The new TOS didn't really change much for one to one conversation but it exposed the previous TOS when people started comparing clauses and actually read it. I accepted the terms and use WhatsApp if I absolutely have to. No personal stuff there. They still have my metadata but I've tried to give them as little data as possible. No status and no profile photo. No Google drive backups.
Ask HN: Have you accepted the TOS that give FB access to your WhatsApp data?
101–110 of 199 posts
Re: Ask HN: Have you accepted the TOS that give FB access to your WhatsApp data?
#102I deleted my Facebook account years ago. Friends and family remember to reach out when something important is happening. I'd highly recommend it.
Re: Ask HN: Have you accepted the TOS that give FB access to your WhatsApp data?
#103Nope, I'm still stubbornly dismissing it every time it appears! It's been several months now, I think, and AFAIK nothing bad has happened as a result.
yes, nothing bad happened for me neither. Everything seems to work as expected. Or maybe, everyone that accepted in the meantime has received a brand new Meta VR headset maybe :D?
Headsets? Man, you're behind the curve. We are all floating in our Otherland haptic tanks now, immersed in tactile gel and walking unimaginable rich worlds. Plus we get to entertain The Zuck, our king. Should've accepted that policy.
Seriously though, I didn't accept either. Should really set an auto-reply before removing account. Thinking of Watomatic.
Re: Ask HN: Have you accepted the TOS that give FB access to your WhatsApp data?
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
So it's like saying "Everything that you say to XYZ business we can listen in on"? Would we accept that from our phone companies? Does the term "business" include governments as well?
Yes we would. Since regular phone calls aren't encrypted, not to speak of E2EE, phone companies can listen on all calls. Of course I suspect Meta actually will listen on business calls while traditional phone companies will most likely only do so after a court order, but we put the bar much higher with digital services compared to regular phone calls.
That's because there's no monetary reason for the phone company to listen in but Facebook is all about listening and recording.
Re: Ask HN: Have you accepted the TOS that give FB access to your WhatsApp data?
#105Nope.. but it keep nagging every now an then
Re: Ask HN: Have you accepted the TOS that give FB access to your WhatsApp data?
#106I wasn't using WhatsApp much anyway, so I just deleted my account. My primary IM services are Telegram and VKontakte.
Instagram though... Can't imagine getting off of it anytime soon.
Re: Ask HN: Have you accepted the TOS that give FB access to your WhatsApp data?
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure outside Europe, but here last time I checked it basically said that whenever you talk with a business account you are basically talking with Facebook, otherwise nothing else changes. Still will be nice to have another opinion.
So it's like saying "Everything that you say to XYZ business we can listen in on"? Would we accept that from our phone companies? Does the term "business" include governments as well?
If you buy something from a shop, everything related to that transaction is known to the shop partners.
If you talk to an automated machine over phone, everything you say will be recorded.
This seems similar, all you say to the business will be logged by Facebook. But not because you use WhatsApp, but because the business choosed Facebook to "help" with all its transactions. If you talk to a business via telegram/Twitter/matrix/etc, and the business uses a Facebook backend, all you say can be recorded and used by Facebook.
By business I'm referring to WhatsApp business accounts.
Re: Ask HN: Have you accepted the TOS that give FB access to your WhatsApp data?
#108Nope. I refuse. It has stopped asking me as of late, though.
Still refusing. Can't drop it because my old relatives still use it
Re: Ask HN: Have you accepted the TOS that give FB access to your WhatsApp data?
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most people don't care. In all fairness my beef with Facebook is their inability to manage user data in addition to their empire of community driven misinformation empire. With some slightly above average googling skills you can find a ton of my personal data. It's more of a principle thing here. But I agree, signal ftw.
> community driven misinformation empire. What do you mean by this?
It's a bottomless pit of misinformation, fake news and conspiracy theories.
Re: Ask HN: Have you accepted the TOS that give FB access to your WhatsApp data?
#110Never accepted it. Moved to Signal. Didn't install WhatsApp when I upgraded my phone a few months ago. "unfriended" absolutely everyone on Facebook and manually destroyed all my Facebook activities going back to the creation of my account there. Absolutely all of it. The more difficult the process became, the more I realized how coercive they were in welding you into their network. I maintain an empty shell of an acc…
You keep the shell because you're helping those groups maintain their own presence online? I'm looking into non-FB ways to do this, feel free to contact me, would be glad to explore and chat on it