WhatsApp's new privacy policy is so bad it might be illegal • Hacker News Board

Re: WhatsApp's new privacy policy is so bad it might be illegal

#211

Post by patch_cable » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 3:59 PM UTC

emptysongglass wrote: post #204

chii wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “but I can’t bear to stop using em!” well, it requires sacrifice on your part to stop messaging your friends. Most people would not give up their friends for "the greater good" of stopping privacy intrusion (which won't have an effect until the majority of people give up whatsapp first). I can see why most people won't fight the good fight.

Your really good friends won't stop messaging you just because you've left Facebook. If anything, leaving Facebook was a wake-up call as to who my very good friends were.

“Really good friends” aren’t the only friends worth staying in touch with.

Re: WhatsApp's new privacy policy is so bad it might be illegal

#212

Post by daviross » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 4:05 PM UTC

sneak wrote: post #198

rawfan wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://signal.org/blog/update-on-beta-testing-payments/

Signal intends to use a cryptocurrency called Mobilecoin, not Bitcoin.

To a reasonable approximation, they're the same thing. (You know they aren't, I know they aren't, I also *don't particularly care, either*)

Re: WhatsApp's new privacy policy is so bad it might be illegal

#213

Post by joelthelion » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 4:15 PM UTC

inputmice wrote: post #110

Quicksy.im / Conversations.im developer here. I promise I’ll never implement crypto currency into my messenger apps.¹ Even if I break my promise you could just use a fork of my app since XMPP servers don’t prevent third party clients from connecting. ¹: I don’t have to either because I have a working business model that’s not a ponzi scheme

What's your business model?

Re: WhatsApp's new privacy policy is so bad it might be illegal

#214

Post by emptysongglass » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 4:40 PM UTC

patch_cable wrote: post #211

emptysongglass wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your really good friends won't stop messaging you just because you've left Facebook. If anything, leaving Facebook was a wake-up call as to who my very good friends were.

“Really good friends” aren’t the only friends worth staying in touch with.

My life is rich in social engagements and I don't need Facebook to do it. And now that I'm off Facebook, the friendships I do have have grown immeasurably in closeness. My overall stress has plummeted.

I strongly believe that platforms like Facebook and Twitter are extremely harmful to social cohesion and mental health.

Re: WhatsApp's new privacy policy is so bad it might be illegal

#215

Post by jimkleiber » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 4:46 PM UTC

marton78 wrote: post #105

jimkleiber wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure for you, but what makes WhatsApp the stickiest for me out of the chat apps is the statuses (stories). I start many of my conversations on WA by seeing someone's status (story). On Signal, Telegram, or even iMessage, there isn't that nudge to restart the conversation. I think if those platforms made some story-like feature, I'd have an easier time leaving WhatsApp.

That's funny, I don't know anyone who uses that feature.

Fascinating! Maybe it depends on the region...I have many friends in East Africa and they seem to use it all the time. This has inspired me to look more closely at which friends actually post and which ones view the statuses. Thanks!

Re: WhatsApp's new privacy policy is so bad it might be illegal

#216

Post by jimkleiber » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 4:46 PM UTC

josteink wrote: post #189

jimkleiber wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure for you, but what makes WhatsApp the stickiest for me out of the chat apps is the statuses (stories). I start many of my conversations on WA by seeing someone's status (story). On Signal, Telegram, or even iMessage, there isn't that nudge to restart the conversation. I think if those platforms made some story-like feature, I'd have an easier time leaving WhatsApp.

> Not sure for you, but what makes WhatsApp the stickiest for me out of the chat apps is the statuses (stories). For me it's the other way around. I've stopped using all platforms which offers that "feature", because I find it distracting and annoying.

Haha that makes sense, too. Thanks for sharing your perspective!

Re: WhatsApp's new privacy policy is so bad it might be illegal

#217

Post by jimkleiber » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 4:48 PM UTC

jcelerier wrote: post #127

jimkleiber wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure for you, but what makes WhatsApp the stickiest for me out of the chat apps is the statuses (stories). I start many of my conversations on WA by seeing someone's status (story). On Signal, Telegram, or even iMessage, there isn't that nudge to restart the conversation. I think if those platforms made some story-like feature, I'd have an easier time leaving WhatsApp.

I have never ever seen anyone around me do a WhatsApp story

As I mentioned in a different comment, maybe it depends on the region, with many of my friends who post being from East Africa. Would you mind sharing in which part of the world are most of your WhatsApp contacts living?

Re: WhatsApp's new privacy policy is so bad it might be illegal

#218

Post by RealStickman_ » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 6:13 PM UTC

minot wrote: post #61

lmm wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any time there's a project that's almost open-source, almost open standards, that's how it ends up going. If you'd gone for Matrix you wouldn't have that problem, because even if their developers decide to embed some bitcoin nonsense into the official client, the protocol and ecosystem is much bigger than that.

You might say that well I’m no worse off than before which is true but still feels weird that I was unable to use my existing riot im account when I wanted to sign into Mozilla’s riot server. I ended up creating a different login for Mozilla’s riot. I think of myself as a technophile but element/matrix/riot made me eat the humble pie.

There is currently no way to port user profiles between homeservers of matrix. They have it planned, but I don't know the current progress on that.

Re: WhatsApp's new privacy policy is so bad it might be illegal

#219

Post by 29083011397778 » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 6:58 PM UTC

ptman wrote: post #180

29083011397778 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible you were trying to login without the full path? You're email isn't minot, it's minot@hckrnews.com. Similarly, on Matrix, your username isn't minot, but minot@matrix.org. Trying to sign in with your provider can be non-obvious, and would also cause the issue it sounds like you were having :)

Small correction. The syntax for MXIDs is @minot:matrix.org, not minot@matrix.org in order to prevent people from mixing it with emails.

My mistake! I must have been stuck thinking on the email analogy

Re: WhatsApp's new privacy policy is so bad it might be illegal

#220

Post by bruckie » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 9:16 PM UTC

walterbell wrote: post #166

There are three pre-requisites to escaping the messenger silo treadmill: 1. multi-vendor, open standard protocol for E2EE group messaging 2. reference open-source clients for web, desktop & mobile 3. reference open-source server Wire is contributing to #1 and they have a high-quality iOS (OSS) client and OSS server. Their Android and web clients are less stellar, but exist and can be improved. The iOS Arm client will…

4. Economic incentives for the current entrenched players to participate, or for everyone to abandon the entrenched players for new open ones.

That's by far the hardest part, and I'm skeptical it will happen anytime soon. I suspect things will shift eventually as the market changes (e.g. the shift from desktop to mobile), but I doubt it will be toward openness absent government regulation the forces it.