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

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

#181

Post by andreygrehov » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 10:45 PM UTC

Yetanfou wrote: post #174

andreygrehov wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Reputable AdTech firms is comparable to responsible tobacco firms, both are peddling unhealthy goods, both try to whitewash their image by claiming to be above the fray. Also, it's actually in a user's best interest to allow the data to be shared. Otherwise doctors will see ads about vaping and fishers will see ads about the latest JavaScript IDEs - no, just no. First of all I can only assume that doctors are more li…

> In short, there is no need for active profiling.

Active profiling is needed so that tobacco ads do not show up in your kids' newsfeed.

> b) to make sure they don't see any ad, period.

Nobody likes ads, but there are millions of businesses with ads being the only revenue source. No ads - no service. It's not because site owners want to show you ads, it's because they cannot sustain without not showing you these ads.

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

#182

Post by dave_sid » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 10:47 PM UTC

Ansil849 wrote: post #89

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 accommoda…

In the old days people used to write letters and send them in the post. Imagine that. Anyone could hack into a letter, and they were rarely even ever encrypted. Scary.

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

#183

Post by sjs382 » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 10:48 PM UTC

sjs382 wrote: post #177

While I don't use nor know anyone on WhatsApp, I have a few friends that use FB Messenger (which I don't have on my phone) for most of their communication. Sometimes I get an email along the lines of "X sent you a message on FB Messenger". When I do, I'll jump on the computer, chat a bit, and then remind them "I don't use FB on my phone, so if I'm not near a computer reach me @ XXX-XXX-XXXX or name@example.com". Ever…

Reading other threads, I'm realizing that video chat is a bit of a blind spot for me as I don't use it socially.

If you do though, maybe that group is small enough to move the people you really care about videoing with.

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

#184

Post by dave_sid » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 10:48 PM UTC

dave_sid wrote: post #182

Ansil849 wrote: post #89

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 accommoda…

In the old days people used to write letters and send them in the post. Imagine that. Anyone could hack into a letter, and they were rarely even ever encrypted. Scary.

But then again things were better back then. Actually I’d like to go back there now.

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

#185

Post by gharman » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 10:53 PM UTC

Who controls pictures of the grandkids, controls the eyeballs.

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

#186

Post by Yetanfou » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 10:57 PM UTC

andreygrehov wrote: post #181

Yetanfou wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reputable AdTech firms is comparable to responsible tobacco firms, both are peddling unhealthy goods, both try to whitewash their image by claiming to be above the fray. Also, it's actually in a user's best interest to allow the data to be shared. Otherwise doctors will see ads about vaping and fishers will see ads about the latest JavaScript IDEs - no, just no. First of all I can only assume that doctors are more li…

> In short, there is no need for active profiling. Active profiling is needed so that tobacco ads do not show up in your kids' newsfeed. > b) to make sure they don't see any ad, period. Nobody likes ads, but there are millions of businesses with ads being the only revenue source. No ads - no service. It's not because site owners want to show you ads, it's because they cannot sustain without not showing you these ads.

> Active profiling is needed so that tobacco ads do not show up in your kids' newsfeed.

Tobacco ads should only be in publications targeted at tobacco consumers, i.e. "Smokers Digest" or whatever. Yes, that limits their exposure. That is a feature, not a bug.

On the "no ads, no service" remark I know of plenty of useful sites - this one being one of them - which get their funding from different sources. For some - me being one of them - this probably goes for the majority of sites they frequent, others might fare differently. The thing is, it is not just the fact that there are ads which turn people to ad blockers, it is the fact that there are those AdTech companies doing their best to syphon up their data so as to badger them with ads wherever they go. Had ads been like they were in magazines, i.e. anonymous and related to the subject matter, there would have been far less incentive to block them. That bird has flown a long time ago though, something for which AdTech is partly responsible next to the fact that ad servers have been used to spread malware and that the ads themselves went from simple banners to screen-dominating blinking screeching monstrosities.

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

#187

Post by oh_boy » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 11:17 PM UTC

I didn't try to convince anyone. I deleted it and people started to reach out on Signal, Telegram and Threema. A friend of mine did the same 4 years earlier and it worked out.

This probably doesn't just work for everyone, in every country. But look, people still use phones and these things actually have a phone feature. You might not be as cut off without Whatsapp as you think.

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

#188

Post by Krasnol » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 11:39 PM UTC

andreygrehov wrote: post #173

Krasnol wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not deciding anything for you. I can only recommend. You either share your data or you don't. It's your decision. I may decide because I know how ad-blockers work (and even there it drips through as you must know best) but most out there don't decide. They are being robbed along the way without even knowing it. You rob them of their data, their attention and divert it afterwards for your profit. You're being pa…

Don't you think you should blame the shop owner and not the ad company in this case? At the end of the day, it's the shop owner who came to us, not we came to them.

I don't believe it...it's the "weapons don't kill people" defence...

It is you who provide the most intrusive and aggressive weapons for this crime. The owner would have no way to do this by himself.

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

#189

Post by domano » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 11:50 PM UTC

Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #13

Steps, I've taken in order. 0. Removing myself from all active WhatsApp groups. 1. Setting the WhatsApp status to 'Message me on Signal or Email me' and not responding to non-important messages till they message on Signal or Email me. 2. When someone asks if we can continue our conversation on WhatsApp, politely informing them that I don't use WhatsApp and asking them to message on Signal. 3. Setting a Tasker auto re…

Back in the day Signal (i think it was named differently too back then) could encrypt SMS.

After they removed it due to lack of active users i gave them a bad rating on the play store only to return because i dropped my mistrust of them as a middleman.

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

#190

Post by yumraj » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 11:51 PM UTC

dave_sid wrote: post #182

Ansil849 wrote: post #89

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 accommoda…

In the old days people used to write letters and send them in the post. Imagine that. Anyone could hack into a letter, and they were rarely even ever encrypted. Scary.

Yeah but no one kept tabs on who all you were sending letters to and who all were sending letters to you, and what you were writing in those letters and so on so that they could show ads to you...