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WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using app

arstechnica.com

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Re: WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using app

#131

Post by howlgarnish »

KorematsuFred wrote: post #120
nkingsy wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t the problem profit motive? Wikipedia is a foundation, so it works the same way it always has. We need this for more basic services like messaging and identity

The motives could be many. While Wikipedia is a so called non-profit foundation it has its one biases and various groups use it to push various agendas including political agendas.

But this is all transparent thanks to edit logs, and there are plenty of tireless editors patrolling to revert excessive agenda pushing.

Re: WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using app

#132

Post by klyrs »

afandian wrote: post #116
utf_8x wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The APK is really not that hard to find... https://signal.org/android/apk/ That page also states "Advanced users with special needs can download the Signal APK directly. Most users should not do this under normal circumstances." which IMO is a very good point. Downloading random APKs from the internet is rarely a good idea...

Yeah you can search for it but it's not obvious from the site. I just think it's a shame that it's touted as open source but they don't appear to have given much thought to the open source demographic. It's not on f-droid.

It's always been the first hit when I search for "signal apk" from ddg, bing or google

Re: WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using app

#133

Post by swiley »

rohan1024 wrote: post #9

The sooner they take such actions the better it is for everyone in the long run. Someone somewhere will come up with an alternative that is better than anything we have today. And sorry but Signal is not the pinnacle of messaging. I like what Matrix is doing but they are far away from becoming mainstream. Within 2-3 years a new platform will rise and it will fix flaws of existing messaging apps. This will then be fol…

God dammit we've had standards that work. Apple and Google are responsible for killing all of the decent messaging protocols by censoring the clients from their app stores.

When smartphones came out people modified IRC with support for push brokers and message replay but because of app stores this means push brokers for community maintained clients have to be maintained by the individual volunteer paying (yes! paying, shut up about the free dev accounts they don't allow you to send push notifications) for the "privilege" of submitting the app (meaning they have low to zero availability.) The relay Mozilla maintains allows servers and users to choose who brokers push messages but Apple and Google screw over their users for profit and this is the result.

Smartphone app stores have made IM unusable.

Re: WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using app

#134

Post by narrationbox »

A while back I wrote about this

https://medium.com/@kloudtrader/reducing-whatsapp-digital-fo...

Not sure if it still applies to the latest version of Android and WhatsApp but it might help. However it only mitigates certain real-time tracking and contact discovery, not to mention switching profiles is somewhat of a hassle.

Re: WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using app

#135

Post by intricatedetail »

generalizations wrote: post #128

Everyone is comparing signal vs. telegram, but what about element? Far as I can tell, that might actually be secure. https://element.io/

No messenger is secure. You never know if the code that is being run is the same as reviewed. If you want true privacy, then you need to encrypt messages yourself (with e.g. PGP)

Re: WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using app

#136

Post by Etheryte »

afrcnc wrote: post #55

DUPLICATE: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25656993

I wouldn't really agree here. They are on the same topic, yes, but the Arstechnica article is actual news coverage that explains what's going on, as opposed to the linked page which is just Whatsapp's official corpospeak.

Re: WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using app

#137

Post by qznc »

Retric wrote: post #41
gotem wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which turned out to be a bunch of hyped up marketing talk. Why does every person in SV I know seem to love the narrative that we’re being mind controlled by micro-targeted FB ads, which to be fair is what I used to believe. Everyone on HN switches between “ads don’t work and targeting is BS” to “ads are manipulating our entire country by taking our data”

Not everyone on HN is the same person. So, different people can believe each without any contradiction.

Even individuals are capable to hold contradicting opinions.

> There are lots of contradictions in people’s strongly held beliefs. Someone might preach self-sufficiency in politics, but coddle their children. An individual might oppose abortion on the grounds that human life is sacred and may still support the death penalty for convicted murders. A person might argue for the freedom of individual expression in the arts but want hateful speech to be regulated.

from https://www.fastcompany.com/3067169/how-your-brain-makes-you...

Re: WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using app

#138

Post by narrationbox »

frereubu wrote: post #22

I'd love to give up WhatsApp, but network effects are key here. I tried moving my extended family off WhatsApp onto Signal a couple of years ago and it failed miserably because the app wasn't nearly as easy to use, and they had all their friends on Whatsapp. Has anyone here had any success moving a large group of people onto something like Signal or Telegram? If so, do you have any tips?

You can try locking down the app, it's not ideal but it is better than nothing:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25664130

Re: WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using app

#139

Post by dublinben »

toper-centage wrote: post #108
srfvtgb wrote: post #29

A lot of people mention Telegram, as far as I can tell, it's a worse Signal. What advantages does it have over Signal?

Signal is good for privacy and that's about it. Telegram has voice calls, videos calls, stickers and easy sticker creation, super convenient in-line gif/pic/video search, video and voice messages, and you can add people without sharing your phone number...

Signal has all of those features except the final one, which is of debatable value.

Re: WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using app

#140

Post by AsyncAwait »

Evidlo wrote: post #78
utf_8x wrote: post #62

Once again - Signal[0] as an alternative. It's fully Open-Source (including the backend) and their crypto is public and independently verified[1][2][3]... [0] https://signal.org/en/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(software)#Encryption_p ... [2] https://threatpost.com/signal-audit-reveals-protocol-cryptog ... [3] https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/1013.pdf [PDF]

That's just moving from one silo to another though. Users of centralized services don't have much recourse when the company pulls the rug out from under them.

https://matrix.org
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