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#353

Post by rifung »

omnimus wrote: post #299
rifung wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also most of the restaurants hide their revenues from tax authorities (it was recently in the news) - otherwise the prices will be much higher, like our neighbors have (France, Italy). Perhaps I'm misunderstanding but are you arguing that it's good restaurants evade taxes because it keeps their prices low?

Totally legit reason in some countries. In Czech republic this became such a topic that half a year ago the government implemented a new system. Now every single payment cash or cashless has to be sent in real time to central gov server. This also means that every merchant has to have digital terminal so almost all of them accept credit cards. Many restaurants (especially those with good service + good price) had to…

> Totally legit reason in some countries.

Sorry but what is a legit reason and it's a legit reason for what?

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#354

Post by cunningfatalist »

rconti wrote: post #255
juanmirocks wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Munich, Bavaria, and, to give an example, in most restaurants you will not be able to pay with a credit card. Having said that, you can pay once you reach a minimum amount with what they call an "EC-Karte", a sort of debit card.

Yup, this was quite surprising to me having travelled a fair bit but not been to Germany in 10 years or so. "I'm supposed to pay my dinner bill at a fancy restaurant.. in.. cash?"

EC card works 99% of the time.

As a side note, I also use my German EC card abroad. Fees are surprisingly low and it is accepted in more countries than you'd expect.

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#355

Post by cunningfatalist »

mancerayder wrote: post #52
teekert wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm taking baby steps towards Signal. I think 10% now of my regular "apping" is on Signal. There is still some on Telegram as well.

I love Signal but the reason why WhatsApp is so appealing is that there's a desktop client. I hate having to rely on my phone for texting people.

I can recommend Threema. Also has a decent browser app.

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#356

Post by pjmlp »

pgeorgi wrote: post #266
juanmirocks wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. I'm European, and I sure miss my perceived greater freedom and innovation of economical activities in the US. Things like having UBER banned for example in France or Germany completely throws me off. And in Germany you don't know yet what's living without cash and only with a credit card. And those damn cookie notices!! Because they show up in every page, everybo…

> And in Germany you don't know yet what's living without cash and only with a credit card. That's because we had our own system established in 1984 (ELV, electronic direct debit based on the EC cards mentioned elsewhere). From a German point of view, a credit card is a downgrade. - The system covered all German banks (private banks, public banks = Sparkassen, credit unions) because they got their act together and se…

In Portugal is even a bit better, because all banks got around SIBS, which created a kind of mini-Internet with ATMs machines.

So we can use our debit cards for buying tickets for trains, concerts, cinema, money transfer, paying Internet shops, charging pre-pay phones,...

All without paying ATM taxes, regardless of the bank of origin.

So the majority of people, if they aren't traveling abroad or buying Internet stuff on foreign shops, don't have any need for credit cards.

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#357

Post by jamiequint »

michel-slm wrote: post #345
jamiequint wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't your best choice when it comes to privacy to choose which services to use and which ones not to use, rather than relying on your government dictate rules they don't fully understand to companies which may put their entire business at risk? In other words, in terms of things you care about absolute data privacy may be #1 on your list, others may be willing to accept less privacy for an internet that can continue…

It's not as simple as choosing which service not to use - for example, people who have your details in their address book might inadvertently leak your data without your knowledge. So while I agree that people should be free to trade privacy for other things like getting a free service, I do wish there are stronger regulations to protect people who choose to opt out. And better transparency on how your data is being…

That argument basically distills to: someone I have a contract with might break the contract, so I think the government should either prevent them from creating that contract or should actively audit that the party I want to do a deal with is fulfilling their end of the deal. Why should this be the responsibility of legislators ex ante rather than the responsibility of the court system ex post facto?

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#358

Post by slimshady94 »

pjmlp wrote: post #356
pgeorgi wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And in Germany you don't know yet what's living without cash and only with a credit card. That's because we had our own system established in 1984 (ELV, electronic direct debit based on the EC cards mentioned elsewhere). From a German point of view, a credit card is a downgrade. - The system covered all German banks (private banks, public banks = Sparkassen, credit unions) because they got their act together and se…

In Portugal is even a bit better, because all banks got around SIBS, which created a kind of mini-Internet with ATMs machines. So we can use our debit cards for buying tickets for trains, concerts, cinema, money transfer, paying Internet shops, charging pre-pay phones,... All without paying ATM taxes, regardless of the bank of origin. So the majority of people, if they aren't traveling abroad or buying Internet stuff…

So would bitcoin be a step back here?

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#359

Post by omnimus »

bousaid wrote: post #306
tomcooks wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cookie popup is terrible, I agree. Some pros: Being able to force social networks to provide me with a physical copy of my data is alone a reason to get an EU citizenship. I don't even use the social networks, i just demand my data every 3 months to FB, Tinder and Linkedin to punish them for being so aggressive in their spamming and tracking. Being safe from throttling, censorship and all the nice stuff that US I…

Wow. What sort of data do they send?

This varies in strange ways. I dont know how facebook does this and if i could get more but i have seen facebook datasets from three people including mine.

Usualy it is all photos and vids yove uploaded, comments etc.

Mine was most complete. Including some sort of keywords tags i am interested in. Not things i followed but what fb thinks i like.

Other datasets did not include this but one included all the times someone connected to the account including IP and location.

Re: WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

#360

Post by gmueckl »

darklajid wrote: post #333
brisance wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems a German minister is not entirely on board with privacy. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/government/germany-pre...

He is a nutjob, always has been. And part of the stupidity seems to come with his job: Everyone sitting in that chair seems to believe that crime has to be reduced before all. He asking for random access to every device is like the minister of agriculture asking for stable and higher milk prices. Expected. He's unfortunately not just sputtering what he wants, he also wants stupid and dangerous things and likes to pla…

The surprising part here is that every minister in that position started to spout the exact same nonsense, regardless of his party association. I really wonder how that is even possible.

I wish we would get a true liberal in that position soon, but our liberals are more concerned with deregulating companies than with citizen's rights.

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