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Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#81

Post by system2 »

01635 wrote: post #5

I tried asking my parents to switch to Signal, but it did not fly. They are in their 70s and are used to WhatsApp. They don't care about privacy. My Mom yelled at me for endorsing Signal to her. She said: "All my friends are on WhatsApp. I don't want to install another app just because of one person."

Exactly. No one I know cares about privacy nor another app for other reasons. Whatever is popular they will use. Family members are already used to Whatsapp. It is nearly impossible to switch them to something else now.

Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#82

Post by yabones »

I started switching people over 3-4 years ago. My strategy was to wait for people to need help with their phone, then casually install it there (with their permission) after I had fixed whatever was wrong with it. I've found that people are more receptive to a 'new thing' after they get a little dopamine hit from something getting 'fixed'.

Obviously, that's a little different now with distancing & public safety measures...

Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#83

Post by fsflover »

andreygrehov wrote: post #14

I don't use any messenger apps, but I work in AdTech. Just curious, what exactly are you trying to hide? What kind of information is being shared by WhatsApp?

> what exactly are you trying to hide?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25416123

Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#84

Post by rcstank »

ericmay wrote: post #47
gtirloni wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck saying good riddance to your immediate family.

If you lose contact with your immediate family because of a messaging platform it's not really a great relationship that needs to be maintained anyway. You can visit, call, text, or email too.

It's actually setting a healthy boundary. If they don't want to reach me on Signal, that's fine. There are other ways to talk to each other rather than text messaging.

Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#85

Post by mbesto »

I just did it with my family, who use FB and know at a high level why FB is bad. Here's what I said:

"WhatsApp is now sucking all of your convos (including baby photos, etc.) into Facebook with their recent policy update. We're switching our family group chat to Signal".

My mom, who's nearly 70 did it almost instantaneously.

EDIT: My parents began to understand why FB is bad by reading books and watching documentaries. Those spooked them about how harmful it is for kids. So the "think of the children" might be a good motivator too.

Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#86

Post by andreygrehov »

bitcharmer wrote: post #74
andreygrehov wrote: post #14

I don't use any messenger apps, but I work in AdTech. Just curious, what exactly are you trying to hide? What kind of information is being shared by WhatsApp?

> what exactly are you trying to hide The contents of my messages, photos of my kids, who I talk to and when, my location. Is that enough for you?

Do they explicitly say it? If yes, how do they use this information? Any phone uploads your photos to a cloud these days.

Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#87

Post by fsflover »

andreygrehov wrote: post #80
Yetanfou wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you serious here? Working in AdTech - which does (or at least should) translate to "working on undoing the good which used to be the public internet" - you most certainly realise, and possibly salivate over the breadth and width of Facebook's means to profile 'net users, whether those be actual Facebook (as in "Facebook the site, Instagram, WhatsApp and whatever other company they reeled in") users or otherwise.…

I am 100% serious. I get the "ad-free public internet" nostalgia, but ads is an inevitable component of our economy. The good old internet was good only because it was something new and unknown. The very first newspapers did not have ads. 100 years after, Benjamin Franklin pulled the trigger and started a column for advertisers to promote their products and services. Ads are valuable. They can make a huge difference…

Ads and personalized ads are two very different things. Duckduckgo works fine on the former.

Personalized ads put you into an information buble, collect your personal data and manipulate you into buying what you don't need, harming you and the environment. See also: https://www.socialcooling.com/.

Also, what Facebook is doing is beyond unethical: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24579498.

Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#89

Post by Ansil849 »

I have stopped communicating with friends and family who try communicating via insecure apps. I send a response saying I will only read Signal or similar messages from them.

Some think this is a hardline, but my security is important to me, and true friends and family need to respect that.

It's kind of like how my sister is vegan, so when she comes over for dinner, I cook vegan dishes for her. I respect and accommodate her lifestyle choices, and she does likewise by communicating with me via my preferred medium. Conversely, for example, I no longer talk to one cousin because he ignored requests to use a safe messaging app, and that is OK too.

Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#90

Post by bitcharmer »

andreygrehov wrote: post #86
bitcharmer wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what exactly are you trying to hide The contents of my messages, photos of my kids, who I talk to and when, my location. Is that enough for you?

Do they explicitly say it? If yes, how do they use this information? Any phone uploads your photos to a cloud these days.

> how do they use this information?

I don't know. Do you? The terms and conditions say they do it for "operating and providing our Services". It's vague on purpose. And it's not only FB, it's their "business partners" (read it as: whoever pays us) too.

"As part of the Facebook family of companies, WhatsApp receives information from, and shares information with, this family of companies. We may use the information we receive from them, and they may use the information we share with them, to help operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services and their offerings. This includes helping improve infrastructure and delivery systems, understanding how our Services or theirs are used, securing systems, and fighting spam, abuse, or infringement activities. Facebook and the other companies in the Facebook family also may use information from us to improve your experiences within their services such as making product suggestions (for example, of friends or connections, or of interesting content) and showing relevant offers and ads. However, your WhatsApp messages will not be shared onto Facebook for others to see. In fact, Facebook will not use your WhatsApp messages for any purpose other than to assist us in operating and providing our Services."

https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/updates/privacy-policy/?lang=...

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