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Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

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Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#251

Post by 9dev »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #196
TrackerFF wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As we have all learned, ad and subscription models aren't mutually exclusive. You can still get ads while paying for a subscription. In fact, I don't believe the ad model would have gone away if everyone started paying for a subscription. The bottom tier would still be filled with ads. Ideally, the market would solve this. The companies that are pushing annoying would lose customers to the companies that don't. But s…

Ad subsidized subscriptions are cheaper. I don't see what people find so grating about having a ad-load/cost spectrum. Maybe it's just confusion about the billing model.

They are cheaper until they aren’t. The neat thing about a plan that removes all ads is that you can just add the ads again later and introduce yet another, even more expensive plan that removes the ads again. Such fun! Much profit!

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#252

Post by LinXitoW »

sudobash1 wrote: post #35
GiorgioG wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Monetization. If people aren’t willing to pay for the products, these companies have figured out how to make the customers’ data the product.

You can pay for Google services. But even if you pay for Google One or YouTube premium, I'm sure that Google will still track your behavior and mine your data. Why would a company not "double-dip"?

You can pay not Google for services too. Most people don't, though. If ALL people that used free stuff (like gmail) suddenly started paying an appropriate amount to competitors, the problems may solve themselves. But people don't do that, because they're cheap or care more about their money than their data/privacy.

Now, all this is of course an inevitable consequence of capitalism, but that's not a conversation anyone herre seems ready for.

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#253

Post by bitpush »

surgical_fire wrote: post #185
hbn wrote: post #73

People have been clowning on Apple for being behind on the AI stuff and -- while I'd never defend how they promised a bunch of features in 2024, showed them in ads, and sold iPhones based on vaporware, but still haven't shipped most of the features -- I will say, I imagine a lot of the hold-up is because they realized how dangerous it is to start trusting AI with the sensitive data on your phone. It's probably not to…

> -- I will say, I imagine a lot of the hold-up is because they realized how dangerous it is to start trusting AI with the sensitive data on your phone. It was probably Apple being incompetent with their AI approach rather than being careful

Precisely. Its incredible that people think Apple is playing 4D chess with AI, when in reality the simplest answer is the most plausible - Apple has no clue wth to do with AI. Their own assistant - Siri - has been in shambles for close to a decade.

Structurally Apple is in a disadvantage, in the AI race. And no amount of waiting, or polish is going to help them - unless they partner with OpenAI, Anthropic or Google.

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#254

Post by amelius »

Hizonner wrote: post #77
jeroenhd wrote: post #47

Google has been working on this since November last year going by the wayback archive of the support page for this feature. I'm not seeing any indication that Gemini can read your messages, though. You can compose messages and start calls, but I can't get it to read me any of my messages. In fact, I can't even get it to send messages to group chats, only to individual contacts. The feature makes a lot of sense, of co…

What Gemini should be able to do with WhatsApp: Exactly and only what any other random app on the phone could do with WhatsApp, assuming that you have enabled that in exactly the way you would have to enable any other random app to do it. Google needs to not be abusing its position as the source of the OS to give its software special privilege to reach inside of third-party apps.

I'd be more interested to know what would happen to Google if it turned out they were reading all of our WhatsApp messages.

If that's a slap on the wrist, then we can be sure that Google is doing it.

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#255

Post by beagle3 »

jadamson wrote: post #121
beagle3 wrote: post #67

WhatsApp backup on your Google account contains all your message history, and is unencrypted. If you use google cloud backup for your phone, Google can read your WhatsApp messages, and has been able to do so for more than 5 years now.

There's an option to enable end-to-end encryption on your backups. https://faq.whatsapp.com/490592613091019

Nice. It wasn’t there last time I checked.

I wonder what percentage of WhatsApp users backup to Google cloud, and what percentage of those use encryption.

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#256

Post by dlivingston »

Henchman21 wrote: post #209
kccqzy wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. It's well documented and reported that Apple's hold-up is because of technical incompetency.

I’ve not read this; do you have any links?

Very well known.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/a...

https://youtu.be/elfCDnMx3Ug?si=lP9OpeU9rpO2RIla

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#257

Post by 9dev »

93po wrote: post #201
thfuran wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>there is no reason why the vast majority of apps and services online can't be both free and ad free You can give away software, but running a service costs money. P2p messaging can be free (and signal exists), but nothing like free and adless YouTube or Facebook is going to happen regardless whether google or meta do anything to prevent it.

there are tons of free mastadon servers that cost nothing to end users and perfectly capture the functionality of twitter/facebook/whatever. yes there is root cost at its core, but its distributed across people who volunteer to pay for it on smaller scales becasue they enjoy running those services. agreed its trickier when its gets to stuff like youtube, but piracy being free and widely spread is an example of how it…

As much as I despise ads, this is a pretty delusional take. Mastodon was only possible because of the hard work of open source contributors with day jobs that feed them. Running and accessing these instances requires all sorts of costly infrastructure that doesn’t materialise out of the blue. And finally, there may be a handful of geeks that enjoy paying for hosting, but that only works as long as it’s a niche community. Introduce 2 billion users, and it becomes just plain impossible.

And as you cite piracy as an alternative: that’s not "free" as in software, that’s "free" as in freeloading. Someone else is paying for it, just not you. That might work to fulfil your own needs, but it’s not a viable solution for business models.

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#258

Post by gessha »

surgical_fire wrote: post #227
fsflover wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We need a mobile OS competitor. Mobian, PureOS, postmarketOS exist.

Yes, I have an older phone running LineageOS for that matter. But those are typically community efforts, so software support is not certain. It sucks when so many things just expect you to have a working cell phone.

What company will jump in the competition meat grinder between Google and Apple. Maybe if it’s state-sponsored. I don’t know how much HarmonyOS/Huawei are state-sponsored so I can’t claim there are.
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