Live data from Hacker News

WhatsApp threatened with legal action in Germany over Facebook data sharing deal

independent.co.uk

31–40 of 73 posts

Re: WhatsApp threatened with legal action in Germany over Facebook data sharing deal

#31
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please do not use Telegram. It' closed source and uses some half-baked crypto. Signal is open source and is actually end-to-end encrypted.

Wire[1] is also an excellent option. Unlike Open Whisper Systems they wont hang you from a tree for building a third party app. Signal wont work without Gapps or Google Play Services on your Android phone and Google Chrome for desktop. [1] https://wire.com/

I tried Wire after this WhatsApp news came out initially and brought about 10 people (friends/family) to it. They're satisfied how it works.

Re: WhatsApp threatened with legal action in Germany over Facebook data sharing deal

#32
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you've used Telegram for a while you will notice that in practice no one uses secret chats because these chats don't sync between devices. Your "non-secret" chats are readable by Pavel and anyone he wishes to share them with. I guess it's fine if you trust Pavel's good intentions. I don't[1]. [1] https://www.instagram.com/p/-MrPWGr7aL/

Holy shit, Pavel sounds very much like JM Le Pen.

But unfortunately he's right

Re: WhatsApp threatened with legal action in Germany over Facebook data sharing deal

#33

Remember that when Facebook promises something next time. I'm slowly moving communications over to Signal.

How reliable is Signal these days? I basically moved all my friends to Text Secure shortly after WhatsApp had been acquired by FB , but after some time we got constant problems of messages not being delivered, so we switched to Threema.

Re: WhatsApp threatened with legal action in Germany over Facebook data sharing deal

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what's recommended then? Signal, Wire and Tox?

What's recommended is not posting anything you absolutely need to be secure through some instant messaging app...

If you are like me you can even use Telegram.

For the things I post on Telegram I don't care about crypto but rather about a good desktop client, features months ahead of Whatsapp, nice niche communities, bots (including the hn bot which is really nice to see all things that have been voted above a configurable threshold during the day.)

Now that I think of it a lot of what I use it for is as a RSS and twitter replacement: subscribing to channels and groups, occasionally posting harmless stuff.

Re: WhatsApp threatened with legal action in Germany over Facebook data sharing deal

#35
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you've used Telegram for a while you will notice that in practice no one uses secret chats because these chats don't sync between devices. Your "non-secret" chats are readable by Pavel and anyone he wishes to share them with. I guess it's fine if you trust Pavel's good intentions. I don't[1]. [1] https://www.instagram.com/p/-MrPWGr7aL/

Holy shit, Pavel sounds very much like JM Le Pen.

I don't know what I would feel worst about: being compared to Merkel or Le Pen

Re: WhatsApp threatened with legal action in Germany over Facebook data sharing deal

#36
post #4

Good! Time to move to telegram! And delete your facebook account! And uninstall whatsapp! I expect nothing less from HN.

Please do not use Telegram. It' closed source and uses some half-baked crypto. Signal is open source and is actually end-to-end encrypted.

A lot of people here use twitter.

Why must things be provably sure to have any value?

Re: WhatsApp threatened with legal action in Germany over Facebook data sharing deal

#37
Anybody feels for discussing the actual meat of the post (consumer watchdogs actually threatening to sue Facebook) instead of discussing the alternatives or the lack of proper encryption in Telegram yet again?

I for one am very happy to see this, both because it might teach Facebook and others a valuable lesson about messing with European consumers and because I used to love the old Whatsapp.

Re: WhatsApp threatened with legal action in Germany over Facebook data sharing deal

#38

Remember that when Facebook promises something next time. I'm slowly moving communications over to Signal.

How reliable is Signal these days? I basically moved all my friends to Text Secure shortly after WhatsApp had been acquired by FB , but after some time we got constant problems of messages not being delivered, so we switched to Threema.

I've been using Signal for the past few months and I haven't noticed any issues. But I'm not exactly a heavy user.

Re: WhatsApp threatened with legal action in Germany over Facebook data sharing deal

#39

Something 'funny' about new Fb messenger version is that it steals your SMSs from your inbox automatically Yes, you can opt out, AFTER it read your unread SMSs

I find it really unlikely that iOS would let them do that given how tightly coupled iMessage and SMS are?

Re: WhatsApp threatened with legal action in Germany over Facebook data sharing deal

#40
post #39

Something 'funny' about new Fb messenger version is that it steals your SMSs from your inbox automatically Yes, you can opt out, AFTER it read your unread SMSs

I find it really unlikely that iOS would let them do that given how tightly coupled iMessage and SMS are?

I saw this behaviour on Android
Post reply on HN