Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 1001 posts

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

#201

Post by oli5679 »

The founder of Whatsapp

(1) claims that Facebook promised Whatsapp would not be monetised, and that Facebook and and Whatsapp's data would not be combined. This information was also provided to European antitrust regulators

(2) missed out on $850 stock option grants vesting by quitting early over disputes with Facebook about monetisation strategy

(3) promoted #deletefacebook on Whatsapp following the Cambridge Anlalytica scandal

(4) Donated $50m to the non-for-profit alternative, Signal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Acton

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

#202

Post by Krasnol »

alexandrerond wrote: post #126

For people looking to switch to Signal without Google Play services on Android (apk installation), the best way to fix the websocket battery drain is this: https://www.reddit.com/r/signal/comments/ewp99j/disable_webs... Unlike Telegram, WhatsApp, Element etc. which work fine without Google, Signal devs have repeteadly refused to make improvements to the "always-awake" mode which happily eats 40% battery.

It seems to be some very specific bug as neither me nor my contacts seen this happen on their devices. We've been using it at work quite often with people having different devices. On mine it shows 2% battery drain atm.

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

#203

Post by alpaca128 »

kemenaran wrote: post #101
sagivo wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it compared to telegram?

IMHO, Signal main advantage is that you can sell it to your parents and friends like "WhatsApp, but safe". It tries to have feature-parity to WhatsApp; looks the same, works the same. All this while researching innovations on cryptography that doesn't compromise user experience too much. In my experience, doing exactly what WhatsApp does (but safer) makes it an easy sell to people around me.

True, though Signal annoyingly wants the user to also enable it as SMS app. From my own experience with relatives this can lead to a lot of confusion among non-technical users, for example when they try to send a picture to a contact and it fails because that contact does not use Signal. From what I've seen Signal does not clearly show a difference between those two groups.

Other than that it's definitely a great alternative.

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

#204

Post by paulryanrogers »

kleiba wrote: post #196
seesawtron wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social life is impossible without the mainstream technology. Sure you can find alternatives but if no one uses it other than you, you end up being sidelined. The technology gets enforced and leaves one with no choice but to accept it or be a red flag. Shouldn't it be possible to delete your whatsapp chat and contacts data regularly from the cloud? Eg. one could delete the whatsapp account, clear data on cloud and mak…

Social life is impossible without the mainstream technology. I've never owned a cell phone nor ever had a social media account in my life. Sure, it gets me the occasional eye roll but trust me, my social life is just fine. Caveat: old person speaking.

Network effects are real. Financially independent adults can choose their friends among a large pool of candidates. Kids, broke college students, and those generally less well off may have fewer options.

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

#205

Post by kleiba »

seesawtron wrote: post #200
kleiba wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social life is impossible without the mainstream technology. I've never owned a cell phone nor ever had a social media account in my life. Sure, it gets me the occasional eye roll but trust me, my social life is just fine. Caveat: old person speaking.

yeah depends on which stage of life you are living in. Sadly doesn't work for everybody but doesn't hurt to give it a try if someone wants to.

It's not so much the stage of life, it's that these technologies have become the de facto standard way of interacting in today's younger part of the population.

In other words: even though cell phones and social media were around when I was younger, they didn't play the central role they do today, so presumably it was much easier for me to do without them and still have a normal social life than it would be today.

Here's a sad thought experiment though: if you can only remain an active part of your circle of friends if you use the same technology as they do, what does that say about the depth of that friendship?

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

#206

Post by remexre »

seesawtron wrote: post #146
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]

Social life is impossible without the mainstream technology. Sure you can find alternatives but if no one uses it other than you, you end up being sidelined. The technology gets enforced and leaves one with no choice but to accept it or be a red flag. Shouldn't it be possible to delete your whatsapp chat and contacts data regularly from the cloud? Eg. one could delete the whatsapp account, clear data on cloud and mak…

Signal's not like... "tech for tech people." It's very much usable for nontechnical family members, etc.

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

#207

Post by lifty »

jsinai wrote: post #198
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?

Sure the network effect is strong but let’s not forget how WhatsApp got here in the first place: people installing a strange new app, often shared by their friends via a text message invite link. I remember sitting in a circle with a group of friends one night 10+ years ago while each of us installed WhatsApp and had our first conversations on the app. It was a time when BBM was dominant and cross-platform messaging…

Whatsapp had to compete with SMS, so when I was introduced to WhatsApp I thought it was a godsend and immediately adopted it. Also advertised it to all my friends. Switching now might be harder because there is a lot less to gain, besides some non-tangible “privacy”. What is this thing called “privacy”?

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

#209

Post by buzzerbetrayed »

nickcw wrote: post #74

How about pay $1 / year to opt out of all data sharing? I foolishly installed the Facebook app on Android for a while. When I asked for a data dump from Facebook I was amazed at the amount of data it had stolen from my phone, including full contacts list. It sounds like that is exactly what Facebook are planning with WhatsApp. I'd pay $1 / year to opt out of that and be the customer rather than the product.

> I'd pay $1 / year to opt out of that and be the customer rather than the product.

And I’d pay $5,000 for a new Tesla. Though I have no idea why someone would sell me one for so cheap.

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

#210

Post by sharken »

m3at wrote: post #148

Exactly the same thing played out for Oculus, so it we can't say that it's surprising. It is sad nonetheless

Yeah it's a sad development. On the other hand it might mean less Facebook dominance which is a win in my book.
Post reply on HN